Verzió DocLab is an international documentary post-production development workshop for directors, producers and editors, organized during Verzió International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival in Budapest at the Central European University of Budapest.

"Verzio DocLab is a very unique workshop in Europe, hand designed for documentary projects. Good mood guaranteed, test it, you will love it!"

Verzió DocLab is focusing on story development and editing with the goal to create an international supportive platform for documentary filmmakers and creative professionals.

The 9th edition of Verzió DocLab is a 5-day intensive editing workshop for directors and editors, organised during the 21st Verzió International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival in Budapest on November 5-9, 2024.

The workshop seeks to define, develop and strengthen the key narrative elements of the film projects, during the 5-day intensive programme you will be working in groups, have one-on-one meetings, and receive individual tutoring. The participation is free of charge and comes with a full festival accreditation!

Verzió DocLab is powered by our DOC AROUND EUROPE and as part of that collaboration we are looking for projects with directors or producers from or based in the following countries: Croatia, Slovenia, Greece, Serbia, Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, Switzerland, South Tyrol, Spain, France, Hungary. In solidarity with filmmakers from Ukraine and Georgia, the 9th Verzió DocLab also welcomes applications from these countries. Verzió DocLab is looking for projects by first- or second-time feature directors!

With the guidance of international mentors you will work on your documentary project’s story and edit a selected scene that you will present at the end of the workshop in front of an audience of festival programmers, sales agents and producers.

"Verzio DocLab was an absolute gem of an experience. I really feel my project advanced significantly and I was able to expand my networking opportunities!"

Verzió Doclab Call for Applications

IX. VERZIÓ DOCLAB
DOCUMENTARY WORKSHOP ON STORY DEVELOPMENT AND EDITING

Apply for the Verzió DocLab international documentary workshop on story development and editing. 

The 9th Verzió DocLab is a 5-day intensive editing workshop for directors and editors, organised during the 21st Verzió International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival in Budapest on November 5-9, 2024. The focus of the Verzió DocLab workshop is story development and editing. With the guidance of international mentors you will work on your documentary project’s story, and edit a selected scene that you will present at the end of the workshop in front of an audience of festival programmers, sales agents and producers. Verzió DocLab is looking for projects by first- or second-time feature directors! 

The workshop will aim to guide you to reach the artistic and cinematic potential of your project. With Verzió DocLab you can have your voice heard and reach an impact within the industry as a visual storyteller. Find the core of your story you want to tell!

The workshop is a platform for first- or second-time feature filmmakers. You can apply with production phase projects intended to be mid-length or feature-length documentaries. We are looking for projects that are 50-80% ready, and already have some exemplary footage, and it is acceptable if you plan to continue shooting. 

Verzió DocLab is powered by DOC AROUND EUROPE and as a member of the network, we are looking for projects by directors or producers from/based in the following countries: Croatia, Slovenia, Greece, Serbia, Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, Switzerland, South Tyrol, Spain, France, Hungary.
In solidarity with filmmakers from Ukraine and Georgia, the 9th Verzió DocLab also welcomes applications from these countries.

An international team of directors, scriptwriters, editors, and programming experts will help six selected project teams in search of a clearer dramaturgical structure for their documentary films. The workshop seeks to define, develop and strengthen the key narrative elements of the film projects with the guidance of such outstanding mentors as Réka Lemhényi (HU), Jesper Jack (DK) and Anna Kis (HU). At Verzió DocLab you work on a selected scene with the help of our excellent mentors. During the 5-day intensive programme you will be working in groups, have one-on-one meetings, and receive individual tutoring. At the end of the workshop, you will introduce your project to sales agents, and festival selectors as part of an exclusive presentation at Verzió DocLab Pitch. As a result you will not only have professional guidance for your upcoming post-production period, but also an experience in pitching which can be later used for fundraising and further development of the project. 

The participation is free of charge and comes with a full festival accreditation. Travel costs are covered by Verzió up to 200 EUR/person and Verzió provides accommodation for each participant for the time of the workshop. 

Who should apply?

