The International Festival of Documentary and Short Film of Bilbao, ZINEBI –organized by the Bilbao City Council- will close on September 8 the reception of documentary feature film projects for its VII Bilbao Professional Documentary Film Forum ZINEBI Networking. Through the Forum, ZINEBI is once again promoting audiovisual production in the field of documentary film. This year, moreover, with an increase in the amount of the grants awarded.

For this seventh edition of the Forum, two cash prizes valued at 15,000 euros each will be awarded at the closing ceremony of the Festival on November 15 at the Arriaga Theater: the prize for the best project presented by a production company based in the Basque Autonomous Community will compete for the ZINEBI Networking EITB Award; and the prize for the best project from Spain but from a production company based outside the Basque Autonomous Community.

The deadline for the submission of documentary feature film projects wishing to participate will remain open until September 8. Registrations must be made through this link. From the projects submitted -which must be in an advanced stage of development or already in production- a selection committee made up of professionals and experts will choose, together with ZINEBI’s management, the projects that will participate in the Forum. This committee will evaluate the idea, aesthetic proposal, viability and production possibilities of each project.

The selected projects will participate in a personalized tutoring session before their public presentation (which will be endorsed by a professional from the sector) in a pitching session before the professionals who will be part of the international jury. Subsequently, advisory meetings will be held between the participants: the representatives of the projects and the members of the jury.
The winning feature documentary projects of the last edition of the Bilbao Professional Documentary Film Forum ZINEBI Networking were La isla sumergida, by Lucía Malandro and Daniel Saucedo -produced by Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola-, and Jo sóc, by Patricia M. Félix -produced by Diana Toucedo Films and WKND.