The Britdoc 06 Festival

The Channel 4 British Documentary Film Foundation have officially launched the Britdoc 06 Festival, to be held at Keble College in Oxford this summer. 12 British documentaries and 12 "international" ones are to compete, and there will also be pitching sessions, masterclasses and an extensive video library for festival pass-holders to exploit. Apparently Morgan Spurlock will be attending, alongside accomplished documentarians such as Albert Maysles.

Oxford already had a Documentary festival - OxDocs - but they seemed to have difficulty drumming up much interest, or many exciting films, and even relocated to London for a number of screenings. Hopefully this won't kill them, it will only make them stronger.

Already ongoing is the Channel 4 and ITN Archive Competition. The deadline for applications is tomorrow, so you'd have to move rather quickly. Hopefuls are to write a pitch for a three minute documentary on the subject of "the bicycle", for which they'd be given free access to the ITN archive. Fast-moving optimists can get full instructions on the Foundation's website.