For the 2025 edition, the heads of ZagrebDox’s industry section, ZagrebDox Pro, decided to change up the concept a little by introducing the Slow Pitch training programme in order to counter-balance today’s film-festival industry section culture dominated by highly stressful pitching forums. “Instead of teaching the art of pitching, we should start teaching how to pitch art,” went their motto. In theory, the eight hand-picked projects would be discussed by the people presenting them (filmmakers or producers) and the four mentors hailing from different lines of work in the film industry. This would take place at both public and closed sessions in different environments, where there would be less time pressure.

In practice, after the morning sessions, each featuring a short lecture from one of the mentors and pitches from two projects, the groups, including one mentor and two participants, would go their own way, to a restaurant, a bar, a museum or the botanical garden, or go off on a drive or a walk to a tourist location where the projects could be discussed in a more relaxed atmosphere. The next day, the schedule of which participants would go where with which mentor would be re-shuffled, so the participants could get different opinions from the mentors at different locations. The atmosphere, which resembled a workshop more than a pitching event, also enabled the participants to provide their takes on their colleagues’ projects as well as to experience the festival itself.

The sessions were moderated by Robert Tomić Zuber, a Croatian filmmaker, actor and presenter, and the director of the Rab Film Festival. The list of mentors included Croatian filmmaker Nebojša Slijepčević (Gangster of Love [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Nebojša Slijepčević
scheda film]); Danish film critic, curator and consultant Tue Steen Müller (of the Danish Film Board, the European Documentary Network, and festivals such as Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DocsBarcelona and DOK Leipzig); Latvian producer Ieva Ūbele, who has also worked as head of Industry at Beldocs IDFF and as a tutor at various workshops; and UK-based Argentinian sales agent Ana Fernandez Saiz, of Impronta Films.

Two of the projects came from Croatia: veteran TV documentary screenwriter and director Mladen Ćapin presented his documentary essay project Two Pictures Per Second, while Lucija Marčec presented her intended graduation film, No Offense. Ludovico Chincarini presented his Bosnian-set project Sonic Silence, which eventually scooped the Al Jazeera Balkans Award, consisting of a cash prize. Laurenţiu Garofeanu came along clutching his project Lost and Found: Uncovering the Truth. From Iran, producer Siamash Jamali presented his project Lost in Tehran, Lost in Japan, which was awarded one year’s consultancy, courtesy of Impronta Film. The same award went to In the Winds of Icefields, presented by Estonian filmmaker Mihkel Oksmann. Finally, Entr’actes by Yuriy Shylov, which was presented by producer Olha Tuharinova, and Petko Gyulchev’s Nests of Storks and People scooped the Residency and Mentoring Award of the Rab Film Festival.

Here is the full list of award winners:

Al Jazeera Balkans €1,500 Cash Prize
Sonic Silence – Ludovico Chincarini, Alessandro Ambrogi (Italy)
Producer: Nicola Fedrigoni
Production company: K+

Impronta Film One-year Consultancy Award
Lost in Tehran, Lost in Japan – Jafar Najafi (Iran)
Producer: Siavash Jamali
Production company: CinemaTales

In the Winds of the Icefields – Mihkel Oksmann (Estonia)
Producer: Hõbe Ilus
Production company: Sui

Rab Film Festival Residency and Mentoring Award
Entr’actes – Yuriy Shylov (Ukraine)
Producer: Olga Tuharinova
Production company: Kshtalt Productions

Nests of Storks and People – Petko Gyulchev (Bulgaria)
Producer: Galina Shtarbeva
Production company: Izograph