A Showcase Featuring 16 WIP Documentary Projects
from Across Asia
The ‘Documentary WIP Showcase’ will be presented through collaboration between the Asian Cinema Fund (ACF)’s Asian Network of Documentary (AND) Fund for feature-length independent documentaries and partner organizations across Asia.
Newstapa Foundation and Japan’s J-Docs Hub will join as new partners this year. Taiwan Docs, the Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA), the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute (TFAI), Docs by the Sea and the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) will continue as partners.
On 10 and 11 October, a total of 16 works-in-progress documentary projects from across Asia will be presented and pitched. Through the pitches, participating projects will showcase their potential to domestic and international film festival programmers, sales companies, distributors and other industry professionals, while building networks for completion and distribution.
Two New Awards Support Project Completion and Distribution
This year, the ‘IMPACT Asia Award’ and the ‘Newstapa Award’ will be newly established for projects participating in the Documentary WIP Showcase.
Three projects will be selected for the ‘IMPACT Asia Award’, with each receiving USD 5,000. As a partner of the ‘Newstapa Award’, Newstapa Foundation will provide one project with KRW 10 million and an opportunity for its short version of 60 minutes or less to be streamed on the website and YouTube channel of Newstapa Foundation.
The award recipients will be announced at the ACFM Awards Ceremony on 13 October.
How Documentaries Create Change
Asia’s First ‘IMPACT ASIA IMPACT DAY’
Asia’s first ‘IMPACT ASIA IMPACT DAY’ will be held on 12 October.
‘Impact’ refers to the changes documentaries bring about across society after screenings, including changes in audience awareness and policy. The program will reinterpret, in an Asian context, the concepts of impact and hybrid distribution, which have developed primarily in the English-speaking world, and explore how these concepts can be applied through research and case studies from Korea, Taiwan and Japan.
The program will present research findings and case studies on documentary distribution environments in the three countries, followed by a roundtable with participating panelists. Special screenings of the documentaries examined in the research will also be held in advance.
In Korea, the program will examine the landscape of documentary impact and the social value created as documentaries reach audiences through distribution. The research draws on an analysis of approximately 2,800 works from 1988 to 2025, a survey of 88 creators and in-depth interviews with 19 industry professionals.
In Taiwan, the case study will trace how, following its theatrical release, Small Talk was used in education, public screenings and efforts to raise social awareness, leading to new forms of social practice.
In Japan, the case study will focus on What Should We Have Done? to examine Japan’s distinctive screening and distribution ecosystem, including mini-theaters, film festivals and independently organized screenings. It will explore how creators, film festivals, distributors and theaters build relationships with audiences and form communities.
