First held in 1994, the Sheffield International Documentary Festival (SIDF) popularly known as Sheffield Doc/Fest is one of the most important film festivals for documentaries that is held annually in the city of Sheffield in England. It has been instrumental in bringing together the international documentary family to celebrate the business and art of documentary making. The fest that lasts five days is held at the Showroom Workstation and various other locations around the city.
The festival not only offers a wealth of inspirational documentaries, panels with controversial discussion and pitching opportunities but also incorporates a market place and industry sessions programme. Doc/Fest is the world’s only place where the whole of British documentary industry converges under a single roof. Every year the fest’s industry conference, MeetMarket, attracts renowned British filmmakers and leading figures of the British Television. The 2000+ conglomeration of delegates includes directors, documentary and factual producers, buyers, distributors and commissioners. This makes it the perfect place for launching a documentary, pitching new ideas, meeting future co-production partners as well as getting insider tips or advice from some of the world’s best documentary makers. It has a friendly and relaxed atmosphere where the doc legends and power players can be at your adjacent table or may be seen working the bar.
On the documentaries front, the fest honors the program’s best documentaries and takes pride in doing so. Separate jury’s which have documentary specialists from around the world as well as UK choose the winners for the Student, Youth, Green, Innovation and Special Jury awards and the general public and the Doc/Fest delegates vote for the Audience Award.
Many filmmakers treat the Doc/Fest as an important festival which has not lost its intimacy and soul over the years and feel that combined documentaries, diverse programming and the smartness of the festival cannot be found elsewhere.