JOIN USBBC launches its first online film festival
BBC has launched its first online film festival called, ‘LongShots.’ This has been designed to support filmmakers across the globe, who are making their mark in the field of documentary cinema.
The film festival that launched on May 28 is running through June 24. It has all the quintessential festival elements to the virtual space, featuring online Q&A and a virtual red carpet.
The films have been selected by award-winning, globally acclaimed directors and filmmakers. The selected films share a focus on the nuances of the human experience, the little pleasures, pains, joys and contradictions that define us.
They focus on what it means to be human, what makes us what we are, and what brings us together. Both in format and focus, LongShots is ideally suited to this uncertain, socially distanced moment. “As a filmmaker myself, I see many talented directors not finding an outlet for their work. Today it’s easier to make films, but it’s still hard to find distribution or be screened at a big festival. BBC gives directors a chance to showcase their work to a global audience,” says Anna Bressanin, editor, BBC Reel.
The festival’s initial judging panel, which nominated the movies, included film and documentary luminaries from around the globe. They are: Nanfu Wang (filmmaker, director of 2020 Academy Awards shortlisted film One Child Nation); Petra Costa (director of 2020 Academy Awards nominated Netflix Original Documentary, The Edge of Democracy; Ana Catalá (program and content manager, Reykjavik International Film Festival and Tribeca Film Institute); Inti Cordera (director, producer and juror of Visions du Réel and founder of the Festival Internacional de Cine Documental de la Ciudad de México); Opal H. Bennett (producer for American Documentary’s POV, festival programmer and juror, Doc NYC, SXSW and more); Lesley Birchard (executive producer, CBC Docs); Corinne Bopp (artistic director, Les Rencontres du cinémadocumentaire, Atelier Varan); Ana David (shorts programmer and industry manager at IndieLisboa, advisory board member of Berlinale Panorama); Sebastian Diaz (Union Docs board member, Emmy awarded editor); Amelia Hapsari(program director, In-Docs); Guille Isa (documentary filmmaker); Judy Kibinge (filmmaker and founder of East African film fund Docubox); Rebecca Lloyd (editor, part of the editing team for 2016 Cannes Jury Prize winner American Honey) and LesediOlukoMoche (curator, European Film Festival).