**EUROPE'S NUMBER 1 TRAINING PROGRAMME FOR FACTUAL PROJECTS IN DEVELOPMENT**

Embark on a career-changing 10-month long training & development journey together with +30 fellow European filmmakers to:
-> Produce your documentary
-> Expand your professional network
-> Boost your filmmaking career

The Documentary Campus Masterschool is a European training programme and international networking platform dedicated to the development of factual content for an international audience.

For more than 20 years, the Masterschool has carefully matched European media professionals with key players of the international industry and assisted in developing, financing and marketing their factual based format for public release; being it the traditional TV market or new digital platforms.

Our mission is to empower you to find your voice, develop your story and navigate the worldwide market by providing tailored training in skills that will have a long-lasting impact on your career, like:

- Storytelling strategies for non-fiction
- Audience design & online marketing
- Professional pitching
- International co-producing & financing
- Impact producing & legal affairs
And many more…

Since the programme began back in 2001, it has generated a whole host of great films – including 2016’s festival hit “Notes on Blindness” and its corresponding VR experience “Into Darkness”; Slovenia’s official Oscar entry: “Houston, we have a Problem” and Oscar-nominated filmmaker Hanna Polaks “Something Better to Come”.

Up to 70% of Masterschool Projects Enter Production.

ALL THIS AND MORE FOR €0 LECTURE FEES
We pride ourselves on being an affordable training initiative, allowing a diverse and broad range of filmmakers to participate. Masterschool has no lecture fees and no application fees. Scholarships are also available for travel costs to workshops and industry events.
For more information about the cost of Masterschool, please visit our FAQs.
https://www.documentary-campus.com/training/masterschool/faq

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Who is it for?

Our main target group for the Masterschool includes European media professionals (authors, directors, producers)

• experienced in their domestic markets
• striving to work on an international level
• looking out for new business strategies
• with strong and advanced documentary projects for an international audience (including long- and short-form series, cross-platform projects, formats and one-offs)
• open to learn and to adapt their projects to the needs of their targeted market (TV and multiple screens)
• with sufficient English language skills

We are looking for…

• All types of factual based content, television series, creative docs, multiplatform, web, VR, short, animation
• All genres, such as history, science, arts, wildlife, natural history, environment or human interest, animated docs etc.
• Great documentary story ideas, suitable for multiplatform exploitation, striving to make an impact
• Stories and characters that can reach global audiences
• Projects experimenting with new formats, which need more shape and new expertise
• Projects searching for a European co-production partner that needs to devise a concrete finance strategy
• Experiments on alternative methods of exploitation and financing (e.g. online-only projects, crowdfunding, VR etc.)

Documentary Campus encourages applications from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds.

**NOTE: Projects that have already been pitched at an international pitch event are ineligible. The pitch at the DC POWERHOUSE must be a PREMIERE.**

OVERVIEW OF APPLICATION MATERIALS ASKED FOR

The following materials are to be included in your FilmFreeway project page :

**Profile**: Synopsis, Still Images/Key Visual and team/company information as well as exact contact details (in English)

**Self-Presentation Film**: Short video (max. 4 min) explaining your motivation to take part in the Masterschool; (in English) - UPLOAD as Video

**Trailer**: Teaser or character reel (max. 3 min) of key protagonists (NOTE: In case you have no recorded material, please send us a Mood Board to let us know visually the direction of style or overall feel which you are pursuing); (in English or English subtitles) - UPLOAD as Trailer

**Showreel**: A brief showreel of your previous work (maximum 3 minutes); - SHARE link in the section "News & Reviews"

The following materials are to be uploaded as PDF in your Profile on FilmFreeway as ATTACHMENTS:

**Treatment**: Maximum 2-page story-outline proposal, including a tagline (in English)

**Access**: Evidence of access to key characters or institutions. This can be presented as a written statement in your treatment and/or as part of the visual material in your teaser; Releases of main protagonists MUST be signed by the second session

**Recommendation**: A letter of recommendation from a commissioner, funder, experienced production house or experienced distributor; (in English or English subtitles)

**Budget**: First draft of a budget and financing plan;

Please click on the following link to see our guide "How to apply via FilmFreeway":
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bcQk7WDzr21yzjvQdptDE8JHmmYxmxdC/view?usp=sharing

Please refer to the FAQ section on our website for more details.
https://www.documentary-campus.com/training/masterschool/faq

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RULES AND REGULATIONS

About the training programme:

Documentary Campus gGmbh is a non-profit organisation registered in Munich, Germany. The Documentary Campus Masterschool is a European training programme supported and funded by the European Union's Creative Europe Media Programme, German and European film and media foundations, private and public broadcasters, production and distribution companies, local, regional and national authorities, as well as institutions active in the European documentary sector.

Submission of a (“Project”) to the Documentary Campus Masterschool is subject to and conditional on the “Entrants” accepting below defined rules and terms.

