You are here: Home | Festivals | Sheffield DocFest

Sheffield DocFest

Sheffield

5th - 9th November 2008

Doc/Fest is the UK's leading documentary festival and a must-attend event on the industry calendar. It is where the international documentary family gets together under one roof for a week of intense deal-making, doc watching and debate.

Doc/Fest not only screens and awards films, it has an extensive industry sessions programme, an international marketplace, and is a frontrunner in the new media landscape.  It is also renowned as a launching pad for film students looking for an entrance into the film industry.
 
Since 2007, Doc/Fest hosts the Grierson: Sheffields - three exciting documentary awards: The Green Award, The Innovation Award and The Youth Jury Award.

The festival is both a public film festival and an industry gathering dedicated to documentary film and TV. It is the only time in the UK when all of us working in documentary - independent producers, commissioners, TV company executives, academics, students and up and coming film makers can get together.

Feature and short documentaries are accepted for submission, as long as they have not been broadcast in the UK.

International Marketplace
deadline MeetMarket submissions: 12th September 2008 (for more details see below)

MeetMarket is Sheffield's international marketplace designed to match independent producers’ most innovate project ideas with UK and international commissioners and other financiers through 20 minute one-on-one meetings.  Participants’ feedback gave an extremely positive evaluation of MeetMarket 2007, especially on the effectiveness and efficiency of the new format. In 2007 there were 39 projects from 18 different countries, 88 commissioners, distributors & funders, and 452 pre-scheduled meetings.

Videotheque
deadline Videotheque submissions: 7 August 2008
 
Films can be entered for the Videotheque – used by the festival industry delegates, television programme buyers, distributors, sales agents and festival programmers.
 
Sessions Programme
Around forty discussions, masterclasses, workshops and presentations in close co-operation with the industry. Part of the sessions programme is DigiDocs 360 a unique strand of sessions addressing the challenges of embracing the cross platform world.

The festival also encourages anyone to send in their session ideas: https://sheffdocfest.com
 
Crossover UK
Over the course of five days, participants are immersed in a series of activities where the primary goal is the development of project pitches for groundbreaking cross-platform interactive documentary projects.  Crossover UK explores the creative and the commercial challenges of developing documentary content and services for digital media.
 
Student Programme
DFG Newcomers Day is a fantastic and unique opportunity to get into the documentary world: Hear from and meet execs who are hiring, commissioners who are buying and directors who are inspiring the next generation of doc filmmakers.

DocDay Afternoon offers hands on surgery on your short documentaries from some of the best mentors in the documentary industry - including directors, editors, sound recordists, camera operators, distributors, television executives and more.

Related Pages

Check out what DFG is up to at the Doc/Fest

DFG Newcomers Day

Submission Guidelines

Film makers are invited to submit documentary films and videos completed after 1 July 2007. Preference will be given to films that have not been broadcast in the UK prior to the upcoming festival. Films must have English dialogue or English subtitles.

An entry fee of £20 applies. For more details and to submit your film, see www.sheffdocfest.com

MeetMarket: Submit your project online, along with one-page treatments and a one-minute trailer teaser clip, in advance of Doc/Fest, allowing buyers to view your submissions of innovative documentary ideas. The application process is fully online.

Selected projects have project information and trailer available on our (password protected) website for the commissioners and other executives to review before the MeetMarket.

Documentary projects in development with international appeal in any format or genre (including cross-platform) and in any stage of development are accepted. Projects do not need to have any financing already secured. The 2008 Deadline for submissions is September 12.
MeetMarket (click for full image) (Click for full image) (Click for full image)
Link: http://www.sheffdocfest.com Contact: Hussain Currimbhoy - Festival Programmer Email: info (at) sidf (dot) co (dot) uk Telephone: 0114 276 5141 Fax: 0114 272 1849 Address: The Workstation, 15 Paternoster Row, Sheffield S1 2BX

Back to Festivals