The Weinstein Co. bought the U.S. rights to the Bernard-Henri Levi doc THE OATH OF TOBRUK about the 2011 Libyan revolution at Cannes.

It’s that time of year when the filmic-minded turn their thoughts to the French Riviera, specifically the French commune of Cannes. Indiewire’s Anne Thompson noted that Cannes this year focused its attention on Hollywood docs and big names like Ken Burns in an effort to boost its star power. Elsewhere, there seemed to be critical consensus that Laurent Bouzereau’s doc ROMAN POLANSKI: A MEMOIR was something of a disappointment. The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw found that it focused too much on the 1977 incident in which Polanski was alleged to have had sex with an underage girl. David Rooney at The Hollywood Reporter described the film as both “workmanlike” and “pedestrian.” Perhaps that tepid critical response is good news for filmmaker Marina Zenovich, who is now working on ROMAN POLANSKI: ODD MAN OUT, which will focus on the efforts to have Polanski extradited to the U.S. to face the statutory rape charges.

Fatih Akin’s POLLUTING PARADISE, about the ecological perils faced by a Turkish village, also received a mixed reception from critics after its Cannes screening. At Screen Daily, Dan Fainaru said the film could have benefitted from “a tighter cut, focusing much more on the issues at hand and a bit less on local colour, would deliver a much more meaningful punch, possibly shaking the complacency out of some official boots.” Neil Young of The Hollywood Reporter found the film to be “heartfelt,” but also “formally conventional small-screen fare.”

Ken Burns is also using Cannes to premiere his latest film, THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE. Our own Thom Powers is set to interview Burns on Wednesday, May 23 at Cannes. Burns this week was also the subject of a short film by Sarah Klein and Tom Mason, called KEN BURNS: ON STORY, that premiered on The Atlantic’s website.

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The big doc news this week came on Wednesday, May 9, when it was announced that PBS had agreed to reschedule its doc shows POV and Independent Lens, moving them from the viewing hinterlands of Thursday night to Monday evenings at 10 p.m.  In addition, PBS said it would develop a new multimedia film fest that would showcase films from both programs, set to launch in mid-2013. For the season beginning in June, POV would still air on Thursdays, but both would make the switch to Mondays starting with Independent Lens’ new season in October. In a blog post, POV described the announcement as a “great day.” And the New York Times’ Media Decoder Blog spoke to Gordon Quinn of Kartemquin Films, the production house that led the lobbying effort to get the shows moved from Thursday nights, where Independent Lens’ ratings had declined precipitously.

PBS on May 2 had also announced that it would produce a three-episode, six-hour series chronicling the experiences of Latinos in the U.S. from 1800 until the 21st century. Emmy Award winner Adriana Bosch was tapped as the series producer.

The POV blog also had the time this week to recap the Twitterthon hosted by SundanceNOW on May 9, which featured our own Thom Powers (@ThomPowers), along with @SundanceNOW, Programmer and doc blogger Basil Tsiokos (@1basil1) and Christopher Bell of Indiewire’s The Playlist (@ThePlaylist). The conversation should still be archived and searchable on Twitter under the #SundanceNow hashtag.

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Here at Stranger Than Fiction we’ve scoured the Twitterverse to bring you those people and institutions driving the best doc-related conversations happening in 140 characters or less. Please note: we’ve left off feeds that promote a specific film; and the data on numbers of followers is approximate, collected in recent weeks. Please click “Read more” below to take a look at our top 100 documentary twitter accounts. Be sure to join our Twitterthon on Thursday, May 10 at 9pm at #SundanceNOW.

