It’s comforting to know that the current bumpy conditions impacting the global screen content business haven’t curtailed the production and distribution of great programming from around the world. This year’s selection of picks, made by our editorial team from scores of submissions that were judged by our trademark WOE Index (that’s watchability, originality and execution), runs the gamut from spine-tingling true crime to breathtaking natural history, with a few fun formats thrown in for good measure. 

Today, we highlight our picks in docs, formats and our Best in Show. For our picks in natural history, science and current affairs, click here.

SATANIC PANIC: THE PETER ELLIS STORY

Partners: Newsroom; distributed by TVF International
Length: 8 x 25 minutes or 4 x 60 minutes
Premiered: October 2022 (Newsroom)
Rights available: Worldwide excluding New Zealand

Made for the New Zealand digital journalism site Newsroom, this docuseries vividly attests to how the homophobic hysteria that fueled the North American “satanic panic” of the 1980s was constrained by neither geography nor time. The series recounts the ordeal of Peter Ellis, a gay childcare worker in 1990s Christchurch who became the target of outrageous accusations of child sex abuse and occult practices, leading to a wrongful conviction, a seven-year prison sentence, and an ensuing 30-year campaign to clear his name. Extensive use of contemporary archive propels the story, including the long-lost tapes of Ellis’ police interviews that journalist Melanie Reid literally rescued from a dumpster.