Business Doc Europe

Back in 2023, filmmaker Josh Appignanesi screened his feature doc My Extinction at COP28 in Dubai. While there, he got his camera out to record his impressions, which he presents in the feature doc Colossal Wreck, which opens this weekend across the UK. “I thought, well, obviously, I have to go because it'll be interesting and fun,” he tells BDE. “Also, surely Dubai is going to be insanely dripping with visual irony with every image that surely will be a sort of metaphor for the state of play in the world at large…”

In her exquisite Days of Wonder, Finnish filmmaker Karin Pennanen tells the story of her late uncle Markku, a multi-talented composer and artist, but a man who lived a hermitic life on the outskirts of a small town in Finland, all the time building an enormous body of work that went unseen until his death in 2021. “Days of Wonder is a film about real freedom, which, more than any external circumstances, is an inner state,” says Pennanen. “The film is about the passion for life and a quest for a genuine existence instead of external success.”

Pippi Longstocking would not have existed without the Second World War. This is one of the assertions made in Wilfried Hauke’s remarkable new feature documentary, A World Gone Mad, that received its world premiere in Lübeck this week. “[She] becomes a star after the Second World War in Sweden and Germany because the readers could feel there is a humanistic, moral power integrated in this figure of Pippi which is, of course, against the ugly power of dictators and their authoritarianism.” Hauke tells BDE.

In Predators, US director David Osit examines the rise and fall of the infamous TV programme To Catch a Predator, and asks some uncomfortable questions of its tangled legacy in the process. “I wanted to make a film that…really tried to unsettle you, to unmoor what your convictions were, and to make you have a different kind of experience with what you were watching,” Osit tells BDE, adding how the public reaction to the film has been what he has hoped for, “that it crawls under your skin.”

In 1919, the flamboyant, some say narcissistic, politician Gabriele D’Annunzio staged a coup in the Croatian port town of Rijeka, and thereafter ruled for 16 months. In his new film, Igor Bezinović tells the story of this tumultuous period via archive and recreations staged with local people, with a variety of amateur actors playing D’Annunzio. “To tackle D’Annunzio’s madness, you have to be as passionate about it [the story] as him,” Bezinović tells BDE.

Rotterdam-based filmmaker Sara Rajaei’s City of Poets is a short hybrid work that reflects on the countless inequities suffered by women. It is a film both deeply melancholic and shot through with a magical realist aesthetic. “At the same time the film is addressing something real - something of our contemporary history and things that I experienced during my childhood and that I still experience. So yes, it is a fairy-tale, but it is about something much larger, much more universal.”

The 2025 Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF), which runs November 7 to 23, will showcase docs in both International and Baltic Competitions. For the first time, Baltic documentaries and feature films will compete in separate programmes. “The films in Doc@PÖFF programme open a restless world where bold, author-driven works captivate with their search for balance and understanding — and demonstrate that documentaries can be even more engaging than fiction,” says doc curator Marianna Kaat.

Running March to October 2026, the main objectives of the programme are to enhance the artistic and financial development of film projects, to improve know-how in terms of international co-production and company management, and to reinforce the set of continuously evolving skills a career in independent production requires. “EURODOC has been empowering and connecting documentary film producers for 26 years,” the organisation writes. Deadline for applications: November 26 2026.

The 68th edition of the documentary and animated film festival DOK Leipzig came to a close on Sunday, having attracted a total of 53,000 attendees this year. More than 2,000 accredited guests attended the film screenings and events. “The fact that so many festivalgoers and accredited guests once again flocked to the cinemas, to DOK Neuland and to the DOK Industry events continues to show how great the demand is for artistic engagement with global political issues and diverse lifestyles,” concludes festival director Christoph Terhechte.

In Adam’s Tooth, which won a Most Promising European Project award at Ji.hlava IDFF, two Georgian archaeologists find a 1.8 million year old tooth, as well as the ancient skeleton of a wolf. But the Minister of Culture “arrests” the tooth, and bans any further digging, forcing the archaeologists to make a last-ditch attempt to free the artefacts from the Ministry’s grip. “Though Adam's Tooth begins with archaeology, it's really about human existence. [It’s] about time, absurdity, and the freedom to act within the limits of our own stage,” says co-director Nik Voigt.

Five top industry professionals - Martijn te Pas, Cecilie Bolvinkel, Inka Achté, Maarten Schmidt (Belgium) and Iris Olsson - have come together to form Doc Shelter, a consultancy collective dedicated to supporting filmmakers at every stage of the documentary journey. “In just a few months, we’ve grown into a close-knit team with a shared vision and mission, committed to being generous, fair, and approachable,” says co-founder te Pas.

The awards of the 68th edition of DOK Leipzig were announced November 1 2025, with seven Golden and two Silver Doves handed out to winners, as well as several Partnership Awards. In International Doc Comp Doc, the main winner was Ivan Ramljak for Peacemaker (Croatia). The Silver Dove Feature-Length Film, awarded to the best feature-length doc film by an emerging director, went to Swiss Gregor Brändli for Elephants & Squirrels (Switzerland). The Best German Doc award went to Yulia Lokshina for Active Vocabulary. All awards…