COLLABORATIONS
International Collaborations
CLOSE UP
We established important professional ties with prestigious documentary film funds and cinema institutions around the world such as the Sundance Film Institute in USA, Impact Partners in USA, Chicken & Egg Pictures in USA, Movies that Matter Film Festival in the Netherlands, Middle East Now Film Festival in Italy, MEDIMED: The Euro-Mediterranean Documentary Market in Spain, The Whickers in the UK, Doc’s Up Fund in France, Blue-Ice Docs in Canada as well as the Jacob Burns Film Center which offers our filmmakers a Fellowship Award for a residency in Pleasantville, NY, USA and the Silver Sun Foundation that offers our filmmakers a Residency Award in Woodstock, NY, USA.
These significant collaborations with the most prestigious film institutions in the international documentary industry are significant to the success of our filmmakers and were created in order to provide substantial opportunities and continued support for their projects. These collaborations assist our filmmakers to push their projects further towards completing high standards of co-productions and to network with highly acclaimed professionals within the documentary industry.
The Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program supports non-fiction filmmakers worldwide in the production of cinematic documentaries on contemporary themes.
Established in 2002 with founding support from Open Society Foundations, the Program is a vibrant global resource for independent non-fiction storytelling.
Recent projects include The Look of Silence by Joshua Oppenheimer, CITIZENFOUR by Laura Poitras, Last Men In Aleppo by Feras Fayyad, Hale County This Morning, This Evening by RaMell Ross, Cameraperson by Kirsten Johnson, Strong Island by Yance Ford, and I Am Not Your Negro by Raoul Peck.
Impact Partners is dedicated to funding independent documentary storytelling that entertains audiences, engages with pressing social issues, and propels the art of cinema forward.
Close Up and Impact Partners collaborate together to continue creating significant opportunities for emerging filmmakers from the Middle East & North Africa. Access to impactful international industry entities is a crucial part of Close Up’s program, teaming up with Impact Partners helps us to further advance this aspect of our work.
Chicken & Egg Pictures supports women nonfiction filmmakers whose artful and innovative storytelling catalyzes social change.
They envision an inclusive media industry in which women and gender non-conforming filmmakers, representing a range of experiences and backgrounds, are fully supported to realize their artistic goals, and build sustainable and fulfilling careers.
The Chicken & Egg partnership with Close-Up is a fantastic opportunity for women filmmakers from the Middle East and North Africa to have access to an abundance of advantages, including, grants and programs. It will include the presence of Chicken & Egg at the Close-Up Final Pitching Forum event. The alliance is based on the mutual objective of both entities to support women filmmakers from diverse background, culture, religion and ethnicities.
Movies That Matter has for mission to open eyes to human rights. They use film to stir the debate on human rights, sustainability and the fight against injustice. They believe that film has the unprecedented capacity to raise awareness and provide new insight.
Close-Up initiated a new wonderful collaboration with Ma
During the 2021 Movies that Matter festival, filmmakers from CLOSE UP will be invited to screen their rough cuts, work on their impact campaigns and get inspired by meeting filmmakers from all over the world. Movies that Matter will offer a tailor-made program for them with experts to make their films stronger and design impact for their film. They will meet with other filmmakers, follow masterclasses and debates, all in order to empower their incredible work as filmmakers.
Middle East Now Film Festival (MENFF) in Florence, Italy, is a festival of cinema, documentaries and visual arts on the contemporary Middle East.
The festival is a vibrant boutique festival, with great appeal to the general public and to the press, and has established itself as a platform to showcase what is new in Middle Eastern contemporary cinema and culture.
MENF & Close-up partnership will offer a great opportunity to MENA filmmakers to screen their films at this special film festival, including screening of work in progress, Q&A sessions and discussions with a diverse audience as well as Italian filmmakers. Close-Up directors and producers will have the opportunity to network with the community of filmmakers from around the Middle East & North Africa as well as international experts and filmmakers.
The Euro-Mediterranean Documentary Market & Pitching Forum takes place every year in October, in Sitges (Barcelona).
The Pitching Forum, the Speedy-Pitch Meetings and the ANTI-pitch program are specially designed to help filmmakers find the finance needed to complete their projects at any stage of development. The partnership between MEDIMED and Close Up provide up to 2 Close Up filmmakers each year with an access to more than 60 decision-makers, buyers, commissioning editors, sales agents, and distributors participating at the MEDIMED Market. The filmmakers will be given the opportunity to present at the pitching sessions, have one-on-one meetings and participate at inspirational panel discussions.
The Whickers were established in 2015 to fund and recognise original and innovative documentary. They seek to use the generous legacy of their namesake, pioneering broadcaster Alan Whicker, to support emerging film and audio documentary-makers in the funding and production of director led programmes.
A brand new documentary funding award for filmmakers in Southwest Asia and North Africa has been created by the Whickers in partnership with Close Up Initiative. This new fund worth £3,000 will be available to participants taking part in Close Up’s annual year-long training and development program and will be granted to a project after the Close Up Pitching Forum in June each year.
The Silver Sun Foundation, founded by our wonderful Close Up donor Karen Sloe Goodman, generously offers our filmmakers a Residency Award in Woodstock, NY, USA.
As part of our collaboration, the selected filmmakers will be invited to work in the beautiful calm environment, surrounded by an inspiring community at Silver Sun Foundation. We are thankful for the precious support & wonderful opportunity they continue to provide to our filmmakers.
Jacob Burns Film Center is a nonprofit film and education hub located on a three-building campus in the New York Metropolitan area.
Since opening in 2001, millions of people have enjoyed the best of current American and foreign cinema, unique film series, and special events at the five-screen theater complex. The JBFC brings the transformative power of film to the surrounding community through unique programming and discussions, educational initiatives, filmmaking fellowships, and residencies. Annually, the JBFC awards a four–six week residency as part of their Creative Culture program to a Close Up film project. Awarded film teams of two receive housing, private editing suite, weekly stipend, paid travel and access to the resources available at the Media Arts Lab and JBFC Theatre. In addition to the residency, the JBFC also curates a showcase of Close Up films at their theater. The JBFC is also a fiscal sponsor of Close Up.
Docs Up Fund is a fund allocated to European and International feature length documentaries dedicated to human rights.
Docs Up Fund, founded by Alex Szalat, is an association dedicated to feature length documentaries about Human Rights. Doc’s Up Fund supports Close Up projects that shine light on human rights issues in the Middle East and North Africa and provides a development grant to a selected Close Up project each year.