'The Rat Race', a documentary on rat killers in the city, is among the documentaries accepted for the prestigious Co-Production challenge at Cannes for documentary films.

Proposals are accepted from around the world and only six have been selected and given all of 7 minutes to present their films to a jury consisting of some of the biggest names in the documentary world.

120 Commissioning Editors from the major broadcast networks are seated in the audience to catch a glimpse of the most promising documentaries that will be made in 2010.

Filament Pictures founding director Miriam Chandy Menacherry said in a relese here that ''it is an unbelievable opportunity to showcase the work we have been doing over 8 months to the biggest broadcasters worldwide. The Rat Race is truly a film that captures the 'never say die' work culture of Mumbai, India's commercial capital and I am truly honoured that I can make this pitch.'' Previous winners of the Cannes Co-Production Challenge have gone on to bag prestigious awards at Golden Globe, BAFTA and this year 'Waltz with Bashir' had several Academy Award nominations.

''We really are a very small production house that does one or two films a year and we will be pitching against very big productions with deep pockets,'' says Miriam who has been self funding this documentary, adding ''but I believe that there is a new wave in documentary filmmaking in India that is able to make a mark internationally and my film I hope will be one of them. '' Miriam has previously directed documentaries for the National Geographic Channel and BBC World. Her last documentary 'Robot Jockey' on creating a robotic substitute for camel racing, to replace the cruel practise of using children kidnapped from poorer countries won the Asian Television Award for 'best social awareness programme'.