Co-organized by DIPLOCAT and held digitally this year, there are a good number of documentaries produced in Catalonia

The 22nd edition of the MEDIMED DOC MARKET begins today and will run until Friday. Like last year, the market will be held entirely online due to the Covid-19 health crisis. This year, the market is extending its duration from three days to five. The intense agenda includes several pitch sessions for documentary projects seeking funding, an online video library for finished documentaries, talks and conferences on various topics related to the audiovisual sector, and a myriad of meetings between producers, distributors, commissioning publishers and buyers of television programmes.

The main objective of MEDIMED is to connect independent producers with television and audiovisual platforms, mainly from Europe and the southern Mediterranean area (Maghreb, Middle East and Turkey), as well as with distributors from around the world, to facilitate trade and promote audiovisual co-production. Under the direction of Sergi Doladé, MEDIMED has become an internationally renowned event for documentary professionals. MEDIMED is co-organized by APIMED (International Association of Independent Producers in the Mediterranean) and DIPLOCAT, and has the financial support of the Generalitat de Catalunya and the ICAA, among other entities.

At this 22nd edition, nearly 250 professionals from the documentary industry have been accredited, representing about fifty countries. Attendees include professionals from 50 television channels and audiovisual platforms, 20 distributors and representatives of festivals and other markets dedicated to documentaries, such as the Italian Doc Screenings, Movies that Matter, FIPADOC, Sunny Side of the Doc, FID Marseille, Docs Lisbon, HOT DOCS, La Biennale, DocAviv and the Cinema Verité Film Festival. There are also some funds for financing availble, including the Greek Film Center (Greece), Copro (Israel) and the Doha Film Institute (Qatar).

For the first time, on Tuesday, the fifth, MEDIMED 2021 has organized a New Players Co-production Pitch. In this new section, 13 projects from countries or regions with low production capabilities have been selected, which will be presented to about thirty experienced European producers. The MEDIMED program will end with discussions at the Industry Talks, which are held using the Zoom platform and are open to everyone. The first, held on Monday the fourth, at 6:00 PM, is entitled "Women Make Documentaries" and is presented by filmmakers Almudena Carracedo and Susana Guardiola.

This year we should highlight the notable presence at MEDIMED of documentaries produced or in production in Catalonia, including the following: "The Non-Strike List" (Culture and Conflict); "A Sad and Vulgar Loner" (Grismedio); "Anxious in Beirut" (15L Films); Paradise Travel (Boogaloo Films); "Doconstructing André Malby" (Nanouk Films); "The Click Trap" (Polar Star Films); "The Tunnel" (The Big Story); "Aamelat" (The Films of the Orient); and "Dancing Madness" (Reporters com).