  • Documentary filmmakers, creative professionals working on their first or second feature project based or from the following countries: Croatia, Slovenia, Greece, Serbia, Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, Switzerland, South Tyrol, Spain, France, Hungary, Ukraine, or Georgia. 
  • Max. 2 participants per project. One of whom must have the necessary editing skills. Directors can also be editors of their projects. Producers can also join the workshop. (If the producer is on top of the 2 maximum participants, travel cost and accommodation needs to be covered by the team.) 

In order to apply, please submit:

  • link to the selected 1 or 2 scenes you aim to work with during the workshop with English subtitles (max. 20 mins)
  • three high-resolution stills from your film
  • a short, max. 150-word synopsis
  • a film treatment (if you already have one)
  • BIO of the applicants and contact details (max. 300 words each)
  • a high-resolution portrait photo of the applicants (this will be used in the catalouge and website, if the project is selected!)
  • link to previous film(s) (if applicable)
  • short introduction of the partners, producers, company and their contacts (if applicable)
  • A financing plan 

Provide the above via a Google Drive/Dropbox link. Provide all passwords to all of your links. (We can not select projects without accessing them.) 

Submit your application

Deadline: 9 September, 2024 CET Midnight

If you have any questions, write to industry@verzio.org.

Our Mentors

Réka Lemhényi Film Editor, HUNGARY
Réka Lemhényi Film Editor, HUNGARY

Réka is a Budapest-based editor with over two-decade-long experience in film and television. Some of her most important projects include work with famous directors, among them with Oscar winner István Szabó or Jerzy Skolimowski. She has received numerous recognitions for her work such as, among others, the Best Editors Awards of Hungary, Best Critics Award or PO-land Academy Award. She obtained her Master's degree at University of Theatre and Film Arts Hungary, and she also has a degree in Theater Science at the Pannon University Hungary. She has been doing education and mentoring work since 2015 at the University of Theater and Film Arts Budapest, Free SZFE Budapest, Sapientia Film University Cluj and Budapest Metropolitan Film University. She was a juror of international juries and a member of the selector committee for international documentary workshops.

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Anna Kis Director and Editor, HUNGARY
Anna Kis Director and Editor, HUNGARY

Anna Kis started her filmmaking career in 2002. After a decade of teaching, translation, and journalism, and a PhD course in Renaissance and Baroque English Literature at ELTE, she graduated at the University of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest, as a director and film editor. She was the student of Péter Gothár and Ildikó Enyedi. Ever since she has been active as an editor and story editor of shorts (eg.: First Love by Ildikó Enyedi), documentaries and concert shows for TV. She has directed shorts and observational documentaries which have won several Best Documentary awards in Hungarian festivals (Home Paradise, Not About Family). Recently she has been active as the story editor of Fairy Garden by Gergő Somogyvári, shooting her own feature-length documentary Practices in Harmony (working title), co-directing and editing 80 Angry Journalists by András Földes and editing a personal documentary by Diana Groó.

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Jesper Jack Producer, Factual Storytelling expert and strategist, DENMARK
Jesper Jack Producer, Factual Storytelling expert and strategist, DENMARK

Jesper Jack is an award-winning producer and the co- founder of House of Real, a prominent collective of non- fiction filmmakers in Scandinavia. He also served as the internationaleditoratOp-DocsatTheNewYorkTimesfrom 2021 to 2023. Jesper is an alumnus of prestigious programs such as EAVE, Screen Leaders, and Doc Campus. He is a regular guest professor at NYU Tisch, and a lecturer at the National Film School of Denmark. Between 2009 and 2011, he held the position of documentary film consultant at the Danish Film Institute. During his tenure, he commissioned over 30 films, including the Academy Award-nominated The Act of Killing and the Tribeca Film Festival Best Documentary winner, Democrats. Moreover, Jesper is currently pursuing training as a psychotherapist, driven by a vision to enhance mental health in the documentary field.

