UK Documentary Event Sheffield Doc/Fest Unveils Line-Up For Largely Virtual 2020 Edition

Tom Grater
·2 min read

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Sheffield Doc/Fest, one of the key events in Europe’s factual calendar, has unveiled a line-up for its 2020 edition featuring 115 films from 50 countries, including 31 world premieres.

As Deadline previously reported, this year’s edition, which runs from June 10, will take place largely in an online capacity due to restrictions imposed by the pandemic.

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The fest is launching a VOD platform with pay-per-view and subscription options for UK-based audiences that will screen the program and will also feature Q&As with filmmakers. Later, between October and November, organizers are planning to screen films in Sheffield cinemas over select weekends.

In addition, Doc/Fest has partnered with BFI Player, Doc Alliance Films, The Guardian, and MUBI which will host its curated programs at various points between July and November.

On the industry side, the Meetmarket, Alternate Realities Talent Market pitching forums and other activities will take place June 8-10 in an online format. On June 11 and 12, Doc Society will host virtual drop-in afternoons for delegates.

Filmmakers represented in the program include Lynne Ramsay, whose 30 minute short Brigitte screens after being in Venice Days last year, Carol Salter, and Jia Zhang-ke, whose Swimming Out Till The Sea Turns Blue screens having premiered in Berlin. There are also 22 first-time feature filmmakers selected.

“This year’s program brings together various cinematic and narrative forms, landscapes, human existences and ways of expression. It reflects on our contemporary world through its present and its past, and a multitude of sensibilities,” said Festival Director Cíntia Gil.

“The crisis we are living now points, and not for the first time, to the systemic failure of institutions and nations, and their need to be equitable in their capacities to give respect to life, freedom and care. It has given us an acute sense of what needs to change and a desire for stronger bonds between us.

“This program is our contribution to that: it comes from a collective effort to resist hegemonic views over cinema and its relation to the world and to our lives. It represents multiple conversations we want to continue in the near future, through different programs and forms.”

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