Documentary festival Millennium Docs Against Gravity, running in Poland from Friday to May 19 and online from May 21 to July 3, is in its 21st edition, but its industry section is a relatively recent addition. However, it is growing in size and impact.
The section started small four years ago, as Anna Szczypińska, head of the section, explains.
“At the beginning we held small, intimate networking events,” she says. “Then in 2022, when I joined, we had a short program of industry events. It included a pitching session of seven projects by Polish, Belarussian and Ukrainian filmmakers. Some panel discussions and a few networking events.”
This year’s edition reflects the emphasis of the festival organizers on growing this section. Szczypińska says, “This year we will present the 37 projects in four different pitching sessions. We are offering an extensive program of talks, masterclasses and discussion panels. These would be on different topics like distribution or the financing process. We will try to get to the heart of how to enter the Western market. We are responding to the specific needs of Polish industry, but we are taking into account American, Asian and Middle Eastern context to ensure some diversity.”
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While the main pitching session remains open only for Polish submissions, Szczypińska says MDAG is open to expanding that rule in the future. “This section is for works in progress. Ten projects in various stages from development to rough cut. The submissions were open only for Polish projects, but we actually received submissions from other countries and we ended up accepting two Ukrainian projects,” she says.
Additionally there’s a session for short films. “For the pitching session for short films, submissions were open to Eastern and Central European shorts. It includes five short documentary films, and the selection was organized in partnership with the Czech Institute of Documentary Film in Prague.”
Connecting Eastern European filmmakers with the industry in Western Europe continues to be one of their goals. “We noticed that the professionals that are visiting MDAG are very interested in Polish, Ukrainian and other Eastern European films,” she says. “We know that they attract the attention of our guests from the Western industries and we have the luxury of access to Eastern Europeans filmmakers. So we want to make those connections happen. We focus on Scandinavian broadcasters because they are interested in our films. Polish films, and Eastern European documentary films in general, are known for their strong storytelling, artistic vision and social commentary. They tackle difficult subjects and show strong perspectives on society and culture.”
MDAG cherishes its role as a conduit between the East and West. “Our selection for this pitching session is different from the norm because we don’t just look for the films that we want to see in our program. We look primarily at the international potential. Our job is not to find the films to program for the future editions of our festival, but rather to look for the projects that our guests – distributors, programmers, producers from around the world – might be interested in.”
“These professionals come here to be at the industry events so they don’t have time to attend screenings and they don’t have enough time to see even 5% or 10% of the Polish films in the programs,” Szczypińska says. To solve this issue the festival decided “to organize presentations of all of the Polish films, particularly those in the Polish competition and the short film competition. So our pitching sessions have finished films that are already on the festival path, in addition to the works in progress.”
Szczypińsk and her team identified a need to work with the filmmakers before the festival even starts.
”We tutor our participating filmmakers. They are prepped and advised by professionals. They work on their presentations. There are schools in the art of pitching. Filmmakers have to learn through experience. So for the first time this year we managed to accomplish this important step.
“Our programming team remains in contact with the projects after the festival ends,” says Szczypińsk. Their work is not confined to just the 10 days of the festival. “These filmmakers continue to work with the festival for many years. We are not just a festival where they can premiere their work. We are an advisory council often invited to the rough cuts of the projects.”
