Sunny Side Unveils Global Pitch Winner

Sunny Side of the Doc has revealed the winner for the second edition of Global Pitch, which ran online from February 22 to 23.

The winning project, Broken Flower, was directed by Sarvnaz Alambeigi and produced by Rabison Art. From Iran, Broken Flower centers on a teenage Afghan girl who joins the Afghan Muay Thai national team despite domestic violence and threats from ISIS and the Taliban.

Over the two days of The Global Pitch—Women’s Voices, 12 projects among the 180 from more than 40 countries submitted were presented to a panel of decision-makers in pre-recorded video pitches, followed by a live Q&A session. The Global Pitch Award is endowed with €3,000 ($3,400) by the sponsors, plus two full passes to Sunny Side of the Doc 2022.

Sponsored this year by Al Jazeera Documentary Channel/Al Jazeera Balkans Documentary Film Festival (AJB DOC) and PBS International, the online pitching event aims to facilitate international financing and co-production of projects focusing on Women’s Voices in front of and behind the camera. This year’s jurors were Lucila Moctezuma, program director at Chicken & Egg Pictures (U.S.); Mehdi Bekkar, senior producer for the in-house production/production department at Al Jazeera Media Network (Qatar); and Gugi Gumilang, executive director at In-Docs (Indonesia).

The 33rd edition of Sunny Side of the Doc will be back in La Rochelle, France for an in-person event from June 20 to 23.

Mathieu Béjot, director of strategy and development of Sunny Side of the Doc, said: “Congratulations to the winner! This second edition of the Global Pitch was a great success, gathering more than 325 participants from 57 countries, including 81 international decision-makers. It is essential for us to discover, present and share with our community strong, original and fascinating stories with a talented female perspective.”

Tom Koch, VP of PBS International, said: “Great storytelling and stories are at the core of what we do. What has evolved is our desire to hear from new voices, filmmakers and different perspectives. There is no better place to start hearing from you than Sunny Side’s Global Pitch, which is why PBS International proudly supports this initiative.”