Author	Handle	Followers	Description
Michael Moore	@MMFlint	1,021,233	Filmmaker ('Fahrenheit 9/11'), author ('Stupid White Men'), citizen ('United States of America').
Gary Hustwit	@gary_hustwit	151,100	The jet-lagged and guitar-obsessed director of the documentary films Helvetica, Objectified, and Urbanized. Proud new father of Hazel Hustwit.
Louis Theroux	@louistheroux	144,175	I make documentaries for the BBC
Sundance Film Festival	@sundancefest	126,715	We find, love and share the best independent films in the world. We are presented by the non-profit Sundance Institute.
HBO Documentary	@HBODocs	44,158	HBO Documentary Films. Defining. Moments.
Errol Morris	@errolmorris	31,839	writer, filmmaker, something else maybe…
National Film Board of Canada	@thenfb	30,000	Films from NFB.ca. News, updates and human tweets by @spittin_nickels and @jmatlin.
Scott Macaulay	@FilmmakerMag	24,268	Editor, Filmmaker Magazine
Christian Payne	@Documentally	20,279	storymaker. social technologist. occasional speaker. http://OurManInside.com, UK
SnagFilms	@SnagFilms	18,588	Stream over 3,000 films for FREE on SnagFilms.com. Or watch anytime, anywhere on your iPad, Kindle Fire, Blackberry tablets, and Android smartphones & devices.
Independent Lens	@Independent Lens	15,726	Award-winning independent films and documentaries on PBS. Tweeting tasty morsels for your indie pleasure.
Hot Docs	@hotdocs	11,829	Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is North America's largest documentary festival, conference and market
Sheffield Doc Fest	@sheffdocfest	11,264	The UK's leading documentary and digital media festival, conference and market.
POV	@povdocs	9,000	Documentaries with a point of view on PBS.
Zeitgeist Films	@zeitgeistfilms	8,286	Bringing the best in documentary, foreign and independent cinema to American screens since 1988. http://zeitgeistfilms.tumblr.com/
IDFA	@idfa	7,134	The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam is one of the leading documentary events in the world. IDFA 2012: 14-25 November.
Documentary Site	@documentarysite	6,313	Die-hard fan of all things documentary. Blogger for the awesome @povdocs. RTs are not endorsements.
The Documentary Blog	@DocumentaryBlog	6,000	A blog for documentary film fans.
Documentary Channel	@DOC_Channel	5,700	DISH Network 197 DIRECTV 267 Passionate. Perspective.
SundanceNOW	@sundancenow	5,510	With SundanceNow, you can rent and buy the best in contemporary and classic independent films from all over the world.
Channel 4 Documentaries	@DocsOn4	5,433	he home of documentaries on @C4Insider, @More4Tweets and @Film4. Join the conversation on #OneBorn, #DeathRow and #Undateables
Silverdocs	@SILVERDOCS	5,400	Silverdocs Documentary Festival, taking place June 18-24, 2012. Celebrating our 10th year!
Basil Tsiokos	@1basil1	5,300	Documentaries: Sundance. Film & Festival Consultant. Co-Producer: THE CANAL STREET MADAM. Former Artistic & Executive Director: NewFest.
Eugene Hernandez	@eug	5,266	Now: Film Society of Lincoln Center (@FilmLinc @FilmComment). Also: Co-Founder, indieWIRE (@Indiewire).
True/False Film Fest	@truefalse	5,187	Documentary film festival in Columbia, MO, February 28–March 3, 2013
Thom Powers	@thompowers	5,120	Festival programmer for @MontclairFF (May), @TIFF_net (Sept), @DOCNYCfest (Nov), @STFdocs (year round). Curator for @SundanceNOW Doc Club.
Kartemquin Films	@Kartemquin	4,891	Documentary Powerhouse. Producing social change since 1966. Films include The Interrupters, Hoop Dreams, Typeface, A Good Man, No Crossover, Milking the Rhino.
Ingrid Kopp	@fromthehip	4,700	People & teach workshops on docs, social media, engagement & technology. Also consulting on the TFI New Media Fund.
Full Frame Doc Fest	@FullFrame	4,156	Each spring since 1998, Full Frame's 4 day festival celebrates the theatrical exhibition of non-fiction cinema in historic downtown Durham, NC.
Danfung Dennis	@Danfung	4,100	Founder of Condition ONE/ Director of Hell and Back Again
Mona Nicoara	@monanicoara	4,000	Doc filmmaker and human rights activist. Made OUR SCHOOL, which deals with Roma school segregation
Icarus Films	@IcarusFilms	3,935	Distributor of documentary films. Main web site www.IcarusFilms.com
Christopher Campbell	@thefilmcynic	3,807	Editor of the Documentary Channel Blog. Documentary columnist and contributing writer for Movies.com.
Documentary Club	@documentaryclub	3,651	People that like watching documentaries discussing and sharing their suggestions, opinions, and of course – documentaries.
DOC NYC festival	@DOCNYCfest	3,623	DOC NYC, New York's Documentary Festival, takes place Nov. 7 – 15, 2012 in Manhattan's West Village.
Cinereach	@cinereach	3,611	Cinereach funds and produces vital, artful fiction and nonfiction films.
Docs In Progress	@docsinprogress	3,371	Non-profit arts organization dedicated to empowering independent documentary filmmakers and showcasing documentary film as an art form to the public.
Real Screen	@realscreen	3,303	devoted exclusively to the non-fiction film and television industries, we aim to bring diverse communities together for dialog, debate and discussion
Lee Schneider	@docuguy	3,207	DocuCinema. Directing a documentary called Shelter. Interviewing for the be global podcast. Consultant at Red Cup.
Center for Social Media	@Ctr4SocialMedia	3,157	Investigating and showcasing strategies for socially engaged media making.
AJ Schnack	@ajschnack	2,795	Filmmaker [Gigantic, Kurt Cobain About a Son, Convention] and co-chair of Cinema Eye Honors for Nonfiction Filmmaking.
Charlotte Cook	@CharlotteCook	2,697	Director of Programming @hotdocs
Joe Berlinger	@joeberlinger	2,660	Documentary film-maker whose films include Paradise Lost, Brother's Keeper, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, and Crude.
IDA/Documentary.org	@IDANews	2,600	Filmmaker Services, and Public Programs & Events from the International Documentary Association.
Dok Leipzig	@DOK_Leipzig	2,464	55th International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film, Germany
Doc Movies	@DocMovies	2,463	Documentary, DIY, Digital Distribution, and New Media www.docmovies.com
Scottish Documentary Institute	@ScottishDocInst	2,462	All about creative documentary, Scotland
Cinema Guild	@CinemaGuild	2,358	A distributor of documentary, foreign and independent film.
Maysles Films	@mayslesfilms	2,351	Company headed by legendary filmmaker Albert Maysles
DFG	@the_dfg	2,254	The UK's national organisation working to promote talent and innovation in documentary filmmaking
Simon Kilmurry	@SKilmurry	2,147	Exec Producer of POV
Marshall Curry	@marshallcurry	2,100	Academy Award nominated documentary filmmaker. Director of Street Fight, Racing Dreams.
