Sheffield DocFest
Sheffield DocFest is an international documentary festival and industry marketplace held annually in Sheffield, England.
The festival revolves around film screenings, interactive and virtual reality exhibitions, talks & sessions, marketplace and talent for the funding and distribution of documentaries and development of filmmakers, live events, and its own awards.
Since its beginning in 1994, DocFest has become the UK's biggest documentary festival and the third largest in the world. Public service broadcaster BBC have described it as "one of the leading showcases of documentary films".
Description
Over the years, the festival has been held at more than 20 other venues across Sheffield and the surrounding area, including the Light Cinema, Sheffield Town Hall, Sheffield City Hall, and the DocFest Exchange on Tudor Square, developed with the Wellcome Trust. Fun is a key element, and the festival holds many parties. The festival has gained popularity steadily over recent years. DocFest screenings help many films to achieve a wider audience by attracting distribution and further screening opportunities for the films it shows.Sheffield DocFest's "Marketplace & Talent" segment is a major part of the festival, which includes the MeetMarket for films and series to achieve funding and distribution, "Alternate Realities Market" for interactive and virtual reality projects, live pitches, and other training initiatives.
Interactive, immersive and virtual reality documentary is also a central element of the festival with interactive exhibitions and commissioned works scattered across the city, and the Alternate Realities Summit taking place over an entire day of the festival.
In addition to the festival days in June, Sheffield DocFest presents year-round workshops, screenings, labs and mentoring opportunities both in the UK and internationally.
History
In 1990, Peter Symes of BBC TV Features Bristol had the idea of creating a forum for British documentary filmmakers to debate and discuss their craft. In 1993, he set up a festival board which included representatives from Channel 4, United Artists, Discovery Channel, Central Independent Television and Granada Television. They chose to hold the festival in Sheffield, an English industrial town which was just beginning to develop a media and cultural sector.The first Sheffield International Documentary Festival was held in 1994, formatted as an international film festival and conference for documentary professionals. It included a film programme, one or two masterclasses, and a party. It lasted two days and mainly attracted London-based filmmakers and producers, plus several international commissioners and distributors.
Over the next eight years, the festival continued, with around 475 to 700 delegates attending, and total audiences reaching around 2000. The Festival became an opportunity for London-based independent filmmakers to talk to commissioners at the BBC and Channel 4, who were otherwise difficult to reach. Success at the Festival might mean landing a job for the coming year.
In 2005, DocFest attracted more than 600 mostly UK delegates and enjoyed almost 9,000 screening and session admissions. However, with changes in the factual television marketplace, it was time for DocFest to move from a primarily craft-based event and increase its marketplace activity. The chairman at the time, Steve Hewlett, visited the Australian International Documentary Conference where he met its director Heather Croall, who had a background in filmmaking and had founded the cross-platform storytelling event DigiDocs. He invited Croall to come and work for the festival, where she was subsequently Festival Director and CEO until early 2015, turning around the Festival's fortunes.
The 1990s rise in international co-productions meant that British producers could no longer rely solely on one big broadcaster for their entire budget, and instead had to look abroad to piece together financing for their films. To internationalise the Festival and help filmmakers achieve this financing, Croall introduced the MeetMarket pitching forum, where filmmakers pitch their ideas to funders in one-to-one meetings. MeetMarket was developed with the help of Karolina Lidin, Marketplace Executive Producer since 2008. In 2003, she developed the very first MeetMarket with Croall at AIDC, which was later brought to Sheffield in 2006.
Croall also introduced the digital-focused Summit and Crossover Market, now Alternate Realities Talent Market, which – like the MeetMarket – pairs buyers and commissioners with game designers, technologists, producers, digital agencies and filmmakers, all looking to tell stories in the interactive realm.
In 2007, Hussain Currimbhoy joined as programmer.
DocFest was an early advocate of crowdfunding as a source of finance for documentary filmmakers, and in 2010 staged its first festival-based crowdfunding pitching event, which was also an industry first. The campaign was launched on Indiegogo with a goal to raise $25k for the Festival to help stage special events. They exceeded their target.
In 2011, the Festival moved from November to June, to better fit into the industry calendar and ensure better weather and lighter evenings for visitors.
From 2012, selected highlights from the Festival have often played at the BFI Southbank in London. The Festival began producing its own film projects, including From the Sea to the Land Beyond in 2012 and The Big Melt in 2013.
From 2014, the Festival became recognised by the Academy Awards as an Oscar-qualifying festival in the Best Documentary category with the DocFest Short Doc Award Winner eligible to enter for consideration. Many DocFest Short Doc Award-winning films have gone on to be shortlisted for Oscars.
