Canadian documentaries The Shape of Blue and Ancient Baby Beasts have been selected for this year’s Sunny Side of the Doc pitch competition in La Rochelle, France.

The lineup for the 35th edition of the international documentary conference and marketplace includes 42 projects from 21 countries, spread across seven thematic categories. The selected filmmaking teams will pitch their projects to more than 300 high-level international decision-makers representing broadcasters, streamers, foundations, distributions, buyers and investors, with the aim of securing coproduction financing.

The Shape of Blue, produced by Montreal’s Intuitive Pictures and directed by Sybilla Patrizia, is competing in the Arts and Culture category. It follows the journey of two Japanese indigo dyers as they fight to revive a century-old tradition on the brink of disappearing.

Ancient Baby Beasts, directed by Ari Cohen and produced by his Montreal banner Rotating Planet Productions, looks at Earth’s evolutionary story through the mysterious world of dinosaur and ice age babies. The project will compete in the Science category.

Other categories include New Voices, Global Issues, Nature and Conservation, History and Impact Campaigns.

One project will be selected from each grouping to receive the Best Pitch Prize, which carries a cash prize of €3,000 (about C$4,400) for Specialist Factual, and €2,000 (about C$3,000) for Focus of the Year.

The 35th edition of Sunny Side of the Doc will run from June 24 to 27.

With files from Realscreen

Photo by Jean-François Augé/Studio Ouest