DOCS IRELAND MARKETPLACE 2024
The Docs Ireland Marketplace is an opportunity for filmmakers to meet one-to-one with leading international documentary industry decision makers, including international funders, broadcasters, distributors and exhibitors and will take place during Docs Ireland 6 on Friday 21st and Saturday 22nd June 2024.
The only marketplace dedicated to documentary on the island of Ireland, Docs Ireland provides an outlet for filmmakers to pitch their project through carefully matched meetings organised by the festival’s industry team.
Previous Docs Ireland marketplace projects include Is There Anybody Out There? by Ella Glendining (Official Selection, Sundance Film Festival 2023), Million Dollar Pigeons by Gav Fitzgerald (Official Selection, Hot Docs 2022), Much Ado About Dying by Simon Chambers (Winner – Best Director, IDFA 2022), The Graceless Age by Sarah Share (Winner – Best Irish Documentary, Galway Film Fleadh 2023) The Taste of Mango by Chloe Abrahams (Official Selection, London Film Festival 2023, Winner – Best Debut Documentary, British Independent Film Awards 2023), and To the Moon by Tadhg O’Sullivan (Official Selection, Telluride Film Festival, Venice Film Festival 2021).
A hub for funding, sales and distribution of documentaries in Ireland and globally, the market is an incubator for nurturing domestic talent so that our industry can continue to thrive in the future. We also welcome international submissions.
Confirmed decision makers for the Docs Ireland Marketplace include:
Autlook Film Sales, CAT&Docs, Cinetic Media, Conic Films, Documentary Association of Europe, Dokufest Kosovo, DR Sales, e u R O P E doconsultancy, Fifth Season, Film Harbour, Finnish Film Foundation, INDOX Films, Java Films, Lightdox, Met Film Sales, Nordisk Panorama, POV, S4C, Sarajevo International Film Festival, SBS, Screen Ireland, Sundance Film Festival, SVT, Swedish Film Institute, SWR, TG4, Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, True/False, Wildcard Distribution.
Decision makers will engage with participating filmmakers, helping them to develop their documentary projects, as well as foster new relationships and opportunities.
Applications are open to long form documentary films (50 minutes +) across all genres, and from any country. You must have at least one TV / digital / theatrical credit in documentary, although this can include shorter form.
Docs Ireland Marketplace 2024 – IMPORTANT DATES
- Friday 19th April 2024 – Marketplace Application Deadline
- Week of Monday 13th May 2024 – Marketplace Project Announcement
- Friday 21st June & Saturday 22nd June 2024 – Marketplace dates
Applications for 2024 are now closed.
FURTHER INFORMATION is available here
Read about our 2023 Marketplace Projects below:
And There We Were
Feature Documentary
Director: Christina Bennett
Producer: Bonnie Boyle
An exploration of how a housing estate in the west of Ireland came to be known as Little Belfast.
(Participating as part of the IGNITE 3 Documentary Talent Development Programme)
Answering the Call
Feature Documentary
Director: Martin Danneels
Producer: Laura Cranley
Writer: Geoff Power
Set on Ireland’s rugged north-west coastline, Answering the Call follows an audacious plan to save a tiny population of corncrakes by changing the mindsets of farmers.
(Participating as part of the IGNITE 3 Documentary Talent Development Programme)
Behind The Green Curtain
Feature Documentary
Director: Neasa Ní Chianáin
Producer: David Rane
Climate emergency waits for no one in this intimate, haunting behind-the-scenes observational film about a group of people looking for answers.
Circus Yanni
Participating as part of the IGNITE Documentary Talent Development Programme
Feature Documentary
Director: George Hooker
Producer: Lisa Turnbull
Circus Yanni is a creative documentary about the artistry of circus and how a troupe of Palestinian artists use it as a peaceful form of demonstration and activism.
Coming Home
Documentary Series
Director: Viko Nikci
Producer: Eamon Hughes
Angel Cordero’s story spans 25 years from his wrongful conviction to a shocking confession, prison release and potential rare exoneration.
Cuba & Alaska
Feature Documentary
Director: Yegor Troyanovsky
Producer: Olha Beskhmelnytsina, Christian Popp
In eastern Ukraine, death settled in shell-shattered Kharkiv for a long time. Everything would have remained so sad without the rays of hope – two paramedic young, brave women, Cuba and Alaska.
Selected in collaboration with Docs Ireland Festival Partner East Doc Platform
Grand National
Feature Documentary
Director: Ross Whitaker
Producer: Samantha Corr
Owners, trainers and jockeys compete to win the Aintree Grand National, the world’s greatest steeplechase horse race.
