The Institute of Documentary Film (IDF) has selected nine projects for the first edition of Docs Beyond: Audience, Impact & AI, a new training programme designed to help documentary teams develop strategies for audience engagement or impact campaigns.

Running from 6 October to 11 December, the initiative will bring together Czech-based documentary professionals and international experts to explore how films can reach relevant audiences, build partnerships and achieve meaningful impact. Five teams will take part in the Impact Producing module, led by Khadidja Benouataf, while four will join the Audience Design & Outreach module, led by Paul Rieth. All nine projects will also participate in a module on generative AI, led by Dominic Lees, examining its practical applications, limitations and ethical implications in documentary filmmaking.

The programme combines two online blocks with a five-day residential workshop in Prague. Throughout the training, participants will work on strategies tailored to their projects, identifying potential audiences, communities and partners, while establishing realistic goals for their films.

The selected films address a range of personal, social and environmental themes. Still Here follows two teenage sisters confronting their mother's terminal illness, while Portrait of Water traces a Czech composer's encounters with changing landscapes through the creation of symphonic poems. Bedřiška Is Alive! documents residents fighting the redevelopment of their neighbourhood, and Endless Ride explores how humour can bridge the divide between people with and without disabilities. Back into the Game follows two men in recovery who travel to Seoul with a football team, confronting their identities beyond addiction.

The Audience Design & Outreach selection includes JENUFA, which brings the testimonies of women who have experienced postpartum depression onto the opera stage, and Ordinary Pond, which is a wildlife documentary from the creators of Wild Prague. My Other, Perfect Me follows actress and musician Tereza as she faces up to bulimia and the pressure of perfection, while My Sister Anna uses family letters to reconstruct the life of a woman who left 1990s Prague for Paris and later died from a stigmatised illness.

Docs Beyond: Audience, Impact & AI is organised by the Institute of Documentary Film in cooperation with the Audiovisual Producers’ Association, with support from the Czech Audiovisual Fund and the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic.

The selected projects are:

Impact Producing

Back into the Game (working title) - Jindřich Andrš, Eliška Andršová Cílková
Producer: Jindřich Andrš (Gamma Pictures)
Co-producers: Czech Television, Studio Beep

Still Here - Linda Kallistová Jablonská
Producer: Alice Tabery (CINEPOINT)

Endless Ride - Johan Kolínský
Producer: Karel Chvojka (moloko film)

Portrait of Water - Ondřej Sovík
Producer: Linda Jandejsková (Young Water Films)

Bedřiška Is Alive! (working title) - Kryštof Zvolánek
Producers: Jan Čadek, Ondřej Lukeš (Beginner's Mind)

Audience Design & Outreach

Ordinary Pond (working title) - Jan Hošek, Prokop Pithart
Producers: Radim Procházka, Žofie Strachotová (Kuli Film)

My Other, Perfect Me - Veronika Lišková
Producers: Martina Netíková, Kristýna Michálek Květová (Cinémotif Films)
Co-producers: Anna Mach Rumanová (filmsomnia), Giedrė Žickytė (Moonmakers)

JENUFA - Tereza Tara
Producer: Karolína Dvorská Fránková (Films & Chips)

My Sister Anna - Jakub Wagner
Executive producer: Lena Vlčková
Producer: Jan Strejcovský (GPO Platform)
Co-producer: Serge Gordey (Temps Noir)