News & Press
Carol Sennett Discusses DDA
August 6th, 2010
Carol Sennett, Executive Producer of the BBC, has mentioned DDA in the comments page of July 26th edition of Broadcast Magazine. More >
Dr. NakaMats in The Word Magazine
July 29th, 2010
Mercury title The Invention of Dr.NakaMats has featured in the ‘editors picks’ of the July edition of the Word Magazine. More >
DDA Features in Broadcast Magazine
July 26th, 2010
The Documentary Distributors’ Association has featured in a recent edition of Broadcast magazine.
The association was founded by Tim Sparke along with Mercury Chairman Simon Shaps. The group aims to urge public service broadcasters to air a greater breath of documentaries. More >
A Glowing Review for The Philosopher Kings
June 25th, 2010
LA Weekly’s Ernest Hardy has given MercuryMedia title The Philosopher Kings a rave review in a recent edition of the publication. Congratulations to director Patrick Shen and the team at Transcendental Media. The review closes a successful festival season for the title which has screened at Silver Docs, Raindance, Henley Film Festival and San Francisco International Doc Film Festival, amongst others. More>.
Soka Afrika Screening at Sunny side of the Doc
June 18th, 2010
MercuryMedia and Masnomis , in association with The SRK, will host a private screening of Soka Afrika at this year’s Sunny Side of the Doc. The screening will take place on Thursday June 24th at 5:30pm in the Screening Room. More>
MercuryMedia sees sales for ‘Oil Spill’ surge
June 17th, 2010
MercuryMedia International has announced that the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has brought interest to its Oil Spill: The Exxon Valdez Disaster. More>
Mercury Launches Documentary Distributors’ Association
May 18th, 2010
CEO Tim Sparke took the opportunity to announce the launch of MercuryMedia’s initiative the Documentary Distributors’ Association at this year’s Hot Docs Festival.
The association was founded by Tim Sparke along with Mercury Chairman Simon Shaps. The group aims to urge public service broadcasters to air a greater breath of documentaries and to fight for an enhanced position within television schedules and on other platforms. More>
Praise for Icons Among Us Theatrical Version
May 18th, 2010
MercuryMedia title Icons Among Us: Jazz in the Present Tense theatrical version has been praised as
a “A groundbreaking, four-part, four-hour television documentary” by John Kelman from the acclaimed online jazz publication. More>
Mercury at Hot Docs, 2010
April 2nd, 2010
MercuryMedia will be at the prestigious Hot Docs festival 2010, showing the following titles from the spring catalogue. More>
Simon Shaps Hosts Mip Conference
March 30th, 2010
MercuryMedia chairman Simon Shaps is to moderate an outstanding panel for Mipdoc conference ‘What Buyers Want’. The acquisitions trend panel will include More 4’s Tabitha Jackson and France 5′s Caroline Behar amongst others. The workshop will examine what acquisitions executives are expecting from producers and also get valuable insight into trends that new content buyers are acquiring.
Soviet Story Director to Feature on Fox News
March 24th, 2010
Adam Benzine
24 Mar 2010
©C21 Media 2010
London-based distributor MercuryMedia has picked up 16 new documentaries to launch at MipTV next month, and has licensed docs into Italy, Sweden, the UK and Taiwan. More>
Mercury Reputation Rising with Global Sales Success
February 23rd, 2010
London based film distributor MercuryMedia International is pleased to announce its latest international sales to broadcasters across all five continents. More>
Soviet Story Director to Feature on Fox News
January 12th, 2010
Writer and director of The Soviet Story Edvins Snore, will be featured on a special edition of the Fox News Channel’s Glenn Beck Show on Friday, January 22, 2010 at 5:00 PM EST. More>
Mercury CEO Tim Sparke Discusses Top Docs of Decade
December 22th, 2009
“The English Surgeon demonstrated how a skilled storyteller could craft an emotionally compelling narrative. It demonstrated the power of an individual who made it his business to give life to the dying. I wept when I watched it.” More>
Mercury Titles on IDFA’s Docs for Sale Platform
December 10th, 2009
MercuryMedia has finished the 2009 festival circuit with a successful IDFA. We hope you had an enjoyable and successful market as well. More>
MercuryMedia and joiningthedocs.tv Annouce Partnership with Artefact DVD label
December 1st, 2009
MercuryMedia and sister VOD channel joiningthedocs.tv are pleased to announce an official partnership with the Artefact DVD label effective of January 1st 2010. More>
Mercury on the Rise in Europe
December 1st, 2009
UK-based factual distributor MercuryMedia has completed a raft of international sales, licensing single documentaries into Ireland, Poland, Israel, Denmark and Italy. More>
Simon Shaps to join MercuryMedia as Chairman
November 26, 2009
MercuryMedia announces today that Simon Shaps, is joining Mercury as Chairman.
The former ITV Director of Television takes the helm at Mercury effective January 2010 as the fourth member of the board which includes, Nick Ware; Editorial Director, Tim Sparke; CEO and a former partner at McKinsey & Co.
