Canada

Documentary funding can be a bit of a black box. Who gets funding and why certain projects get backed while other apparently strong projects are left by the wayside is a reliable topic for heated discussion whenever any two independent producers meet.

The goal posts always seem to be shifting. Funding decisions are inevitably subjective, often political, and producers must chart a route through a seemingly byzantine application process to grasp what looks like an increasingly slender slice of the funding pie.

The Vancouver International Film Festival yesterday launched the programme for its 25th anniversary film festival. Over 340 films will be screened between 28th Sept - 13th Oct, ten of which are world premieres, 26 international premieres, and 28 North American premieres.

The film opens with Pedro Almodovar's Volver and closes with Stephen Frears's The Queen, in which Helen Mirren plays HRH during the period before and after the death of Princess Diana.

It's often said that if you want to write for film you should start by writing a book. As much as 75% of all films made are adapted from books. You don't need to look far to see actual proof of this statistic: Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, the James Bond series, The Godfather, to name a few.

So you’ve got a great idea for a documentary. Now how do you sell it? This was the premise for a public "pitching" event at the Vancouver International Film Festival’s annual Film and Television Trade Forum on Thursday 26th November.

Five documentary makers were given five minutes each to pitch their projects to a panel of three commissioning editors: Nick Jones, Head of Programming for Channel 4 and FilmFour; Richard Klein, Commissioning Editor for BBC General Factual Programmes and Ray McCarthy, Commissioning Editor for Regional Programming for Ireland’s RTE.