The Visions du Reel International Documentary Festival (April 24-29) inNyon, Switzerland, has joined forces with theEuropean Documentary Network to stage its first pitching forum aimed atcreative documentaries focusing on an artistic visual approach.

Twelve projects have beenselected for the Pitching du Reel session on April 24and will be presented to a panel of 10-12 international financiers includingrepresentatives of film institutes and funds, distributors, and TVcommissioning editors. Individual meetings will then be arranged after thepublic pitching session for the producers to go into further detail withpotential partners.

The lineupfor the first Pitching du Reel is as follows:


Czardas in the Wind - Joseph Meizer, Marco Forster Productions (Switzerland)
Farewell to Trees - Aïda del Solar, Aïda del Solar(France)
El Indio - Andres Jarach,Quark Productions (France)
The Trap - Michael Madsen & Rita Leppiniemi, Cosmo Doc (Denmark)
Garbo - TheMan Who Saved The World - Edmon Roch,Ikiru Films (Spain)
Komunalka - Francoise Huguier,Les Films d'Ici (France)
Slaves - David Aronowitsch,Story AB (Sweden)
Making Mao - Galen Yeo & Chang Chao-wei, TheMoving Visuals Co. (Singapore)
The Fashion Signorine- Anna di Francisca, Stefilm(Italy)
Raw Beauty - HerveNisic, Louise Productions (Switzerland)
Heidelberg Paradise - Helge Renner, Graniza FilmProduction (Germany/Denmark)
Eyes Wide Open - Jacqueline Zünd, Condor Films (Switzerland)

Meanwhile, Andres Veiel's The Kick,Arash's Diagonale prize-winnerExile Family Movie, Alan Berliner's Wide Awake, and AnatEven's Preliminariesare among 22 films selected to run in this year's International Competitionwhich will be opened on April 24 by Marco Wilms' Tailor-Made Dreams.

Other highlights at thisyear's Visions du Reel include "ateliers"with filmmakers Avi Mograbiand Rithy Panh, an eveningwith Atom Egoyan and his wife ArsineeKhanjian for a screening of their travel diary Citadel: A RealityShow, and French director Alain Cavalier presenting his film Le Filmeur.