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Mentors Throughout the Years

Michael Seeber Director, Scriptwriter, Dramaturg, Producer (Austria)
Tue Steen Müller Documentary Consultant and Critic (Denmark)
Brigitta Bacskai Film Editor (Hungary)
Diana Toucedo Editor, Director, Producer (Spain)
Christine Camdessus Managing & Artistic director, FIPADOC (France)
Stefano Tealdi Director and producer, Stefilm (Italy)
Leena Pasanen Festival director, Biografilm Festival (Italy)
Jeremy Braverman
Thomas Ernst
Zsuzsanna Gellér-Varga
Moniek Wester Keegstra
Michael Seeber Director, Scriptwriter, Dramaturg, Producer (Austria)

Since 1990, Michael has produced over 45 documentaries, TV doc series and feature films, among them internationally successful and highly-awarded films, such as Luna Papa (Bakhtiar Khoudojnazarov), Bella Martha (Sandra Nettelbeck), The Venice Syndrome (Andreas Pichler), Everyday Rebellion (The Riahi Brothers) and A Good American (Friedrich Moser, Executive Producer Oliver Stone). He wrote the scripts for several documentaries (i.e. Food Design, Hot Spot, BEER!, ÒRAIN – Beethoven), and directed TV documentaries. From 2009–2020 Michael worked as a tutor and adviser for the European MEDIA training program for script development SOURCES 2. Since 2018 he has concentrated almost exclusively on his work as a director and writer for his own documentaries. His awards include the Theodor Koerner Award for Literature (1987) and the Austrian Film Award for Best Documentary (2013).

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Tue Steen Müller Documentary Consultant and Critic (Denmark)

Tue Steen Müller has worked with documentary films for more than 20 years at the Danish Film Board, as press officer, festival representative and film consultant/commissioner. He is the co-founder of Balticum Film and TV Festival, Filmkontakt Nord, Documentary of the EU, and EDN (European Documentary Network). From 1996 until 2005 he was the first director of EDN (European Documentary Network). Since 2006, he has been a freelance consultant and teacher in workshops like Ex Oriente, DocsBarcelona, Archidoc, Documentary Campus, Storydoc, Baltic Sea Forum, Black Sea DocStories, Caucadoc, CinéDOC Tbilisi, Docudays UA, Dealing With the Past Sarajevo FF, as well as programme consultant for the festivals Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DocsBarcelona, Message2Man in St. Petersburg, and DOKLeipzig. He teaches at the Zelig Documentary School in Bolzano, Italy, and writes reviews at www.filmkommentaren.dk. He received several awards for his contribution to the European documentary culture.

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Brigitta Bacskai Film Editor (Hungary)

Brigitta got her Film and Motion Pictures Editing degree at the University of Theatre and Film Arts in 2014. She continued her master's studies in Norway, at the Norwegian Film School. She has attended several master courses and seminars, such as Norman Hollyn's editing workshop in Prague, Monika Willi's masterclass in Copenhagen, Chris Dickens' masterclass in London, and completed Robert McKee's story seminar in Ireland, in 2016.

She has been working as an editor since 2008. During this time, she has edited numerous works of fiction, animations, and documentaries. Her first feature project won the Gamechanger award at SXSW Film Festival. A short animation, Balcony, won the Jury Prize at the Annecy Festival, and Traub Viktoria's Mermaids and Rhinos received the Hungarian Film Critics Award. Her most recent documentary, Too Close, was screened in the Documentary Competition of the Sarajevo Film Festival. She teaches editing and dramaturgy for animation and motion picture students, and is a member of HSE, the Hungarian Society of Film and Video Editors.

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Diana Toucedo Editor, Director, Producer (Spain)

Diana Toucedo, is a Spanish filmmaker and editor based in Barcelona and Amsterdam. She stands at the intersection of film and research. Her work has been selected for film festivals, such as the Berlinale, IDFA, San Sebastian International Film Festival, Nara International Film Festival, Sao Paulo International Film Festival, FIDBA, Pesaro, DocLisboa, Visions du Réel, and others, and museums, like CCCB and the Centre Pompidou. Diana has edited more than 25 feature films to date, which have premiered and won awards at IDFA, Rotterdam, Cannes Semaine de la Critique, Moscow International FF, etc. She has also edited series for Netflix, HBO and Movistar. Diana currently combines her profession with teaching at Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), and is core-teacher in the Master of Film at the Netherlands Film Academy. She is also pursuing a PhD in Practice-based Communication, exploring how moving images address identities, memories, historical crystallizations and social tensions.

