➤ Awarded Projects 2023
➤ Awards 2023
➤ Jury 2023
➤ Selected Projects 2023
The Ji.hlava New Visions Forum: U.S. Docs 2023 featured eight U.S. projects in development as well as in production and post-production.
The selected projects traditionally include diverse genres and audiovisual formats – such as fiction films with documentary aspects, hybrid, cinema expanded, experimental and short films. The platform aims at effectively connecting the U.S. documentary filmmakers with the potential co-producers, distributors, sales representatives and film festivals from Europe.
The documentary projects presented at the Ji.hlava New Visions: U.S. Docs in the past years have later premiered at SXSW, Tribeca and other festivals.
Format
The projects are presented by the director-producer pair along with a preview of the upcoming film. The pitching takes place in October during the Ji.hlava IDFF and is available to all Ji.hlava industry accreditation holders.
The most promising project selected by a jury receives a cash award in cooperation with our partner American Documentary And Animation Film Festival (AmDocs).
Awarded Projects 2023
Ji.hlava New Visions Forum Award 2023 for the most promising U.S. project
in partnership with AmDocs
7,000 USD cash award
DECISION: Valley of the Night (5,000 USD)
STATEMENT: This is a stunning dive into a dystopian present, and we commend the filmmaker for her incredibly cinematic approach on such a relevant and pressing issue of these times. Introducing us to temporal migration with such poetic photography promises a very singular and fascinating film.
DECISION: Vestibule (2,000 USD)
STATEMENT: This is a bold and uncompromising film that will create a new conversation around the agency we have with our bodies, sex, and pleasure. We want this award to encourage this filmmaker as she begins this filmic journey that will break taboos and empower many girls, women, and all the humans that need support in building a good relationship with their bodies.
EFM Award
Two EFM market badges and an EFM consultation session
DECISION: Barbara Hammer Project
Awards
Ji.hlava New Visions Award 2023 for the most promising U.S. project in partnership with Am Docs
- The project will receive 7.000 USD as a cash award granted in cooperation with American Documentary And Animation Film Festival (AmDocs)
FilmAid Award for the project addressing underrepresented communities and groups at Ji.hlava New Visions Forum 2023
- The project will receive 2,000 USD as a cash award granted in cooperation with FilmAid. Eligible for European and U.S. projects.
#Docs Connect Taskovski training award at Ji.hlava New Visions Forum 2023
- Mentorship and consultancy on the festival, marketing and distribution strategy for the winning project
- Eligible for both European and U.S. projects
Cannes Docs - Marché du Film Award at Ji.hlava New Visions Forum 2023
- Two complimentary Marché du Film badges & selection as a Cannes Docs 2024 'Spotlighted Project'
- Eligible for both European and U.S. projects
EFM Award at Ji.hlava New Visions Forum 2023
- 2 EFM market badges and an EFM consultation session
- Eligible for both European and U.S. projects
DAE Award at Ji.hlava New Visions Forum 2023
- Free memberships for two members of the project team for one year and a tailor-made consultancy session with DAE senior consultants.
- Eligible for both European and U.S. projects
Partners of Ji.hlava New Visions Awards
Jury
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BARBARA HAMMER PROJECT
Director: Brydie O'Connor
Producer: Elijah Stevens
Genre: Documentary
Country: United States
Runtime: 90’
Estimated date of premiere: January 2025
Synopsis: Barbara Hammer Project explores the films, archives, and impact of experimental filmmaker Barbara Hammer, revealing her effort to create lesbian histories, personal & societal. The film queers chronology to introduce audiences to Hammer middle-aged, at the peak of her career, exploring queer intimacy and feminism in her films. We jump through time, to her coming out in the 70s, and to her fight with cancer in the 2010s. Through her self-documentation, Barbara explores queerness, aging, and recognition. The film interweaves Barbara’s lovers and collaborators continuing her legacy in the present, into the future.
