#SSD25 > June 23-26, 2025
Global Pitch 2023: winner announced!
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GP23
Global Pitch 2023 by Sunny Side of the Doc: Fight For Food wins the prize!
La Rochelle, February 8, 2023 - Sunny Side of the Doc, the international community and marketplace dedicated to linear and non-linear documentary, today announces the winner of the third edition of Global Pitch which took place online on 7 and 8 February.
About the event
Sponsored by AJB DOC, Al Jazeera Documentary Channel and WaterBear Network, the online pitching event aimed at facilitating the international financing and coproduction of projects focused on Climate Change consequences on our societies and concrete solutions implemented around the world.
Over these two thrilling days, the 12 selected projects among the 100 from 37 countries submitted, were presented to a panel of high-level decision-makers in pre-recorded video pitches followed by live Q&A sessions.
The online event gathered 220+ industry professionals of 190+ companies from 40+ countries. They took part in two Meet the Executives sessions with our sponsors, as well as in four exciting Industry Catch-ups with our expert guests from Generation Africa, Doc Society, The StoryBoard Collective and The Whickers. The quality of the projects and the richness of the exchanges anchor the Global Pitch even more as a highlight of the international documentary industry and brilliantly kick off the June market in La Rochelle.
One project particularly caught the attention of our prestigious jury gathering influential representatives of the documentary and audiovisual sector: Khadidja Banouataf (Impact Social Club), Keisha Knight (IDA), Cleo Veger (Dogwoof) and Julian Etienne (Doc Society).
“We are delighted that the jury picked an ambitious topical project from Kenya.” says Mathieu Béjot, Director of Strategy and Development at Sunny Side of the Doc. “It is important to hear stories coming from the Global South which is particularly affected by Climate Change. The award also comforts our proactive approach to including new voices and new talents in the international documentary community, particularly those from under-represented groups and countries. Awarding a series is also an illustration of the diversity of formats and storytelling of the documentary genre.”
The award goes to: Fight For Food
Produced by: Jim Chuchu, Benjamin Muasya - Rada Studios Ltd. (Kenya)
Directed by: Maia von Lekow, Christopher King, Zippy Kimundu
Logline: "A closer look at the farmers, scientists and cultural activists fighting to preserve Kenya's agriculture and food cultures - and the forces working to take control of the country’s food systems."
The Global Pitch Award is endowed with € 3,000 by the sponsors plus 2 full passes to Sunny Side of the Doc 2023.
Jury's Choice: “We were impressed by the breadth of the pitches this year and were particularly moved by projects that center the experiences of those in the Global South from their own perspectives.
We are very happy to award ‘Fight for Food’ the prize of 3,000 EUR in this year’s Global Pitch. We were impressed by the team and their approach shown through the materials. With the consequences of climate change and privatization affecting day to day Global South communities, ‘Fight for Food’ shows how Kenyan farmers are adapting to extreme weather, unpredictable climate patterns, and extractive foreign influence. We believe that the film can be an inspiration for other community based approaches for climate justice.
We also want to mention ‘Their Present is our Future: Saleem and Climate Adaptation’ as a project we think deserves highlighting for its attention to climate adaptations made possible by grassroot social innovations and the moral urgency of establishing a loss & damages fund.”
