Beyond Borders

The Pitching Lab of “Beyond Borders” - International Documentary Festival of Castellorizo is delighted to announce the presence of highly reputable commissioning editors in its evaluation panel. Representatives of BBC Storyville, the German documentary channel Phoenix, and the international Festival Movies that Matter  as well as the Institute of documentary film of Prague will honour us with their presence (among others) and will thus significantly increase the chances of submitted ideas to get on the road of recognition, production & international distribution!

Aspiring filmmakers, submit your entry now!

“Beyond Borders” is an international documentary festival held annually in August (this year, from August 22 - August 29) on the island of Castellorizo. The festival’s main objective is to give prominence to outstanding documentaries about societal & historical topics. Documentaries from all over the world are welcome, yet there is a special preference for films addressing crucial issues from the region of Southern Europe, Asia Minor & the Middle East.

In line with this, “Beyond Borders” is excited to carry on and expand its pitching lab, called “From an Idea to a Project”. The lab’s main objective is to offer aspiring filmmakers of the region the opportunity to present a basic idea of theirs for a documentary to an experienced panel of producers and broadcasters working in the European documentary scene. In turn, each participant receives professional feedback in how to turn his/her idea into a valid project, which is ready to be presented to the wider documentary community. Each project is provided with a 15’ slot, including a 3-5’ presentation and 10-12’ for questions and discussion.

In order for the lab to be accessible to as many filmmakers as possible, it is held as a visio-pitching lab using Zoom technology and it does not require from the participants a trailer for their project, or any ground founding. The originality and potential of the idea are the prime criteria for project selection.

What is required for participation is a simple submission form that should be filled out by candidates and submitted to beyondborders.pitching@gmail.com

There is no submission fee. Deadline for submission is July 31^st, 2021. The selection committee will select a total of 20 projects (plus 5 reserves). Selected candidates will be informed by 15^th August at the latest. Please, note that all participants must be available on Zoom during the festival week (22-29 August 2021).