Pitching, music and laughter at Britdoc 2008 in July

BRITDOC 08: 23rd-25th July, Keble College, Oxford.

BRITDOC is the bespoke documentary film festival connecting international funders, distributors and filmmakers, from the Foundation behind such films such as We Are Together and Black Gold. 

The festival this year boasts a double theme: Comedy and Music. Director Larry Charles (Curb Your Enthusiasm, Borat) will be attending for a masterclass and key-note speech, while special musician guests include Mercury Prize nominee Nitin Sawhney and acclaimed composers Michael Nyman and Jonathan Dove. 

The Best British Feature Documentary Competition and the FourDocs Short Competition are to be announced in the first week of July, and the traditional international programme has been done away with in favour of a Best of Fests selection; programmers from the top international film festivals like SXSW and the Berlinale will be bringing their favourite documentary of the last 12 months.

A host of industry experts have been lined up for one-on-one surgery sessions and masterclasses, and more are being signed by the day. So far attending are: Danielle DiGiacomo (Distributor, IndiePix), Ryan Harrington (Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund), Esther van Messel (Distributor, First Hand Films), Fernanda Rossi (Documentary Doctor), Nitin Sawhney (Composer), John Battsek (Passion Pictures), Cara Mertes (Sundance Institute), Adriek van Nieuvenhuijzen, David Courier (Programmer, Sundance Festival) and James Franklin (Creative Director, Pixeco).

Add to this a moustache disco, three unique international pitching forums, a comedy tent, the Would You Like To Meet session (speed-dating for filmmakers and composers), live music and special screenings, everyone involved in any way with documentary should be coming and finding out for themselves why BRITDOC was ranked the 9th best festival to attend this summer by The Independent. To buy your pass and sign up to any of the above just visit www.britdoc.org/festival/Welcome