After a 2021 edition which unfolded in two stages in order to successfully negotiate health and safety constraints (unspooling online to begin with, followed by a physical edition in June), FIPADOC is returning to Biarritz in person and on the usual dates for a 4th edition unfurling 17 – 23 January with over 200 documentaries gracing the line-up.

Within the international competition, 11 titles (as yet unseen in France) will be evaluated by a jury set to include American-Israeli director Rachel Leah Jones, her French counterpart Stan Neumann and Dutch helmer Adriek van Nieuwenhuyzen (who’s responsible for the IDFA’s Industry sidebar). Nine feature films selected for this line-up are European (co)-productions: Babi Yar. Context [+lee también:
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entrevista: Sergei Loznitsa
ficha de la película] by Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa, President [+lee también:
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entrevista: Camilla Nielsson
ficha de la película] by Denmark’s Camilla Nielsson, The Lost Leonardo [+lee también:
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entrevista: Andreas Koefoed
ficha de la película] by her compatriot Andreas Koefoed, Burning Memories [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Switzerland’s Alice Schmid, The Balcony Movie [+lee también:
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entrevista: Paweł Łoziński
ficha de la película] by Poland’s Pawel Lozínski, All-In [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Belgian-Turkish filmmaker Volkan Üce, A Thousand Fires [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by British-Palestinian director Saeed Taji Farouky, the French-Belgian-Gabonese title On Zenith’s Edge by Natyvel Pontalier, The Last Shelter [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Ousmane Zoromé Samassékou (Mali/France/South Africa) and Blue Box [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Michal Weits (Israel/Canada/Belgium).

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14 films are participating in the national competition, namely the feature-length films Witchcraft Stories [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Hadrien La Vapeur and Corto Vaclav, Escape by Katia Jarjoura, Marie-Jo Will See You at 4 [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Camille Ponsin, Penelope My Love [+lee también:
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entrevista: Claire Doyon
ficha de la película] by Claire Doyon, The Rise and Fall of Jacques Tati by Jean-Baptiste Péretié, Des idées de génie? by Brice Gravelle, L’homme qui peint des gouttes d’eau by Oan Kim and Brigitte Bouillot, Gégé, a Farm Story by Florent Verdet, The Trial – Prague 1952 by Ruth Zylberman and The Century of Seamstresses by Philippe Picard and Jérôme Lambert.

Several other competitions are also in the offing. Stealing particular focus in the Musical Documentaries field (a genre selling well worldwide at present) we find the French production Boom Town by Sébastien Koegler, Dutch title Crazy Days – Or Making an Opera in Pandemic Times by Sanne Rovers, Belgian movies Misha by Paul de Roo and En mis zapatos by Pedro Morato, and the Portuguese-French feature film Paraíso [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Brazil’s Sérgio Tréfaut.

Shining bright among the 10 titles gracing the Impact competition are Aya [+lee también:
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entrevista: Simon Coulibaly Gillard
ficha de la película] by Simon Coulibaly Gillard (discovered in Cannes’ ACID line-up), the French production China: The Uyghur Drama by François Reinhardt, Name of the Game by Norway’s Håvard Bustnes, How to Kill a Cloud [+lee también:
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entrevista: Tuija Halttunen
ficha de la película] by Finland’s Tuija Halttunen, Land by German director Timo Großpietsch, and the Dutch production Shadow Game by the duo Eefje Blankevoort and Els van Driel, to name just a few.

The programme also includes a European Stories section, involving the animated film My Favorite War [+lee también:
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entrevista: Ilze Burkovska Jacobsen
ficha de la película] by Latvia’s Ilze Burkovska Jacobsen, Before They Meet [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Vytautas Puidokas, Spanish films Gemma Has a Plan by Arantza Diez and That Night by Marc Parramon Bori and Amets Arzallus Antia, Children of the Enemy [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Chilean-Swedish director Gorki Glaser-Müller, German production Courage [+lee también:
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entrevista: Aliaksei Paluyan y Jörn Mö…
ficha de la película] by Aliaksei Paluyan, Swiss-Serbian title Dida [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Nikola Ilić and Corina Schwingruber Ilić, Belgian-French-Irish production Game of Truth by Fabienne Lips-Dumas, and Reconciliation [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Slovenia’s Marija Zidar.

The festival’s generous line-up likewise includes a Panorama of 11 Francophone creations from 2021, Smart (VR, augmented reality, web series, etc), short film and Young Creation competitions, a Focus section homing in on the Benelux countries (for which documentary-maker Heddy Honigmann is guest of honour), a Carte Blanche line-up in celebration of Arte’s 30th anniversary, a new Taste of Doc section (gastronomy, food, healthy eating) and films to enjoy as a family, while exciting previews include those of the multi-award-winning work Flee [+lee también:
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entrevista: Jonas Poher Rasmussen
ficha de la película] by Danish director Jonas Poher Rasmussen, and of Deneuve, la reine Catherine by France’s Virginie Linhart.

Finally, the festival’s Professional Days event will host a vast array of conferences (notably exploring such questions as "does the documentary form lend itself to serialisation?" and "the future of creative documentaries"), thematic presentations (including one by the new channel Canal+ Docs) and workshops, in addition to four pitching sessions (one of which dedicated to 23 International Projects).