If Love Be Blind
Feature Documentary
Director: Bob Gallagher
Producer: Jeanie Igoe
The film explores the role of visual media in shaping our attitudes towards desire, the experience of attraction through blindness, and the invisible part other senses play in the process.
(Participating as part of the IGNITE 3 Documentary Talent Development Programme)
Learning To Fall
Feature Documentary
Director: John Conway
Producer: Mairéad Ní Thréinir
After tragedy strikes, an Irish stuntman swaps Hollywood movie sets and stadium tours for life alone in a mobile home on an island off the west coast of Ireland.
Little Warrior
Feature Documentary
Director: Paul Sng
Producer: Rohan Crickmar
A genderfluid boxer attempts to escape poverty and pursue her ambition of representing Venezuela at the Olympics.
Mo & Me
Feature Documentary
Director: Henrietta Norton
Producer: Rachel Lysaght
Political powerhouse Mo Mowlam is revealed in all her complexity through her stepdaughter’s lens.
Mo Meantoir Sean McGuire
Feature Documentary
Director: Méabh O’Hare
Producer: Karol Lynch
An Irish language feature documentary looking at the real legacy of the Irish fiddle maestro Seán McGuire. Who was this tour de force? What was the truth behind the many stories that surrounded his life? Who was the real man? Myth or legend?
(Participating as part of the IGNITE 3 Documentary Talent Development Programme)
Once Upon A Time on Death Row
Feature Documentary
Director: Brendan Byrne
Producer: Tina O’Reilly, Michael Quinn
The story of Tommy Zeigler, his 47 years on death row and the DNA tests that could set him free.
Our Land
Feature Documentary
Director: Orban Wallace
Producer: Rebecca Wolff
A profound insight into the British countryside, journeying over the walls that divide us to explore our current conflicted relationship with nature and the land.
Scenes from a Family
Feature Documentary
Director: Alice Nelson
Producer: Lili Sandelin
What do we inherit, what do we pass down? A personal journey exploring three generations of a family.
Selected by Docs Ireland Festival Partner Doc Society
Secrets, Lies, Murder & Spies
Feature Documentary
Director: Nicky Larkin
Producers: Kelda Crawford-McCann, Peter Crawford-McCann
The shooting of a South African academic in Belfast blows wide open a sinister international web of intrigue and lies.
Secrets of a Showman
Feature Documentary
Director: David Burke
Producer: Sean O’Cualain
The secret life of impresario Bill Fuller whose music empire promoted many of the world’s biggest acts.
Shadow of Nanook
Feature Documentary
Directors: Jim Compton, Peadar King
Producers: Melvin Estrella, Pegi Vail
Martha Flaherty, the unacknowledged granddaughter of Nanook of the North director Robert Flaherty, seeks justice for her Inuit family.
The Flats
Feature Documentary
Director: Alessandra Celesia
Producers: Jean-Laurent Csinidis, Jeremiah Cullinane
In their Catholic estate of Belfast, Joe, Jolene and their neighbours reenact memories from the Troubles with hope and imagination.
The Last Balkan Cowboy
Feature Documentary
Director: Dragana Jurisic
Producer: Zlata Filipovic, Anna Rodgers
Croatian artist Dragana Jurisic retraces the mythical story of cult Western director Hari Džekson, returning to the home she fled.
The Lonely Albert Bachmann
Feature Documentary
Director: Daire Collins
Producer: Michael Mallie
The story of Colonel Bachmann, Switzerland’s most controversial spy.
The Screamers
Feature Documentary
Director: Kim Bartley
Producers: Ciaran Cassidy, Colum McKeown
A documentary about a radical female fronted commune that was set up in the wilds of Donegal and then in Colombia.
The Shields
Documentary Series
Director: Frankie Fenton
Producer: Kathryn Kennedy
New found footage reveals the journey a group of activists took on 3 double decker buses from London to Baghdad.
This is a Quiet Love
Feature Documentary
Director: Garry Keane
Producers: Anne Heffernan, Sean Herlihy
In this intimate feature documentary, four Deaf couples reveal the joys and complexities of their relationships.
Trouble in Utopia
Feature Documentary
Director/Producer: Jamie Goldrick
Executive Producer: Adam Gee
This film revisits and explores alternative vision of how societies are run (and could be run) in the Digital Age.
Try!
Feature Documentary
Director: Oisín Mistéil
Producer: Claire McCabe
Try! follows the colourful and diverse mixed ability rugby community in Ireland on their journey to the World Cup.
(Participating as part of the IGNITE 3 Documentary Talent Development Programme)
With Their Backs to the Sky
Feature Documentary
Director: Erik Nuding
Producers: Kendall Fitzgerald
In rapidly depleting forests in Madagascar, local field biologists and bat catchers work tirelessly to determine bat disease spillover risk.