Production Company: Barbara Forever LLC
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IN EXCESS
Director: Melissa Langer
Producer: Nora Wilkinson
Genre: Documentary, Experimental
Country: United States
Runtime: 90’
Estimated date of premiere: January 2025
Synopsis: In Excess is a portrait of a city and its trash, interrogating how gentrification, organized labor, environmentalism and corporate interests have tangled with a decades-long struggle against a rising tide of waste. In this single city’s ecosystem we find echoes of broader American society, and of the cost of the drive toward power and efficiency — what’s gained, what’s lost, and what’s wasted
Production Company: n/a
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REVOLUTION 3.0
Director: Reza Bird
Producer: Reza Bird
Co-producers: Kaveh Farnam, Gabriela Daniels
Genre: Documentary
Countries: United States, Czech Republic
Runtime: 70’
Estimated date of premiere: January 2024
Synopsis: The film explores the challenges and opportunities that come with using social media as a platform for activism, both for immigrants and also in a country where censorship and persecution are rampant. Reza’s story is not only about personal growth but also about the power of storytelling and the role of technology and social media in shaping the new world. Through his journey, viewers gain a deeper understanding of the complex political and social issues facing Iran. Ultimately, the film highlights the importance of perseverance, determination, and the resilience of the human spirit in the face of adversity.
Production Company: NxtAnimal - Europe Media Nest
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THE CAVE WITHOUT A NAME
Director: Jessica Bardsley
Producers: Caitlin Mae Burke, Nevo Shinaar
Genre: Documentary
Country: United States
Runtime: 90’
Estimated date of premiere: January 2025
Synopsis: The Cave Without a Name is a poetic essay film exploring night and nocturnal life, drawing evocative connections between creative and scientific exploration, from a punk band’s anti-capitalist battle cry; to nightscapes of a "dark sky city”; a dream guide’s efforts to bring the unconscious into reality; the Rest as Resistance movement; and the evening emergence of more than 15 million Mexican free-tailed bats from Bracken Cave, the largest maternity colony in the world.
Production Company: Faunus Film Productions
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VALLEY OF THE NIGHT
Directors: Lynne Siefert
Producer: Lynne Siefert
Genre: Documentary, Experimental, Hybrid
Country: United States
Runtime: 70’
Estimated date of premiere: February 2025
Synopsis: It’s 2037 and global temperatures have risen. Phoenix, AZ, the hottest city in the USA, has become a physically dangerous place to live. But nighttime provides slight respite. Shot entirely at night, Valley of the Night explores how this desert city is becoming nocturnal as it adapts to survive the extreme heat. From blooming night flowers, to electrical blackouts, to unsheltered people’s cooling strategies, this speculative, but probable world, surveys Phoenix’s people, activities, urban structures, and natural phenomena, under the moon and artificial light.
Production Company: MouseHaus
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VESTIBULE
Director: Riley Hooper
Producers: Caitlin Mae Burke, Bryn Silverman
Genre: Documentary
Country: United States
Runtime: 90’
Estimated date of premiere: September 2025
Synopsis: Combining documentary footage with stylized dance sequences, VESTIBULE tells the story of filmmaker Riley Hooper's journey with Vestibulodynia — a vulvar disorder that makes intercourse painful. The film also explores stories from her grandmother and great-grandmother, their own struggles to have agency in their bodies, and the silence and shame that so often surrounds the female body. Ultimately, she tells these stories in order to invite viewers to examine their own relationship with their body, and what may not be serving them on their own path toward agency.
Production Company: Riley Hooper LLC
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WITHOUT ARROWS
Directors: Jonathan Olshefski, Elizabeth Day
Producers: Elizabeth Day, Jonathan Olshefski
Genre: Documentary
Country: United States
Runtime: 86’
Estimated date of premiere: December 2023
Synopsis: Filmed with vérité intimacy over the course of thirteen years (2011 - 2023), Without Arrows is a longitudinal portrait of a modern Native American family. Without Arrows follows three generations of the Fiddler family living on the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Reservation as they experience both tenderness and tragedy.
Production Company: Without Arrows, LLC
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YOU HAVE THE FLOOR
Director: Adina Luo
Producers: Adina Luo, Yi Chen, Tiffany Shan
Genre: Documentary
Country: United States
Runtime: 100’
Estimated date of premiere: September 2024
Synopsis: You Have the Floor follows a nationally-ranked high school Model United Nations team, where aspiring ambassadors debate the world’s most pressing issues—climate change, nuclear proliferation, gender equality. As diplomatic strategies collide and social tensions mount, each of our students discovers what victory truly means to them. Whether it be a sincere pursuit for equity or a personal quest for victory, their experiences open up profound implications for global peacekeeping: who is genuinely invested in progress and who is merely interested in career advancement? More than a competition, Model UN is a reflection of technological, political, and business worlds as interpreted by 16-year-olds, who perform what they think success looks like and find themselves along the way.
Production Company: n/a
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