Business Doc Europe

“I’ve always been fascinated by - and have often wondered about - the extent to which the places we live, and the cycles of nature that surround us, influence who we are and who we become,” Ribeiro tells Business Doc Europe of the circumstances which have now led her to make Vent du matin (a world premiere in Portuguese competition at Doclisboa), a film that unfolds over a year within the vineyards of Beaujolais.

Doclisboa’s Marina Thomé discusses this year’s offer to international professionals attending Nebulae, the festival’s industry programme that kicks off October 16. “Success, for us, is creating an environment where filmmakers can develop author-driven projects that challenge cinematic form and language, while creating spaces for reflection through roundtables, conversations with festival programmers, training activities, labs and live cinema performances,” she underlines to BDE.

Doclisboa (15-25 October) is one of the first events in a packed autumn season for documentary markets and festivals that also includes Ji.hlava, DOK Leipzig and, a few weeks later, IDFA. Festival director Hélder Beja argues, however, that the Lisbon footprint is very different to those of the other events. “We truly defend and believe in film above all,” Beja tells BDE. “We have gone a little bit away from the term ‘documentary’ these days, even if we have it in the name of our festival. ‘Documentary’ is a word that very rarely appears in everything that we write.”

Fourteen Dutch documentary projects, twelve of which are at advanced stage, will be presented during the second edition of NLWave (September 30 to October 2), an initiative of the Netherlands Film Fund and presented in co-operation with SEE NL. The 2026 showcase comprises a who’s who of top Dutch creative and business talent, and presents a wealth of fascinating stories that span the globe. Simone van den Broek, Head of Documentary and Fiction at the Netherlands Film Fund, guides Business Doc Europe through this year’s selection.

World-premiering in Utrecht, Joeri Pruys’s Final Cut looks at how the provocative TV show Body Art, made by Pruys’s father in the 1970s and starring the then little-known Serbian artist Marina Abramović, turned into one of the most notorious cases in the history of Dutch censorship. “The rules around who is actually the owner of this material are very vague,” Pruys tells BDE. “That is why in the film I am also saying it is my heritage, so I should be able to do with it whatever I want, because my father created this. It’s Marina’s work as well, so she should be free to use it.”

Ahead of the 15th Finnish Film Affair, running September 23 to 25, Head of Industry Lydia Taylerson answers questions posed by Business Doc Europe. During the event, eight documentary feature projects will be pitched to the professionals in attendance. “In all honesty, I think Finland's unique selling point is the lack of hierarchy within the film industry here,” Taylerson says. “Anyone who attends Finnish Film Affair also feels that. You can be a producer just starting out in your career, and over morning coffee be chatting with senior programmers of Tribeca or SXSW.”

Sergei Loznitsa’s Imperium was handed the Best Film Award in Official Competition while Asmahan Bkerat’s Concrete Land picked up the Grierson Award in Documentary Competition, with Theo Rollason received a Special Mention for Queer Edward II. Of Imperium the London FF jury noted how they were “immensely proud to honour such a powerful and singular piece of work.”

French director Mathilde Damoisel is examining more than a century of Italian emigration in Ciao Italia!, a 90-minute documentary that challenges the familiar narrative of successful integration by looking at the discrimination, labour struggles and changing racial identities experienced by Italian communities abroad. Produced by Paris-based Hauteville Productions in co-production with Arte France, the film is currently in production and will be presented at the Doc Pitching Forum during Rome’s MIA, running October 19–23.

From cycling across Africa to negotiating Siberian rivers in temperatures as low as -60°C, Italian explorer Lorenzo Barone has spent much of his adult life seeking out places where survival depends on his own decisions. But the people waiting for him at home are just as central to Extreme Land Solo, a completed 54-minute documentary by Filippo Lupini that will be presented in the Italians Doc It Better showcase at Rome’s MIA, running October 19–23, 2026.

French filmmaker Sophie Bassaler is developing Salò, Pasolini’s Last Cry, a 90-minute feature documentary revisiting Pier Paolo Pasolini’s final film, Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975), not simply as a landmark of cinematic provocation but as a warning about the mechanisms of power that, she argues, still shape contemporary society. The France–Italy co-production, produced by Philippe Touzery of Wendigo Films alongside Matteo Tortone of Malfé Film, will be presented at the MIA market in Rome, running October 19–23, 2026, as part of its Doc Connect: One-on-One programme.

Described as Scotland’s leading documentary talent development scheme, and supported by Screen Scotland and Northern Ireland Screen, the 29th edition of Bridging the Gap will enable 12 talents from Scotland and Northern Ireland to develop their documentary ideas and take the next steps in their practices. The flagship programme “combines professional development, production funding, and international festival distribution to launch emerging careers in documentary filmmaking,” organisers write.

International sales company Odd Slice Films, which is handling the EFA shortlisted title, La belle année, has brought Linda Venturini on board as festival manager and acquisitions consultant, less than a year after the company’s launch by Martina Droandi. Venturini brings experience from Cinema Troisi in Rome, where she was Head of Talents and Partnerships, and from Be For Films, where she was Festival Manager from 2023 to 2025.