Our latest Magnifier event focused on documentaries, engaging emerging and established filmmakers in a stimulating day of networking and talks from international experts.

Speakers at the event included Tor Vadseth of Nordnorsk Filmsenter, Lisa Nyed of Film i Skåne, Embankment Films' Head of Sales Calum Gray, Glynnis Ritter of Sweden's WG Films, Ffilm Cymru Wales Chair Michael Gubbins, and Welsh filmmakers Dylan Williams and Rob Alexander.

A variety of topics were covered during the day, including what makes a documentary theatrical, findings from the Docuregio report on the global documentary market, and an insightful overview of the Swedish, Norwegian and Welsh documentary landscapes.

Findings from the event include:

Fighting the post-fact era requires authentic voices.

50% of feature films funded in 2017 by the Swedish Film Institute were documentaries.

On average, the Swedish Film Institute funds 36% of a feature documentary's total budget.

Feature documentaries make up 50% of most successful crowdfunding projects.

Cross-media projects can boost reach and brand, and create new models.

Ffilm Cymru Wales has produced 20 feature documentaries, 25% of which were international co-productions.

Key questions for Ffilm Cymru Wales investment in documentary features are: Who are the talent? What’s the story? What’s the cinematic potential?

A theatrical documentary needs: a clear finance, sales and marketing structure; a filmmaker with an ambitious, authored approach; a resonant story.

A great day https://t.co/iluoOj9xtj at the #Magnifier event @FfilmCymruWales held at @TramshedTech good catching up with everyone & hearing some great insight from other! And about future productions in Wales & overseas
.#ffilmcymruwales #madeinwales #documentaryfilm #welshfilm pic.twitter.com/mRSGfNgxJD

— Nathan Jennings (@np_jennings) October 3, 2018

Boom in #Documentary festivals and growth of documentary fandom from ⁦@michaelgubbins⁩ ⁦@FfilmCymruWales⁩ #docfans ⁦@augustaquarius⁩ ⁦@FanStudies pic.twitter.com/arxysJDTL8

— Ruth McElroy (@ruthamcelroy) October 2, 2018

Thoroughly enjoyed my afternoon @FfilmCymruWales' Documentary Magnifier event. Insightful learning that there is a great deal of crossover between documentary making and games, especially in finding audiences and creating community. All brilliantly chronicled by @_auralab. https://t.co/eJsaXpEzQs

— Matt Gibbs (@matthewgibbs) October 2, 2018

Insights from the event were graphically recorded by Aura Lab – click below for the hi-res PDF.

Attachments:

Magnifier Documentary Graphic.pdf

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