06/23/2022

For a second year, FIDOCS and Conecta join together in an enriching meeting for documentary projects

● Conecta, Chile’s largest industry meeting, in its seventh version continues its important alliance with FIDOCS, the Santiago International Documentary Film Festival, through Docs in Progress FIDOCS + Conecta.

● Applications for the event, which will be held virtually, will be open until August 21 of this year.

This 2022 FIDOCS and Conecta invite all Chilean and Latin American directors and producers to participate in the second version of DOCS IN PROGRESS FIDOCS + CONECTA, a collaboration between the Conecta WIP and FIDOCS’ Latin American First Cut Competition. The activity will take place in virtual format from December 13 to 16, 2022, as part of the various training and networking activities organized by Conecta.

«We are very excited to continue merging the First Cut section of FIDOCS and our WIP section after a successful first version in 2021. We believe this space benefits Latin American filmmakers and producers while it offers specific consultancies, individual meetings with international experts, and awards that the participants highly value,» assures Flor Rubina, executive director of Chilean Documentary Corporation CCDoc, the organization in charge of Conecta.

From FIDOCS, the importance of these types of instances for the Chilean and Latin American audiovisual sectors is also highlighted. «For the audiovisual world, the connections with different industry peers are key because our work is, in essence, collaborative. Likewise, as FIDOCS and Conecta, we are once again working together for the second year to create a unique WIP space that brings together members from all sectors of the industry: filmmakers, editors, sales agents, programmers, and more,» says Marcela Santibáñez, director of the FIDOCS’ Industry Section.

FIDOCS is one of Latin America’s most highlighted documentary film festivals, and this year celebrates its 26th edition from November 22 to 30. This event of meeting and diffusion of non-fiction cinema has a broad program of national and international competition, focuses, and special exhibitions; a training space that annually invites students from various Chilean film schools, FIDOCS SCHOOL; and the First Cut section, a special industry section essential to promote the development of ongoing projects of Chilean and Latin American filmmakers.

This partnership seeks to boost the development and work of Chilean and Latin American filmmakers and producers, to support them and become a space for growth for professionals in the audiovisual sector. Additionally, the selected projects for this Docs in Progress FIDOCS + Conecta will be eligible for different prizes managed by both organizing institutions and chosen by each awarding institution. Some of the awards include the FIDOCS First Cut Award, the SONAMOS Award, the R2MEDIA Award, and the Digital Sofa Award, among others that may be added during the year.

In its last version, eight projects from Costa Rica, Colombia, Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia, Brazil, and Chile participated in the section, including Jorge, by director and producer Nicolás Pavie with producer Jorge Catoni. The documentary project portrays the life and career of the lead singer of Los Prisioneros, Jorge González, and won the Market Chile Award, which granted a diagnosis and advice for the distribution campaign.

Application details

All Chilean and Latin American filmmakers and producers who submit feature-length documentaries or non-fiction films in the editing stage are eligible to apply. At least six submissions will be selected. The chosen projects will be part of a screening for prominent national and international audiovisual industry professionals in which their producers will be able to connect with the industry and their projects will receive feedback. At the same time, they will also receive personalized advice in editing, directing, post-production, sales, distribution, and exhibition, among other orientations.

The Docs in Progress FIDOCS + Conecta selection is per project and includes the accreditation for two project representatives for both Conecta and FIDOCS. For the latter, the accreditation consists of access to all the films at the festival; individual consulting for each project, and individual meetings with different industry agents invited to Conecta. It should be noted that there is no cost to apply for this section, and this version will not have a participation fee either.