Anthony Kaufman	@antkaufman	2,051	freelance journalist, covering indie film beat for Variety, Village Voice, indieWIRE, Filmmaker, IFC.com, et. al.
UnionDocs	@UnionDocs	2,026	UnionDocs (UnDo) is a Center for Documentary Art that generates and shares big ideas.
The D-Word	@dwordcom	1,924	The D-Word is the leading independent documentary community, with more than 8,300 Professionals and Enthusiasts from 117 countries. Founded in 1999.
ITVS	@ITVSIndies	1,857	Official Twitter account for the Independent Television Service (ITVS)
Maysles Cinema	@MayslesCinema	1,837	The Maysles Cinema, non-profit theater located in Harlem dedicated to the exhibition of documentary film and video
IDFA Doc Lab	@DocLab	1,821	Showcasing new and unexpected forms of digital documentary storytelling since 2007. Official new media program @IDFA. Curated by @CasparSonnen
Chicken & Egg Pictures	@chickeneggpics	1,808	Chicken & Egg Pictures is a hybrid film fund and non-profit production company dedicated to supporting women filmmakers.
Tom Roston	@DocSoupMan	1,737	Doc Soup Man blogs at the PBS POV website, where he reports and rants on all things documentary. Other news, food & culture bits here, too. (www.tomroston.com)
Ryan Harrington	@ryejh	1,736	Director of Documentary Programming for the Tribeca Film Institute
Ken Burns	@kenburns	1,722	Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns has been producing films for PBS for more than 25 years. His next film, 'The Dust Bowl,' airs November 2012 on PBS.
European Documentary Network	@EDNEDN	1,659	EDN is stimulating networks & knowledge within the documentary sector. 1000+ members from over 60 countries. Releasing DOX Magzine and The EDN Financing Guide. Denmark
GFEM	@MediaFunders	1,648	Grantmakers in Film + Electronic Media (GFEM) is an association of grantmakers committed to advancing the field of media arts and public interest media funding.
Arts Engine	@arts_engine	1,643	Media That Matters + Big Mouth Films + MediaRights + Docuclub = Good social-issue indie media & documentary!
Mila Aung-Thwin	@EyeSteelFilm	1,621	Documentary film company. Previous subject matter includes: Migrant factory workers, Punk Muslims, Copyright and Cruise Boats. Upcoming: Fruit
Pat Aufderheide	@paufder	1,577	Prof, Communication, American University
STFdocs	@STFdocs	1,543	Stranger Than Fiction (STF) is a Tues. night documentary series held at Manhattan’s IFC Center, curated by Thom Powers.
Cathy Fischer ITVS	@ITVSInteractive	1,330	Produce new media projects, support independent film, digital storytelling and social media for ITVS.org and Independent Lens and Global Voices on PBS.org
Doug Block	@DougBlock	1,300	Documentary filmmaker: I shoot the human animal. Current films: @TheKidsGrowUp, Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles, 112 Weddings
Eddie Schmidt	@Eddie_Schmidt	1,300	Nominated documentaries; Wrtr/Producer; Ex-Board Pres of Int'l Documentary Association; Raconteur; Man of Zest & Opinion
Doc Space	@DOC_space	1,277	Toronto Doc. Community
Doc Geeks	@docgeeks	1,261	UK-based blog that aims to give you all sorts of cool stuff about documentaries.
DocuClub	@docuclub	1,223	Monthly screening of rough-cut docs with moderated feedback discussion post-screening.
David Tames	@cinemakinoeye	1,211	Documentary filmmaker & media technologist working in old, new, & future media, in both screen & physical space.
Point of View Magazine	@POVmagazine	1,200	Point of View is Canada's documentary film magazine, printed in Toronto since 1992.
Flaherty Seminar	@FlahertySeminar	1,195	The Robert Flaherty Film Seminar is named after Robert J. Flaherty, who is considered by many to be the father of the American documentary.
BBC Storyville	@bbcstoryville	1,169	Storyville: the BBC's international feature documentary strand.We aim to bring the most interesting character-based stories from around the world to the screen
Bassam Tariq	@curry_crayola	1,155	co-director of These Birds Walk. co-creator of 30 Mosques. i co-llaborate a lot.
Caspar Sponnen	@casparsonnen	1,052	founder of @Pluk_de_Nacht Open Air Film Festival Amsterdam.
Cinema Eye Honors	@cinemaeyehonors	936	Honoring exemplary craft and innovation in nonfiction film and promoting the highest commitment to rigor and artistry in the nonfiction field.
Documentary Tech	@DocumentaryTech	908	an open-source collaborative project exploring documentary filmmaking techniques and technology.
Jonathan Archer	@jonarcher	906	Programmer at ITVS / Transmedia & Documentary & Indie Film & more.
Marjan Safinia	@Marj	900	Documentary Filmmaker, IDA Board President, Activist, Iranian, Monkey
Reva Goldberg	@RevaGoldberg	860	Filmmaker, Brooklynite (by way of Newton, MA), currently heading up The Reach Film Fellowship and Communications dept. at Cinereach LTD.
Heather Croall	@heathercroall	858	director Sheffield Doc/Fest and Crossover Labs
Cat Bird Productions	@CatbirdProd	840	all documentary, all the time | platform agnostic, Montreal
Robert Greene	@prewarcinema	637	Present tense documentaries. KATI WITH AN I, FAKE IT SO REAL, etc.
IDF	@IDF_Prague	636	Documentary Film. Founded in 2001, IDF supports creative documentaries and filmmakers from C&E Europe.
DOX Magazine	@DoxMagazine	603	DOX is the leading international magazine for the European documentary film industry. DOX is released 4 times a year and has been published since 1993.
SunnySide of the Doc	@SunnySideDoc	587	The Sunny Side of the Doc global network stimulates documentary co-production through: SSD, the International Documentary Market, since 1989.
Bronx Documentary Center	@followbdc	573	The Bronx Documentary Center (BDC) is a gallery and educational space dedicated to showing photography, film, and new media from around the globe.
Senain Kheshgi	@Senain	551	Pakistani-American documentary director and producer. On the Board of the International Documentary Association (IDA)
Documentary Network	@Documentary	549	Watch free documentaries, long/short/interactive films. Get news and big moments with videos! The insider network for pros and doc fans.
POV Engage	@POVengage	482	PBS’ POV's free screenings, resources and all things engaging!
The Ross Brothers	@rossbros	417	ramblin' wreckless hobos with standard def cameras
Doc Alliance	@DocAllianceFilm	350	DocAllianceFilms provides online permanent access to more than 600 outstanding documentaries from around the world, Prague
Cynthia Lopez	@docuqueen	324	Cynthia Lopez, Co-Executive Producer of POV.
Stanley Nelson	@stanleynelson1	176	Filmmaker. 3-Time Emmy winner. Cofounder and executive director of Firelight Media.
Open Doc Lab	@opendoclab	159	MIT's Open Doc Lab brings technologists, storytellers, and scholars together to advance the new arts of documentary.

