This year, for the first time, Docudays UA, supported by the Ukrainian State Film Agency, is organizing a Ukrainian delegation to IDFA — Ukraine: Here We Go! Here is how documentary filmmakers can use this opportunity.

In addition to film screenings, the international IDFA festival organizes a large-scale program for filmmakers to help them develop projects at any stage of production. The opportunities it provides are the co-production market and the film market.

At the co-production market IDFA FORUM, directors and producers present their projects to experts. It is one of the most influential meeting places for various professionals from all over the world. It is a four-day program of public presentations of documentary projects to professionals from all over the world.

“In 2012, when my team and I started to make Ukrainian Sheriffs (Special Jury Prize at IDFA 2015), it seemed to me that films must be made in private and should not be shown to anyone. If you’ve made a masterpiece, everyone will immediately appreciate it and give it the best awards at all festivals,” comments Roman Bondarchuk, a filmmaker and the art director of Docudays UA. “In fact, we’ve had overproduction of films for a long time now, and we need to compete with other filmmakers at an earlier stage of working on a project. When I visited IDFA for the first time and went to look at the IDFA FORUM, I realized what a pompous spectacle it was. Watching the directors and producers present their projects, you start to understand how you should position yourself, how to make a trailer. I also met representatives of IDFA BERTHA FUND and IDFA SUMMER SCHOOL there. As I realized later, they watch directors closely at such meetings. And it’s OK, because they cannot hand their resources and money out to people whom they don’t know.”

The participants of Ukraine: Here We Go! will be able to use their accreditation to visit IDFA FORUM as members of the audience. They can also receive a 100-percent discount for publishing their films in the Docs For Sale online market, which has been a part of IDFA since 1996. Every year, over 250 TV buyers, sales agents, distributors and festival programmers come to Amsterdam to watch a collection of the newest and best documentaries on the international market. It should be noted that by getting an opportunity to publish your film in Docs For Sale, you also get one accreditation and a chance to buy another accreditation for a reduced price of 70 euro.

Read more about the terms and deadlines of application for participating in the Ukrainian delegation to the festival here.

Main photo: Docudays UA