The Wildlife genre is enjoying a hot streak that can be measured by an expanding pipeline of commissions and prestigious awards. MY OCTOPUS TEACHER swam away with the PGA 2021 Documentary Award, and is a buzzy competitor for the Oscar. As well as the intimate Human/Animal connection found in OCTOPUS, recent greenlights cover pure Blue …
Room 2806: The Accusation is a 4-parter from France’s CAPA Productions that follows the sexual assault case in New York involving French presidential candidate and IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn. On May 14 2011, Nafissatou Diallo, a hotel maid reported that DSK had forced her to perform oral sex in his suite in the Sofitel Hotel …
Loren Baxter (Head of Acquisitions), Stefanie Fischer (MD of Sales) & Leila Monks (Head of Commissioning) joined me for a revealing Off the Fence webinar at Sunny Side’s Global Pitch. My key questions: What is your key focus in Sales, Acquisitions and Commissions? What is Off the Fence working on? How do you work together …
BBC director general Tim Davie yesterday mounted a spirited defense of the pubcaster’s value to British audiences versus the streamers led by Netflix. His presentation and white paper BBC Value for Audiences gained wide coverage in the business media, where the initial focus was on $556 million in proposed cuts. Cut Documentaries Davie later spoke …
Meet Chris Schmidt and Julia Cort, Executive Producers of NOVA, and Melanie Wallace, Senior Series Producer. They joined me at this year’s Sunny Side of the Doc for a revealing MEET THE EXECUTIVE presentation, including clips of program highlights. Watch the NOVA / Sunny Side video here: And don’t miss my detailed coverage of NOVA …
Twelve documentary buyers and producers reveal what drives their decisions. Each commissioner is driven by a particular strategy, pipeline and budget ‘sweet spot’. Each producer describes a unique path from concept through funding and production to distribution. Since 2010, the mission of my Documentary Business newsletter has been to reveal how these individual production pathways …
Story of the Month BBC VISION MEETS FIERCE OPPOSITION BBC VISION: new director Tim Davie shares strategy // Worldscreen BBC BESIEGED: Under relentless fire from rightwing // London Review of Books GLOBAL PARTNERSHIPS: Key to BBC’s future // TBI Vision BBC CHAIR: Ultra-conservative candidate is knocked // Deadline DISCOURS INAUGURAL choc pour le boss de la BBC …
For my Sunny Side of the Doc Meet the Executive interview, the BBC‘s Commissioning Editor for History Simon Young, shared his vision, priorities and three notable examples. Pipeline BBC History: 70-80 hours. Specialist Factual: 400 hours. History’s broad remit: Ancient to Early 21st century. The BBC’s Documentary unit also commissions recent History programs. Simon Young …