Storyville, the BBC’s award-winning international documentary strand, has announced it will be expanding to include premium short documentaries alongside its award-winning feature length films.
Pushing filmmaking boundaries
Building on its reputation for showcasing the world’s best documentaries, Storyville is looking for bold, innovative filmmakers to create compelling ten to 40 minute films that explore the issues shaping our world for BBC Four and BBC iPlayer.
In line with its track-record of supporting creative talent, Storyville is looking to help find and shape the next generation of documentary filmmakers.
Nevine Mabro, Head of BBC Storyville, said: “By expanding Storyville, we want to push the boundaries of filmmaking with bold, creative and topical short documentaries.
“Short-form storytelling offers greater agility in responding to cultural, political and social events, and as demand for shorts continues to grow, it creates new opportunities for filmmakers to tell untold stories.
“The shorts will give our audience a wider choice of films on our platform, as well as bring new audiences to the world class filmmaking on Storyville.”
Fiona Campbell, BBC Director of Factual, said: “Storyville is the BBC’s home for world-class feature-length documentaries, and expanding into shorts is a natural evolution of our factual offer.
“It strengthens our commitment to distinctive, globally relevant storytelling and ensures Storyville continues to play a central role in how audiences engage with premium documentary content.”
Storyville will start by inviting pitches and will be looking to show the first films in early 2027.
Storyville will be accepting pitches via the BBC’s PiCos – Pitching and Commissioning System.