1. Submission Guidelines:
1.1. Deadlines:

Submission is open through FilmFreeway.
The official entry deadline for all submissions is 23:59 CET on 15th December 2023.
Late submissions are at the discretion of Documentary Campus.

1.2. Entry Fees:
No entry fees apply.

1.3. Categories & Eligibility
The training programme of the Documentary Campus Masterschool is open to new or established film, television and independent filmmakers (producer, director, author) and media professionals, based in Europe.

Submissions are accepted for **factual content in development only** of all formats and across genres (e.g. documentary films: one-offs for TV, theatrical release, online platforms (short/long), factual (web) series, XR productions, animation, etc.

Projects that have already been pitched at an international pitch event are ineligible. The pitch at the DC POWERHOUSE must be a PREMIERE. When in doubt of eligibility, please contact the team at j.walter@documentary-campus.com

The Entrant requires good knowledge of the English language, to be eligible.
Further information can be found in our FAQ section: http://www.documentary-campus.com/page/faq/

1.4. Submission Process:
All Entrants require filling in the Project page and submission form online through the FilmFreeway platform for each Project for judging. Each participant may apply with two Projects each.

All submissions must be submitted in English and accompanied by the materials as follows:

1. Completed Project page including synopsis, still images and team/company information, exact contact details as well as:

--Self-Presentation Film: Short video (max. 4 min) explaining your motivation to take part in the Masterschool; (in English) to be UPLOADED AS VIDEO

--Trailer: Teaser or character reel (max. 3 min) of key protagonists to be UPLOADED AS TRAILER (in English or English subtitles) - (NOTE: In case you have no recorded material, please see option below of uploading a Mood Board)

--Showreel: A brief showreel of your previous work (maximum 3 minutes);

The following materials are to be uploaded as one PDF in your Profile on FilmFreeway as ATTACHMENT:

--Treatment: Maximum 2-page story-outline proposal, including a tagline (in English)

--Access: Evidence of access to key characters or institutions. This can be presented as a written statement in your treatment and/or as part of the visual material in your teaser; Releases of main protagonists MUST be signed by the second session.

--Budget: First draft of a budget and financing plan;

--Recommendation: A letter of recommendation from a commissioner, funder, experienced production house or experienced distributor; (in English or English subtitles)

--Optional: In case the Entrant has no recorded material, we ask for a Mood Board to let us know visually the direction of style or overall feel the Entrant is pursuing)
Documentary Campus reserves the right to reject incomplete submissions.

2. Judging & Selection Process:
The Selection Process consists of two phases:

Phase 1: A preselection will be made by an international Jury of at least seven members. All eligible submissions received by the entry deadline will be reviewed by an international Jury of media professionals selected from a range of disciplines and countries, balanced in age, gender and experience. Members of the selection committee will be published on the website of Documentary Campus as soon as all members are confirmed.

Phase 2: The preselected Projects will then be interviewed by the Head of Studies of the Documentary Campus Masterschool. Only then will the final selected 15 Projects be notified.

Please note that as an organisation funded by Creative Europe Media we are obliged to store a copy of your documentation in the internal archive for at least ten years. If you would like to withdraw your Project from being considered by the selection committee, you could do so by writing to j.walter@documentary-campus.com before 31. November 2023. If we haven’t heard from you then, we will proceed to share your material with the selection committee. All submitted documents are kept confidential and used only for selection purposes.

All Entrants will receive notification of the outcome of the judging process in mid-January 2024 before any public announcements are made.

3. Rights & Releases
All submitted documents are kept confidential. All of the documents, as well as all personal data, will be used strictly only for the application process and – if the application is selected – for the execution of the Documentary Campus Masterschool. They will be shared only with the selection committee as part of the selection process as well as third parties involved in the execution of the Masterschool, e.g. tutors.
By submitting your Project to the Documentary Campus Masterschool the Entrant affirms that all information in the application is accurate. Deliberate omission or misleading information will lead to the exclusion from the Documentary Campus Masterschool. In case of selection, the Entrant will actively participate in the 10-months Project development process as well as in the four workshops and additional webinars.

Certification of Entrant
By entering the application process, Entrants represent and warrant to Documentary Campus that they have the proprietary authority to further develop their submitted Projects as regards content and their exploitation can be supported.

The Entrant, therefore, confirms at least one of the following options:

1. I am an author/director and hereby affirm that all copyrights to my submitted treatment(s) lie solely with me.

2. I am a producer and affirm that I am entitled to proceed with the realisation and exploitation of the submitted Project(s). All written agreements with the concerned authors exist with me and can be made available at any time.

3. I am a commissioning editor and affirm that I am authorized by my employer for the editorial supervision of the submitted material(s) and to seek international co-financing partners for this (these). I will promptly produce a written authorization accordingly in the case of my selection for the Documentary Campus Masterschool.

In case none of the above apply, you are obliged to send a separate statement to masterschool@documentary-campus.com on the status of rights to the exposé(s) submitted before the submission deadline.

Submitting your Project to the Documentary Campus Masterschool implies full acceptance of the above terms and conditions.