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Christine Camdessus Managing & Artistic director, FIPADOC (France)

In 2001, after working as a lawyer-in-firm and a film finance banker, Christine Camdessus launched her production company, ALEGRIA PRODUCTIONS. They have produced more than 60 creative documentaries, distributed throughout most of the world, including: Pakistan Zindabad, The Vatican's Lost War?, Five Broken Cameras by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi (Sundance Director’s Prize 2012, Oscar Nomination 2013, International Emmy Award 2013), Divided Korea, The Wonderful Kingdom of Papa Alaev, Erdogan, the Making of a Sultan, One Day in Tehran, and Forman versus Forman (selected in Cannes Classics in May 2019). Christine is chairwoman of NIPKOW’s jury (Berlin). She was vice-president of USPA (the leading TV producers union in France) from 2014 to 2018. In June 2018, Christine was appointed Managing & Artistic director of FIPADOC.

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Stefano Tealdi Director and producer, Stefilm (Italy)

Stefano Tealdi established Stefilm in Torino, Italy, in 1985. He develops, produces and/or directs drama and documentary film features and series. Stefilm’s recent productions include: Exemplary Behaviour (winner of Dok Leipzig Golden Dove, Fipresci and Interreligious Award, 2019), My Home, in Libya (Locarno FF 2018); The Strange Sound of Happiness (Special Mention Next Masters DOKLeipzig 2017); Char, No Man’s Island (Berlinale Forum 2013). He tutors for Biennale Cinema & VR College Venice, Cannes Film Market, Documentary Campus, La Fabrique - Les Cinemas du Monde, Films de 3 Continents – Produire au Sud, New Chinese Film Talents, Ouaga Film Lab, Scuola Holden, TFL-Torino Film Lab, ZagrebDox Pro, and ZELIG Film School/ESoDoc.

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Leena Pasanen Festival director, Biografilm Festival (Italy)

Leena Pasanen started her career as a journalist in print media. In 1993, she joined the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE, where she worked as a reporter, political commentator, TV presenter and the head of documentaries for YLE TV1. In 2000 she was appointed the Head of Programs responsible for cultural, factual and fiction programs in YLE Teema. She stayed with the channel until November 2005, when she started working as the Director of the European Documentary Network (EDN) in Copenhagen, Denmark. From 2011 to 2014, she led the Finnish Institute in Budapest, Hungary and served as cultural attaché at the Finnish Embassy in Budapest. From 2015 to 2019, she was based in Leipzig, Germany, working as Managing and Festival Director of DOK Leipzig. In January 2020, she took over the direction of Biografilm Festival in Bologna, Italy. She has been a regular expert, tutor and lecturer at several training programs, for example: EDN, Discovery Campus, EURODOC and Television Business School. She has been a board member of IDFA Forum and served as a jury member at several international festivals, such as Sundance and IDFA.

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Jeremy Braverman

Jeremy Braverman is the Media and Visual Education Specialist at Central European University. He teaches courses in documentary filmmaking in various departments at CEU, and oversees the library’s Mirabaud Media Lab. As a filmmaker, his short films have played in festivals across the US, and he is currently collaborating on documentary films with faculty from CEU and ELTE. Prior to joining CEU, Jeremy spent 15 years teaching filmmaking in the US, and worked in the independent film industries in Chicago and Pittsburgh. He earned his MFA in Film & Video from Columbia College Chicago. In the 1990s, he worked as a freelance translator and television personality in Budapest, Hungary.

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Thomas Ernst

Thomas Ernst is a freelance film editor and author. Through joining each project at a very early stage he co-creates the workflow and concept of the production together with the director and d.o.p - from the development of the story to the screening of the finished film. HBO Europe documentaries like Invisible Strings, Overdose, Stream Of Love and ULTRA are on his long credit list. The film Drifter won the “First Appearance Award” at IDFA 2014. For The Queen of Silence Tom won the German Kamerapreis for Best Editing 2015. He is consulting and lecturing for international workshops as Docu Rough Cut Boutique, ESoDoc, and EDN.

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Zsuzsanna Gellér-Varga

Zsuzsanna Gellér-Varga studied filmmaking at UC Berkeley (USA) as a Fulbright scholar. Her Screw Your Courage won awards at several US film festivals and was broadcast on public TV. She worked for the New York Times Television as a video-journalist and later directed documentaries Once They Were Neighbours, Synagogue for Sale, and Mr. Mom, which were screened internationally and broadcast on public TV. She taught documentary ethics at the international masters program, DocNomads. Currently she is D.L.A. candidate at the University of Theater and Film Arts in Budapest.

