December 2, 2016 | POV’s daily list of essential reading for the documentary and independent filmmaking community.

Watch Every Kartemquin Film for FREE All December; Stream Them All for 1 YEAR for $50!
Beginning TODAY [Kartemquin’s blog was published on December 1] stream every Kartemquin Film for FREE at www.watch.kartemquin.com for the entire month of December, as our thank you to you for celebrating our 50th anniversary year with us! Use coupon code: KTQ50.
Read more | Kartemquin Films »

Sundance Film Festival 2017: Four Films to Know
The next Sundance Film Festival will lean into its progressive sweet spots, with topics like the environment, race relations and gender figuring prominently in the competition lineup.
Read more | New York Times »

Sundance 2017 Announces New Frontier Lineup, Including 22 VR Experiences and 11 New Installations
As the Sundance Film Festival‘s groundbreaking and technology-facing New Frontier section kicks off its second decade in existence, the 2017 edition of the section boasts its most stacked and varied programing picks yet. The full slate includes “story worlds” in Augmented Reality headsets, projection-mapped acrobatics, a VR beauty salon producing neuroscience data via the internet of things and a host of socialized, interactive and immersively haptic VR story experiences.
Read more | IndieWire »

Oscars: A Best Picture Nom for a Documentary? Why Not?
No documentary feature ever has been nominated for the best picture Oscar. Think about that. Nine foreign-language films, from 1937’s Grand Illusion to 2012’s Amour, have made the cut. And three animated movies — 1991’s Beauty and the Beast, 2009’s Up and 2010’s Toy Story 3 — have been so anointed. But the Academy, which instituted a separate, if not quite equal, category for feature documentaries in 1942, never has seen fit to invite doc filmmakers to sit at the main table — even as Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 won Cannes’ Palme d’Or in 2004, and other docs regularly made critics’ year-end top 10 lists.
Read more | Hollywood Reporter »

Here’s How Startup Attn: Averages a Whopping 3.8 Million Views per Video on Facebook
Attn:’s most effective tool: short viral videos, particularly animated ones spread on Facebook. Even if you’ve never heard Attn:’s name, you’ve probably seen one of its videos, which average a whopping 3.8 million views in the first 30 days — more than any other Facebook publisher, according to Tubular Labs. Attn: says it has never paid for that reach, and that all its growth on social media is natural.
Read more | Business Insider »

Upcoming Festivals and Deadlines
This Week

  • Porto/Post/Doc Nov 26 – Dec 4
  • Festival Dei Popoli – International Documentary Film Festival Nov 25 – Dec 2
  • Deadline: JustFilms Fellowship Dec 2
  • Deadline: Tribeca – Experimental Work Dec 2

Next Week

  • Deadline: Film Independent Documentary Lab Dec 5
  • Deadline: Artist as Activist Fellowship Dec 7

Get more documentary film news and features: Subscribe to POV’s documentary blog, like POV on Facebook or follow us on Twitter @povdocs!

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POV Staff
POV (a cinema term for "point of view") is television's longest-running showcase for independent non-fiction films. POV premieres 14-16 of the best, boldest and most innovative programs every year on PBS. Since 1988, POV has presented over 400 films to public television audiences across the country. POV films are known for their intimacy, their unforgettable storytelling and their timeliness, putting a human face on contemporary social issues.