More>
UK Press for Antoine
November 18, 2009
November 12 - 18 2009 Time Out Magazine London has cited MercuryMedia title Antoine as one of the ’strongest films at Sheffield’. Congratulations go out to Antoine producer Laura Bari and her team for this well deserved recognition. More>
Docs for Sale:IDFA 2009
November 14, 2009
MercuryMedia will also showcasing several titles across Docs for Sale segment at IDFA 2009.
More>
The Grierson Awards 2009
November 5, 2009
November 2nd hosted the annual Grierson Awards,a celebration of innovative and exciting new documentary films, set up by renowned documentary filmmaker John Grierson. The awards were first set-up in 1972 and have run annually.More>
The People’s President
November 4, 2009
It’s been almost a year since Barack Obama was elected president. Last night HBO Films aired the documentary By the People: the Election of Barak Obama across the U.S. The documentary, from Edward Norton’s production company has been following Obama since his 2004 DNC speech, and has received an unprecedented response in celebration of Obama’s first year in office. More>
More Success For Antoine
October 19, 2009
It is with great pleasure that we announce further success of Mercury Media title Antoine.
The Multi-award winning film’s avant-premiere took place on September 28th in Antoine’s very own school. Following this success the film opened in cinema’s across Montreal on October 2nd. With the help from The Montreal School Commission there are plans to promote the film widely to teachers with the hope of including Antoine in their syllabuses. More>
Mercury Appoints New Team
October 14, 2009
Mercury Media and Joiningthedocs welcomes two new members of staff.
Alice Broughton has joined as a Marketing Executive and will be assisting in development and execution of marketing and communication activity. Alice joins us from both an agency and in-house marketing background having worked across a client base which included; Tate Modern, Paramount Pictures and MTV. Graduating from University of Leeds in 2007 with a degree in History of Art, Alice has also completed Post Graduate courses in marketing.More>
MercuryMedia licences ‘Dominick Dunne: After The Party’ to More 4
September 10, 2009
Following the recent passing of Dominick Dunne, MercuryMedia today announces the sale of the film of his life ‘Dominick Dunne: After The Party’ to UK Digital Network More 4. The film, which was made in 2008, had its UK debut at Sheffield International Documentary Festival last year and was also an audience favourite at the Melbourne International Film Festival and the Hamptons International Film Festival. It is currently in competition for the 2009 Grierson awards. More>
Bilal profiled on IDFA website
May 29, 2009
Bilal, the story of a two-and-a-half-year-old boy growing up with completely blind parents, was screened at IDFA 2008. This year the documentary travels around the world, receiving awards at film festivals from Qatar to Mexico. Bilal will even be screened at the prestigious Museum of Modern Arts (MoMA) in New York. Director Sourav Sarangi reflects on the production of Bilal, from a project supported by IDFA’s Jan Vrijman Fund to an award-winning documentary. More>
Rave reviews for Icons Among Us
May 15, 2009
Icons Among Us: Jazz in the present tense has been getting rave reviews from a wide spectrum of the press. Here is just a sample of what’s being said. More>
Mercury sells docs to France, Israel
May 12, 2009
UK-based documentary distributor MercuryMedia has finalised its first batch of post MipTV deals, selling titles into France, Spain and Israel. More>
Plugging the gap in documentary funding
29 April 2009
Charlie Phillips in Broadcastnow
There is an issue over decreasing funding for new UK documentaries from traditional avenues, especially broadcasters. But that just means documentary-makers have to look beyond the limited UK opportunities and seek support from beyond the UK and beyond TV, writes Charlie Phillips. More>
Mercury to take doc site into France, Germany
April 1, 2009
MIPDOC NEWS: MercuryMedia-backed video portal Joining The Docs is here in Cannes looking for funding and content to launch French and German versions of its docs-on-demand site within three years. More>
Joining The Docs lands BAFTA winner
April 29, 2009
EU Media-backed factual portal Joining The Docs (JTD) has agreed a deal with True Vision Productions to offer BAFTA-winning Channel 4 documentary Chosen (1×98′) through its website.
Mercury sells West Bank doc to Japan
March 29, 2009
MIPDOC NEWS: UK-based factual distributor MercuryMedia has sold Welcome To Hebron, a film about a young Palestinian woman living in the Middle East, into Japan. More>
Nick Ware, MD of joiningthedocs.tv interviewed in Broadcastnow
What kind of documentaries will you be looking to acquire in 2009?
Director-led films with strong points of view. You might have seen them on Storyville or the True Stories strand, or they might have only played in festivals or in cinemas. Read more
joiningthedocs.tv recieves funding from EU MEDIA fund
February 16, 2009
Joiningthedocs.tv, a new pay-per-view broadband channel for independent documentary films, will announce at the Berlin Film Festival on Monday it’s won €200,000 in funding from the European Union’s MEDIA digital distribution fund. Read more
Dominick Dunne in the Times
February 12, 2009
Dominick Dunne, scourge of the rich and infamous, talks to The Times. Read more