CANNES: It has been billed as among the premier documentary markets. But fears were that it would turn out to be a bit of a damp squib courtesy the US-Iraq conflict with participants deciding to stay away, fearful of travel. While this turned out to be true, Reed Midem, the organiser of the sixth edition of the documentary festival MipDoc held in Cannes on 22-23 March expressed satisfaction about the numbers that finally turned up.
A press release issued by Reed Midem says that "quality programming continued to be high on the agenda with current affairs and history/ancient civilisations riding high as the most popular themes." Held at the Martinez Hotel in Cannes, the market saw a total of 7449 screenings (9037 in 2002). MipDoc also recorded a drop in the number of participants to 473 (577 in 2002), in the number of buyers to 296 (335 buyers last year) from 39 countries. A selection of 1157 programmes were provided for screening by 159 distribution and production companies. 
Amongst the genres that did well included: Current Affairs with 1,790 screenings, History & Civilisations (1,332), Science & Knowledge (920 screenings), Art Music Culture (854 screenings). The top most screened programmes were: Around the World wih Tippi by Rebel Media Ventures (Canada), CIA: Secret Wars by Capa (France), Holy Secrets: electing a Pope (AETN International) and Clone Story (US Independents).