#SSD25 > June 23-26, 2025
IMZ x Sunny Side of the Doc Pitching sessions in Berlin
2024
initiative
IMZ x Sunny Side
Avant Première 2024 shines a special spotlight on performing arts documentaries and offered filmmakers and producers the possibility to take their projects further!
As Sunny Side of the Doc and IMZ wish to encourage digital creation, a second pitching session was exclusively dedicated to digital content within the performing arts - innovative stories or digital installations created through new convergences of documentary, culture and immersive technologies.
Selected projects could pitch directly to international decision makers and receive expert feedback on the spot.
Avant Première took place during the EFM European Film Market and the Berlinale through a fully on-site experience from 18 to 22 February 2023.
about the event
17-21 February 2024, Berlin, Germany
For the fifth time, Sunny Side of the Doc joined forces with IMZ International Music + Media Centre to offer two pitching opportunities at Avant Première 2024: Arts & Culture and Digital Creation & XR.
Selected projects had the opportunity to pitch directly to international decision-makers and receive expert feedback on the spot. The winning projects received two free accreditations for Sunny Side of the Doc 2024.
Arts & Culture Pitch
Discover the projects selected for the Arts & Culture Pitch.
Outspoken
Produced by: Alchemy Films (United Kingdom)
Logline: Outspoken is a feature documentary that journeys across continents and through decades to interweave portraits of global rap artists who uphold the original intent of rap messaging during challenging time
The Premiere
Produced by: Backstory Media (France)
Logline: Ying, a young man born in a fishing village in southern China, devotes himself body and soul to contemporary dance.
Forbidden Dance
Produced by: Tondowski Films (Germany)
Logline: Israeli choreographer Nir and Syrian dancers Medhat, Mouafak and Haidar craft a bold Israeli-Syrian dance show, addressing Middle Eastern conflicts.
Headfirst
Produced by: Avanti-Toast (Canada)
Logline: 'Headfirst' is a gripping documentary that follows the extraordinary journey of Fred, a young French Canadian who sacrifices everything in his relentless quest to resurrect the King of Pop.
Digital Creation & XR Pitch
Discover the projects selected for the Digital Creation & XR pitch.
Uncanny Reverie
Produced by: Alexander Hackl and Wen Liu (Austria)
Logline: Embark on an interactive music journey weaving AI and climate narratives through audience engagement. Exploring the fusion of scientific research and artistic storytelling, it examines how temperature parameters shape the predictability of AI-generated music.
The Sound Voice Project
Produced by: Sound Voice (United Kingdom)
Logline: The Sound Voice Project is an internationally award-winning immersive opera-video installation, a unique, surround-sound digital triptych exploring voice and identity, celebrating the intrinsic value of the human voice.
Selina
Produced by: Trotzkind (Germany)
Logline: Selina is a narrative single-player VR adventure which lets players travel the mind of an imaginative little girl. With the help of the player the protagonist learns to overcome the difficulties of a life upset by dark thoughts and previous trauma.
Us Xtended
Produced by: JYOTI Film (Germany)
Logline: Set on a disintegrating stage of an old Greek theatre, the experience revolves around an emotional creative encounter with an AI character, which turns into a Turing test with a twist. This time it is the humans who need to prove their empathy to the AI.
What we are looking for
We are looking for native web formats, new media narratives and multi-platform content projects, as well as projects in 360, VR, AR, XR, Binaural Sound or Big Format (Dome) films in the genre of performing arts.
We are interested in stories exploring any aspect of the performing arts – be it:
- performances/ concerts staged under special/unconventional circumstances
- documentaries focusing on any music, dance or art content
- expressions of current socio-politic developments through (performing) art
- films about any form of culture expressed in dance, music and dramatic ritual
- etc.
Timeline
Mark your calendar, here are all the dates you need to know!
Launch of the call for projects.
Deadline to submit your proposal via the online submission tool on the IMZ Website.
4 selected proposals for each pitching session are informed + confirmed.
Arts & Culture Pitching Session + Digital Creation & XR Pitching Session (+ respective One-on-One Follow Up Sessions) during Avant Première 2024.
Official selections
Performing Arts Documentary
Linear documentary stories exploring any aspect of the performing arts – be it an artist’s portrait or a historical/genre specific documentary focusing on any music + dance content.
Time, No Changes: Miles Davis' Second Great Quintet
Auditorium Films / Natalie Gomez
Time, No Changes: Miles Davis' Second Great Quintet
Auditorium Films / Natalie Gomez
Time, No Changes: Miles Davis' Second Great Quintet
Auditorium Films / Natalie Gomez
Digital Creation
Native web formats, new media narratives and multi-platform content projects, as well as projects in 360, VR, AR, XR, Binaural Sound or Big Format (Dome) films in the genre of performing arts.
Time, No Changes: Miles Davis' Second Great Quintet
Auditorium Films / Natalie Gomez
Time, No Changes: Miles Davis' Second Great Quintet
Auditorium Films / Natalie Gomez
Time, No Changes: Miles Davis' Second Great Quintet
Auditorium Films / Natalie Gomez
Partner
The Vienna-based IMZ International Music + Media Centre is a Nonprofit Organisation that was founded under the aegis of UNESCO in 1961 to preserve the performing arts as a cultural asset.
With this goal in mind, our mission is to promote the performing arts in and through audiovisual media in order to make music + dance performances available for future generations but also to reach + engage new audiences through the more easily accessible medium film.
As a global business network for more than 150 IMZ Member Organisations, the IMZ provides relevant information + opportunities for those active at the intersection of performing arts + media: leading film + TV production companies, public + private broadcasters, streaming platforms, distributors + record labels as well as opera houses, concert halls, orchestras and dance companies.