In 2014, DocFest presented films including Beyond Clueless and Love Is All at Latitude Festival, with Sigur Ros scored archive film The Show of Shows: 100 Years of Vaudeville, Circuses and Carnivals, Montage of Heck, Sounds of the Cosmos and a number of shorts also featured in 2015. This partnership continued, and in 2017 DocFest brought a selection of virtual reality projects to Latitude for the first time, alongside a curated programme of shorts.
In 2014, there were some high-level staff changes. Deputy Director Charlie Phillips left to head up the documentary arm of The Guardian, with director of Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival Melanie Iredale taking up the position. Director of Programming, Hussain Currimbhoy, left for Sundance Film Festival, with former Executive Content Adviser at Independent Television Service Claire Aguilar becoming Head of Programming & Industry Engagement. Croall returned to Australia to become the Artistic Director and CEO of the Adelaide Fringe.
Following Heather's departure, Crossover Labs Director Mark Atkin stepped in as acting director for the 2015 Festival, before Liz McIntyre of Discovery Networks joined as CEO & Festival Director from 1 September 2015.
During McIntyre's appointment, the Festival championed diverse and pluralist voices, inclusiveness and accessibility, for example creating a crèche service and introducing British Sign Language interpreted talks, Dementia-friendly screenings, Doc/Dinner for championing diverse talent within the industry, and the From Door to Doc scheme, affording reduced rate entry to screenings for hard-to-reach areas of Sheffield.
In 2016, there were high-level staff appointments. Luke Moody, formerly of BRITDOC joined as Director of Film Programming, replacing Head of Programming & Industry Engagement Claire Aguilar. Former Dogwoof Distribution Manager Patrick Hurley joined as Head of Marketplace & Talent, replacing Marketplace Manager Anna Parker. From BBC, Dan Tucker joined as Curator of Alternate Realities.
In 2018, following the delivery of the 25th anniversary Festival, Liz McIntyre stepped down as CEO & Festival Director. Deputy Director Melanie Iredale stepped up as Interim Director to lead the 2019 edition, whilst the organisation began the search for a new director. Following the 2019 edition, Director of Film Programming Luke Moody resigned, challenging tensions between the board and the programme's internationalism in comments made to BFI's Sight & Sound magazine.
In 2019, it was announced that the organisation had successfully applied for charitable status. After 26 years operating as a subsidiary of Sheffield Media & Exhibition Centre, the organisation became an independent registered charity. At the same time, it was announced that Chair of the Board of Trustees, Alex Graham, would step down following more than nine years of service and that former co-director of Portuguese film festival DocLisboa, Cíntia Gil, would join the Festival as Director. Regarding the move to charitable status, Gil said "To become a charity is an opportunity that will provide us with the space for public service, both in the interest of filmmakers, artists and the public...Sheffield Doc/Fest is a festival committed to the values of freedom, social engagement and collective development of the arts, therefore the purpose of our work becomes even clearer with this new status."
Gil oversaw the curation of the 2020 Festival which was due to take place in June of that year, but was cancelled in its original form due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of the film programme moved to online screenings with the Festival's pitching forums, the MeetMarket and Alternate Realities Talent Market, also taking place online. The Festival also committed to hosting a series of Autumn film screenings and community engagement activities in Sheffield, when cinemas reopened in late 2020.
In 2020, the Festival appointed Alex Cooke as Chair of the Board of Trustees. Cooke is CEO & Executive Producer and one of the co-founders of Renegade Pictures. From 1997 to 2001 she was the Festival Programmer for Sheffield DocFest, programming films and masterclasses.
Despite the pressures of programming during a pandemic, the Festival returned to cinemas for its 28th edition in June 2021. Then in August 2021, it was announced that, following two years as Festival Director, Cíntia Gil had stepped down. Director of Partnerships Sylvia Bednarz acted as Interim Managing Director as the Festival moved towards planning for the 2022 edition.
Later in 2021 the Festival appointed Clare Stewart, former director of Sydney Film Festival and BFI London Film Festival, as Interim CEO. Stewart joined to steer the 2022 Festival and work alongside the Board of Trustees to develop 'a new, long-term strategy for the Festival', which included the introduction of a new joint-leadership model, developing the roles of Managing and Creative Director to lead the Festival. Under Stewart's leadership, the Festival appointed Raul Niño Zambrano, previously Senior Film Programmer of IDFA, as Head of Film Programmes and the Festival celebrated a predominantly in-person edition following the pandemic. After the 2022 Festival, Zambrano was promoted to Acting Creative Director, as the Festival began its search for a Managing Director.
Following Stewart's term as Interim CEO, the Festival appointed Annabel Grundy, formerly of BFI, as Managing Director to work alongside Zambrano under the joint-leadership model developed by Stewart. In the weeks before the 2023 Festival, in which the organisation celebrated its 30th edition, Zambrano was promoted to the permanent role of Creative Director "following a successful year as Acting Creative Director". In February 2024, DocFest announced Mimi Poskitt as DocFest's new Managing Director.