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Watch this space later today when STF publishes its Top 100 list of documentary Twitter feeds. We’ll be watching those feeds this Thursday, May 10 when SundanceNOW hosts a live Twitterthon at 9 pm EST to mark the launch of DOC CLUB. The Twitterthon will feature a lively exchange on documentary trends with filmmakers, programmers and critics including Doc Club curator Thom Powers (@ThomPowers), Stranger Than Fiction (@STFdocs), DOC NYC (@DOCNYCfest), SundanceNOW (@SundanceNOW), Indiewire’s The Playlist (@ThePlaylist) and others. You can join the discussion by tracking the hastag #SundanceNOW. To participate, tweet a question or comment using the designated tag. Everyone who participates with at least one tweet is eligible to win a free subscription to DOC CLUB.

Top bragging rights at the Hot Docs festival this year fell to CALL ME KUCHU by Katherine Fairfax Wright and Malika Zouhali-Worrall, which won the best international feature prize. Nisha Pahuja continued to collect accolades for THE WORLD BEFORE HER, which was named the best canadian feature. The special jury prizes for best Canadian and international features were given to PEACE OUT by Charles Wilkinson and THE LAW IN THESE PARTS by Ra’anan Alexandrowicz, respectively. The Dorkshelf blog on May 2 took the time to throw up a midweek Hot Docs report featuring some capsule reviews of films they had taken in.

