Business Doc Europe

In her new doc, world-premiering in Venice before its North American premiere at TIFF, the revered double-Oscar winner is back on the picket line, focusing on the UPS drivers, Amazon employees and app-based bike delivery workers who are keeping the city of New York ticking over. Their working conditions, however, are often deplorable. “It’s a world where the ‘deliveristas’ have absolutely nothing. They have to buy their gloves, their motorcycles or their bikes. Beyond that, they have to look over their shoulders now to make sure that ICE is not trailing them,” Kopple tells BDE.

Filmmakers Vasarhelyi and Chin discuss their audacious new feature doc in which mountaineers Jim Morrison and Hilaree Nelson plan to climb, together with Chin, the North Face of Mount Everest, before skiing back down the way they came. “You can shape and define your fate to a certain degree. We all think that as humans we get to decide everything. We don’t,” Chin tells BDE. “There is only so much you can control…”

Sophie Fiennes is back with her latest Pervert’s Guide, once again made with the maverick Slovenian philosopher, cultural theorist and movie lover, Slavoj Zizek. “I think the absurd is something he embraces,” Fiennes says of Zizek’s freewheeling approach. “It’s a reflection of him being a person who is an outsider, a free thinker - and the deadpan comedy of it is particular to him. I never know what is going to happen when I put him in those situations. I have no idea. It’s an experiment.”

Filmmakers Juan Francisco Donoso and Aline Juaréz discuss their urgent new feature documentary, about the existential struggle of two communities on either side of the globe against lithium extraction, and the far-reaching ambitions of one of the world’s largest mining corporations. “We feel immense relief and proud that we overcame significant hurdles to bring this story to the big screen,” the filmmakers tell BDE. “We fulfilled our promise to the communities to present their struggle with dignity, rigour, and cinematic care.” The film was the headline title of Sarajevo Film Festival’s Human Rights Day.

Veteran Israeli artist and director Amos Gitai returns to Venice with his latest feature documentary, The Road to Jericho, a poetic meditation on conflict in the Middle East and the diminishing prospects for peace. The director tells Business Doc Europe how he regards culture as “one of the only channels which is remaining to create a dialogue.” That is why he so opposes cultural boycotts. “If you block any form of dialogue, then, OK, let’s go to the next war. I think channels of dialogue always should remain open.”

UK director Louise Lockwood discusses her new feature doc Bel, which closes EIFF on August 19 and which profiles the prodigiously talented Kenyan-Scottish artist-musician-singer Beldina Odenyo who took her own life in 2021. “What an utter tragedy that that talent has been stopped. It’s obviously heart-breaking for the family, a human loss, but that raw, raw talent was totally the same. Bel and Amy [Winehouse] were very similar in that respect,” Lockwood tells BDE.

Cinéma du réel competition comprises up to 30 international and French documentary films of any length, many of which will be looking to kickstart their career at the Paris-based festival. “Such a carefully curated selection of international and French documentary films within the production of an entire year commits us, and we thank all the professionals who entrust us with their films and trust us to defend them,” says Catherine Bizern, Artistic Director. The 49th edition of Cinéma du reel will run March 19-27 2027.

Organisers of the 69th DOK Leipzig (26 Oct to Nov 1) have announced first details of this year’s programme, which include the new ‘Positions’ section which is designed to create more space for exchange and debate. “The selection of films is intended as a starting point and catalyst for dialogue and exchange – listening to one another, having conversations, accommodating differing views and contradictions, and questioning our own convictions,” the festival writes.

Press accreditation for the 12th edition of MIA | Mercato Internazionale Audiovisivo - one of the leading global audiovisual markets, bringing together the international film, drama, documentary, animation, and entertainment industries on a single international platform for business and networking - is now open. MIA will take place from Monday, October 19 to Friday, October 23, 2026, in Rome and on the MIA Digital platform.

The Prague-based dok.incubator workshop has announced its final film selection for 2026. “From a world-renowned blind pianist redefining independence, to stories bound to the oldest marathon in Europe, and a new generation of Ukrainian youngsters documenting their own lives during wartime, the films selected for this year's workshop explore how individuals navigate the forces that shape their lives in stormy times,” organisers write.

The awards of the 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival were presented August 21 at the National Theatre Sarajevo. Biljana Tutorov and Petar Glomazić’s To Hold a Mountain was handed the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Documentary Feature Film. On August 22, the Audience Award for Best Documentary Film went to We Shall Live Together, directed by Damir Markovina, with an average rating of 5.000.

A total of 24 feature-length documentary projects will be presented during the second edition of Flanders Film Days, running October 6-7 in Ghent, Belgium. The doc component will comprise six new project pitches, nine works in progress and nine completed films, and the event will include new doc works by the likes of Olga Lucovnicova, Maarten Stuyck & Lennart Stuyck and Pieter Van Eecke.