GSDF is open to applications from all parts of the world, for documentary projects up to 30 mins, either in production or post-production, with existing footage. 16 filmmakers will be selected to attend a series of online workshops, mentoring, and one to one pitches.

This year, alongside potential commissions and co-productions, three projects will be awarded grants up to £3,000 to contribute to their production or post-production.

This year, GSDF is hosting some of the most established international media outlets, including: Arte France, BBC Arabic, CBC Docs, Al Jazeera, BBC Africa, The Guardian, Coda Story, Our World and many more.

GSDF 2023 has a special focus on solutions oriented stories about people who are responding to social problems, with experiences we can learn from. We will dedicate 50% of the Forum places to such stories – stories that show us what works, what doesn’t, with evidence and context.

To help filmmakers develop their projects, and to encourage a solutions approach, we opened our Call for Applications with worldwide workshops. GSDF Labs is a 3-day series of free events on short documentary storytelling, screenings and one-to-one consultations, online and around the world. 

You can see some highlights from GSDF Labs here.

Our Focus

We champion new and diverse voices telling international stories. We have a special interest in films that have a social, political or cultural narrative, take a solutions journalism approach or give us a new perspective on the changes we want to see in the world.

To encourage new narratives and underreported stories our focus is on filmmakers from areas with low production capacity or little global visibility, as well as underrepresented filmmakers in geographical areas of established media production.

We are especially looking for stories from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America, the Middle East or the Post-Soviet States.

The Format

Selected filmmakers join a supportive environment of international filmmakers coming together to discuss, develop and rework their pitches, leading to one-to-one meetings with representatives from digital platforms.

The online Forum is composed of 2 x 2h sessions for 4 weeks, along with individual mentoring meetings throughout the week. By the end of the Forum, filmmakers are expected to produce a short pre-recorded pitch video, including a trailer of their project. These are shared with platform representatives, in advance of the one-to-one pitching sessions.

Why Solutions?

For our next edition, we will dedicate half of the Forum places to stories of people solving social problems. Stories that show us what works, what doesn’t, with evidence and context.

We are focusing on solutions journalism because we recognise that global south stories can be dominated by war, conflict, crime, corruption and poverty. Solutions journalism provides a framework to change this narrative by focusing on what’s being done to respond to the problem, instead of repeating what the problems are. This is an important approach particularly in the areas of health, education, climate, science and technology, where sharing information and ideas could have a tangible impact.

What’s new?

We will be pioneering training efforts on solutions focused filmmaking in the global south, by partnering with key players in the field and developing specialised training with regional hubs.

Solutions journalism tends to be more common in print and digital media, and geographically in the US and in Europe. There is increasing awareness and training in many parts of the global south. Yet there are much fewer examples in the short documentary format, and no dedicated training for global south filmmakers. We will build on the existing knowledge of solutions-oriented media but filling a significant gap for filmmakers, especially in the global south.

We are collaborating with the Solutions Journalism Network, Transitions, Egab and Inkline among others, to further existing efforts and reach more people.

Why GSDF?