Sunny Side Of The Doc To Return In June, Surviving Near Cancellation

Sunny Side of the Doc, the international documentary marketplace held in La Rochelle, France, is about to open its 37^th edition. It almost folded after the 36^th.

Faced with the cancellation of a key European grant, Sunny Side announced last December it wouldn’t happen in 2026. But a recognition of the event’s importance to the nonfiction filmmaking community prompted the Centre National du Cinéma (CNC), an agency of France’s Ministry of Culture, to step up with financing. And Documentary Campus, a nonprofit with deep experience in training media professionals, stepped up too – partnering with Sunny Side to ensure SSD did not succumb to turbulence in the documentary field.

The near cancellation “probably allowed a collective consciousness of how important it is to have a standalone market for documentary with a global vision and an international reach,” notes Aurélie Reman, managing director of Sunny Side of the Doc. “It said a lot not only about how the brand existed beyond the borders [of France], it said a lot maybe about how much louder we need to fight for documentary storytelling, especially in a period and a moment [of] conflicts, disinformation, polarization around the world.”

Reman adds, “What we observe is that there’s no lack of interest in documentary. It’s the contrary. And so we just need to be more agile, maybe think more collectively in how we’re going to be able to renew our financing models, our collaboration patterns at every level — broadcasters, producers, distributors, authors, filmmakers as well.”

A slimmer, reimagined Sunny Side of the Doc will unfold from June 22-24, hyper-focused on delivering for the 2,000 professionals expected to attend from Europe, the U.S. and other parts of the world. Reman says SSD’s main objective is “to bring clear market intelligence to allow independent producers and distributors to strategize. That’s what they’re missing. They don’t have the long view now. They don’t know what to develop for the next 12 or 24 months.”

In Europe, unlike in the U.S., public money remains vital to the creation of nonfiction content, but budgets have tightened. “We still have strong European public broadcasters who have been the main financier, I would say, of the documentary genre in Europe, but they’re also very active in terms of international co-production to work with their peers beyond Europe,” Reman observes, adding that this year’s SSD is “really a call for them to ensure they clarify their strategies, their editorial lines, the actual budgets they have and allow producers then to do what they do best —  being creative, adapting their formats, the narratives and how to introduce either technology or new forms of storytelling in their habits, in their daily work.”

Sunny Side notes that alongside key players in the ecosystem – France Télévisions, ARTE, PBS, ZDF, the BBC and NHK – “this year sees the arrival of around sixty decision makers who were absent last year, ranging from National Geographic to Paramount, and from RTL Television to the MBC Group. It’s a more diverse line-up, which speaks volumes about the real influence of Sunny Side of the Doc.”

SSD is introducing several new elements, including the Copro HUB “to facilitate co-production meetings around thematic issues, Speed Dating between buyers and distributors, and the Meet & Match program developed with Documentary Campus, to enable over 100 new projects to access the right partners in targeted meetings.”

The Copro HUB will emphasize case studies “that we are going to be presenting every morning to kickstart the day,” Reman says — sessions designed to illuminate how successful documentary productions came to be. “How they managed to build very high-quality international co-pros. Who did they work with? Always sharing the most insightful and concrete information… Every day a different theme, going from science, archeology, to wildlife and history.”

No international co-production of the last year has been more successful than Mr. Nobody Against Putin, the film directed by David Borenstein and co-directed by the film’s protagonist, Pavel “Pasha” Talankin. BBC Storyville, Made in Copenhagen, ZDF/Arte, and Pink Productions combined forces on the project which gained steadily after its premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, going on to win the Academy Award in March for Best Documentary Feature. In one of Sunny Side’s keynote addresses, Mr. Nobody Against Putin producer Helle Faber, CEO of Made in Copenhagen, will explore lessons drawn from her experience on the film.

Faber will offer “a candid view of a market in flux,” the Sunny Side program promises. “[T]raditional financing sources are narrowing, public media support is shrinking, and the dominance of global streaming platforms is reshaping what kinds of documentaries get made—and seen… Drawing on her experience at the heart of the industry, Helle Faber will reflect on how producers can adapt, what new partnerships may emerge, and what must change for bold, globally relevant documentary stories to continue reaching audiences.”

The opening day keynote on Monday, June 22 will be delivered by Ben Zand, Founder and CEO of Zandland, exploring “what truly connects with audiences today, and how creators can build lasting engagement across an increasingly fragmented media landscape.”

A major part of that media landscape: YouTube, a colossus that for documentary makers represents “the elephant in the room,” as Reman puts it. YouTube got out of producing documentaries itself a few years ago but stands as a readymade and gigantic distribution platform for nonfiction creatives, as the PBS series Frontline and Independent Lens have recognized (they’ve got their own revenue-generating YouTube channels).

YouTube “needs to be tackled or better understood in terms of the real potential for creators,” Reman insists, “but also for, I would say, traditional players who now need to integrate that factor into their ecosystem.”

Reman says keynoter Ben Zand will shed light on the convergence of TV and digital, describing him as “someone who really knows how creators can build lasting engagement around high quality content because that’s where we are right now. It’s not anymore those YouTubers who have very low-quality content production. They’ve reached the [next] level. They’re now able to actually do feature films and we can see them in theaters right now… They want to be able to collaborate more with TV channel producers, distributors. They also want to generate more revenues from their work. So, it’s really about understanding each other… It’s the role of Sunny Side to try to build that bridge.”

Sunny Side of the Doc may have wobbled after its 36^th edition. But the bridge is now supported by a stronger foundation, welcome news for the documentary community.