The power of positive commissioning

This issue, we revisit our Global 100 - our annual list of the most influential independent prodcos in the industry. They get lots of ink, so I'm not going to mention any of them here. This space is reserved for the ones who generally get less kudos: their partners - the broadcasters and, in the case of features, distributors, that step up to commission, finance or otherwise offer their support for indie producers and filmmakers. The Global 100 doesn't include them because we wanted a list that changed from year to year, one that reflected both the new and longstanding creative influences on non-fiction programming. The G100 wouldn't be very interesting if it only revealed who finished after the bbc, Discovery, hbo and a few dozen other large corporations every year.