The world this week lost musician, filmmaker, distributor and Beastie Boy Adam Yauch, better known by his emcee moniker, MCA. Yauch in recent years had turned his attention to filmmaking and distribution, directing the documentary GUNNIN’ FOR THAT NO. 1 SPOT and founding distributor Oscilloscope Laboratories. Manohla Dargis of the New York Times on May 4 assessed Yauch’s impact on the film world, while Christopher Campbell of the Documentary Blog also paid tribute in a post. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Yauch’s family and friends.

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Tom Putnam and Brenna Sanchez won the audience award at Tribeca for their film BURN, about firefighters in Detroit.

As we mentioned in our Tribeca screening recap, Nisha Pahuja won the documentary jury prize this week at the Tribeca Film Festival for THE WORLD BEFORE HER, a simultaneous look at the Miss India beauty pageant and a camp for fundamentalist Hindu teenaged girls. The festival’s documentary audience award went to the film BURN by Tom Putnam and Brenna Sanchez, a portrait of firefighters in Detroit. Also, Stuart Nussbaumer at Filmmaker Magazine on Tuesday, April 24 provided an overview of some of the docs screening at the festival this year.

The tail end of Tribeca overlapped with the beginning of Canada’s most well-known documentary festival, Hot Docs, which kicked off Thursday, April 26. The festival’s programming team is posting dispatches from the front lines on their fieldnotes blog. The intrepid Basil Tsiokos of the What (Not) to Doc also managed to churn out two great overviews of the festival. You can find part one here, and part two here. Hot Docs this year also hosted a two-day interactive documentary workshop called Hot Hacks, which paired filmmakers with developers to create a web-based project in a short period of time. Hot Docs will also be hosting a Tweetup today, April 30 from 7 pm to 9 pm at the TIFF Lightbox in Toronto to meet with programmers and talk docs.

The National Endowment for the Arts’ broad cuts to PBS doc shows were made official on Wednesday, April 25. Among those hit hard by the cuts were Independent Lens, who saw their funding cut to $50,000, from $170,000 and POV, which received $100,000, down from $250,000. NEA Media Arts Director Alyce Myatt told the New York Times that the NEA hoped to encourage the development of games to address new media consumption and an evolving public media landscape. In response to the news, the International Documentary Association (IDA) scheduled a Doc U titled, “The Future of Docs on PBS” to take place in LA on May 10. At Current.org, Dru Sefton had an in-depth breakdown of just who was getting hammered by the cuts, which affected those in the public media landscape far beyond the doc world. And Anthony Kaufman of Indiewire explored how the possible ramifications the NEA’s new media focus might have on traditional documentary filmmakers.

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