The second event of the East Doc Link initiative will take place in Belgrade on May 21-27, as part of the Beldocs International Documentary Film Festival. East Doc Link is a new networking activity focused on strengthening co-production opportunities between producers from the Visegrad countries and the Western Balkans. By creating natural meeting points for project exchange and cross-border collaboration, the initiative supports regional cooperation in documentary filmmaking.
Beldocs International Documentary Film Festival
May 21-27, 2025
Beldocs Industry Days 2025 will be held during the 18th edition of the Beldocs International Documentary Film Festival, taking place from May 21–27, 2025, in Belgrade, Serbia. The Industry Days will take place on May 22-25.
The program includes:
- Beldocs Pitching Forum – A platform showcasing powerful, visually driven documentary projects in development, production, or post-production to key international industry decision-makers.
- Beldocs XR Academy – A three-day intensive workshop for authors of XR projects (documentary, artistic, or educational) in early development.
- Balkan Young Talents – A collaborative initiative with Al Jazeera Balkans Documentary Film Festival (AJB DOC), focused on discovering and nurturing new voices from the region.
A key component of the event is tailor-made co-production meetings between six selected producers from the V4 region and six producers from the Western Balkans. The aim is to foster international collaboration and support filmmakers—especially those from Serbia, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the wider Western Balkan region—who may have limited access to international industry platforms.
At Beldocs Industry Days, one of the panels will be tailor made for Visegrad producers - it will focus on international co-productions, their potential to expand funding, reach wider audiences, and enrich storytelling through cross-cultural collaboration. The discussion will emphasize the importance of building strong regional partnerships and fostering a more connected, global documentary community.
To further expand the impact, pre-scheduled online co-production meetings were organized for the V4 producers on May 5th, offering additional networking and collaboration opportunities ahead of the in-person event in Belgrade.
The delegation from the V4 countries includes:
- Jan Bodnár (Czech Republic)
- Wanda Kapralová (Czech Republic)
- Monika Lošťáková (Slovakia)
- Tereza Tokarová (Slovakia)
- Maria Krauss (Poland)
- Zsófia Zurbó (Hungary)
- Lucie Zelená (Czech Republic)
East Doc Link is supported by the International Visegrad Fund and is the result of an established partnership with four documentary markets in the region and producers’ associations from V4 countries:
East Doc Platform (March, Prague, CZ)
Beldocs (May, Belgrade, RS)
MakeDox (August, Skopje, MK)
AJB Docs (September, Sarajevo, BA)
Partners of East Doc Link are:
Czech Republic: The Association of Producers in Audiovisual – APA
Slovakia: Association of Independent Producers
Hungary: MADOKE
Poland: Polish Producers Alliance – KIPA
Serbia: Beldocs
North Macedonia: MakeDox
Bosnia and Herzegovina: AJB Docs