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Moniek Wester Keegstra

Moniek Wester Keegstra is an independent documentary (web)filmmaker, editor, interview trainer and film coach. She worked with NGOs Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam Novib and Amnesty International. Her Gaza, Gabbers, Graffity co-produced by Amnesty International was nominated for the Prix d’Europe. Moniek was involved as filmmaker and creator of the online platform 26,000 Faces with short film portraits about asylum seekers in the Netherlands. She is co-creator of the online Lifeboat Project.

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Team

Péter Becz Creative Director of Verzió DocLab
Director, Editor, Producer
Péter Becz Creative Director of Verzió DocLab
Director, Editor, Producer

Péter is a director, editor and producer working with documentaries, narrative projects, commercials and music videos, based in Budapest and Copenhagen. He completed his MA in documentary filmmaking at SZFE in Budapest and completed an MA in Film and Media at the University of Copenhagen.

His Danish-Hungarian co-production short, I Miss You, Marius (2021) received the Audience Award for the Best International Documentary at the Friss Hús Budapest International Short Film Festival.

Besides making films and working with commercials, Peter is actively mentoring and creating support systems for other filmmakers. As the Creative Director at Verzió DocLab, he selects, mentors and connects projects with the international industry. He has been a mentor at FAMU and he is a guest teacher at Krogerup Højskole, teaching documentary in a danish-hungarian field trip. Since 2022 he is an elected board member of MADOKE, the Hungarian Documentary Association an independent collective of filmmakers representing and safeguarding the interest of all who are involved in the making of documentary films and art in Hungary. Peter was the program manager of the Hungarian Regional workshop of dok.incubator. In 2023 Péter was aninvited jury member at Finale Pilzen FF.

Currently developing his own films as a director and producing Réka Pinczés’ first feature Steps of Domonkos in co-production with The Speak Easy Project, László Józsa and creative-producer Brigi Bacskai.

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Hanna Sára Kádár Head of Production at Verzió DocLab
Documentary Film Director
Hanna Sára Kádár Head of Production at Verzió DocLab
Documentary Film Director

Hanna Sára Kádár is a director, festival and workshop organizer from Hungary. She graduated in 2022 at VSMU in Bratislava as a documentary film director. She co-organized Verzió Doclab in 2022, and after that, in Vienna, she was the project manager of the first Austrian edition of Verzió. She participated as an observer in DokIncubator, and then she became a part of the organizing team. In 2023, she was a jury member for the Young European Stories Section at FIPADOC. In her films, she explores family dynamics and the connection between generations.

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Enikő Gyureskó Managing Director
Enikő Gyureskó Managing Director

Enikő has a BA in Liberal Arts (major in Art History, minor in Philosophy) from Pázmány Péter Catholic University (2013) and an MA degree in Design and Art Management from Budapest Metropolitan University (2017). During her BA studies, she took a year off and volunteered in Italy as an EVS volunteer for a green organization. It was a unique experience in civic activism, which made a long-lasting impression on her; it guided her attention toward social issues and gave her first experience of working in an international community. In Hungary, she worked at state museums and in a commercial photo gallery. Since 2016, she has been coordinating Hungary’s only human rights film festival, Verzió. Her responsibilities include festival staff coordination, rights clearance, venue logistics, production and financial management, liaising with sponsors and cooperating partners, tender writing, and grant management, as well as programming year-round events.

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Fanni Somlyai Submission Coordinator, Editor
Fanni Somlyai Submission Coordinator, Editor

After volunteering in 2016 and 2017, and working briefly with the festival in 2018, she joined the team in 2019. She is primarily involved in editing the brochure, the catalog, the website, and the blog of Verzió. She contributes to writing grants, keeping in contact with university partners, and coordinates the submission process. Before joining Verzió, she spent a year in Slovenia at an NGO, and worked for the RomArchive project at the Romedia Foundation. She studied Liberal Arts with a specialization in film at the University of Pécs, Art Therapy at the John Wesley College, Intercultural Psychology and Education at the Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) in Budapest, and holds a master’s degree in Film Studies from ELTE. In her free time, she likes to discover (old and new) films to watch, study languages, and spends too much time in bookshops.

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Sponsors

With the funding of:

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