FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Documentary Film Market Opens Co-Production Fund and Buyers’ Forum to Accelerate Global Financing
New initiative pairs non-fiction creators with distributors, streamers and public funds as demand for premium docs reaches record highs
Goa, India – November 20, 2025
The 19th edition of Waves Film Bazaar, South Asia’s largest film market, today launched a dedicated Documentary Co-Production Fund and a Buyers’ Forum aimed at closing the financing gap for international non-fiction projects. Running alongside the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), the five-day market (November 20-24) will connect more than 1,800 accredited producers, commissioning editors and distributors from over 40 countries.
Global appetite for feature-length documentaries has surged 42 % since 2020, according to the European Audiovisual Observatory, with streamers increasing their non-fiction slates by an average of 28 % year-on-year. Despite the boom, producers still struggle to secure the final 15-25 % of budgets. The new fund will award USD 20,000 in competitive cash grants—including a USD 5,000 special prize earmarked exclusively for documentary projects—while the Buyers’ Forum provides one-to-one meetings with decision-makers from Arte, BBC Storyville, CBC, NHK, SBS and ZDF, among others. “We want to turn Goa into the Davos of documentary financing,” said Waves Bazaar CEO Manoj Srivastava. “By pairing guaranteed money with guaranteed buyers, we remove the two biggest obstacles filmmakers face.”
The initiative mirrors similar moves in Europe and Asia. Earlier this year, Eurimages allocated €946,000 to ten documentary co-productions, while Busan’s Asian Contents & Film Market launched a USD 50,000 Korean co-production support slot . “Public-private partnerships are now the norm,” explained Priya Krishnan, head of the Bazaar’s Documentary Department. “Our fund is small but catalytic; last year’s winners closed an additional EUR 1.3 million within six months of pitching here.” Submission deadlines are September 7 for features and September 13 for documentaries; selection is capped at 24 projects to guarantee at least eight meetings per team.
Selected titles will also receive automatic entry into the market’s Work-in-Progress Lab, which has shepherded award-winning titles such as The Lunchbox and Newton. Industry data show that projects passing through the lab secure distribution 2.4 times faster than the market average. “Access to rough-cut feedback and legal clinics alone is worth the plane ticket,” said Julia van Nieuwenhuijzen, IDFA’s Industry head, who will moderate two thematic panels on trans-national financing models. The Buyers’ Forum further offsets travel costs by offering a USD 300 per-diem rebate for attending distributors, a tactic borrowed from the Cannes Marché du Film that lifted attendance 18 % last year.
Documentary budgets have ballooned in tandem with production values. Non-fiction features budgeted above EUR 250,000 now account for 63 % of all submissions, up from 41 % in 2020, according to internal Bazaar analytics. “The days of the USD 50,000 verité film are fading,” noted Timothy Njeru, acquisitions manager for South African streamer Showmax. “Viewers expect 4K drone footage, archival clearances and global rights. That means budgets of half a million are the new normal.” The Co-Production Fund requires teams to arrive with 70 % of financing in place, ensuring that the Bazaar’s grants act as final-round gap fillers rather than development seed money.
The market’s strategic pivot dovetails with India’s broader soft-power push. The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting has tripled its annual co-production corpus to INR 1.2 billion (USD 14.3 million) and signed bilateral treaties with Brazil, Canada and Germany since 2023. “India is no longer just a service destination,” said Srivastava. “We are now a co-financing originator with stories that travel.” Last year’s documentary winner, Kurinji (The Disappearing Flower), premiered at Hot Docs and sold to PBS America within three months, illustrating the commercial viability of the Bazaar pipeline.
About Waves Film Bazaar
Launched in 2007 as Film Bazaar and rebranded in 2024, Waves is India’s official co-production market, operated under the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting. The Bazaar hosts market screenings, pitch forums, policy dialogues and talent labs, attracting over 1,800 professionals annually. Past projects have grossed a combined USD 180 million at the global box office and won the International Emmy, Cannes Caméra d’Or and Sundance World Cinema Documentary Award.
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