Business Doc Europe

James Longley’s tale of a hard-working Afghan boy living in an orphanage alongside other sons of “martyrs,” undergoing a strict religious education, seemed like a bureaucratic nightmare to make, until US producer Alex Gibney stepped in. “I can't think of another producer alive who would have taken on a project with so many inherent risks,” Longley tells BDE. “Without an Alex Gibney, films like this - where the path is rocky and the outcome is initially uncertain - will stop being made.”

The Industry boss briefs Business Doc Europe on what documentary professionals can expect during her 2026 DOK Industry programme, which kicks off October 26. “Our emphasis is always on providing a welcoming, meaningful and inclusive working space for all DOK Industry participants,” Tennstedt underlines her offer. “What unites most of them is what brings them to DOK Industry: new encounters, collaborations, inspiration, exchange and skill sharing.”

In his low budget feature documentary, made on the hoof and world-premiering in Leipzig, Lukas Marxt observes the Los Angeles fires that broke out in late 2024/early 2025. “It is very difficult to describe the mix of feelings you have,” Marxt tells Business Doc Europe. “Obviously, fire always brings a certain kind of beauty - but there is no beauty in this destruction where people are really losing everything they have, and partially their future.”

To say that Anne, the subject of Konrad Schlaich’s feature doc world-premiering in Leipzig, has a tough life would be to understate it. She is an impoverished single mother in her mid 30s who has a history of addiction and whose teenage daughter, Leonie, 14, is already in trouble, missing school and slipping into drug dependency too. “At first, I was judging Anne as a very bad mother, but then I ended up talking to her and I was very surprised how much she shared about her past,” the director recalls to BDE. “I wanted to know more and I felt very intrigued about making a portrait of her.”

In Éric Baudelaire’s Car la lune, a European premiere in main competition at Ji.hlava IDFF, blind students in Paris use both their cameras and creativity to illustrate their very particular perception of the world. “Any film, particularly a documentary film, has to be built on trust,” the director reflects to Business Doc Europe on his decision to hand over cameras to his subjects.

“The anniversary encouraged us to reflect not only on what Ji.hlava has achieved, but also on our responsibilities towards the future of documentary filmmaking,” the Ji.hlava Head of Industry tells BDE before doors open on the festival’s 30th edition. “At a time when artistic freedom, cultural institutions and public funding are increasingly under pressure, I believe festivals have a responsibility to support independent filmmaking and the communities around it.”

Additionally, the Doclisboa International Competition Jury Award went to Noli me tangere, by Ghassan Salhab, for "the surgical precision with which the director portrays layers of Lebanese history” and the Médecins Sans Frontières – Portugal Jury Award for Best International Competition Director was presented to João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata for 13 Pins. All awards…

104 projects from 43 countries were selected to take part in the Co-Production & Gap Financing Market and Work-In-Progress sessions. The MIA Development Award for Outstanding Doc Project went to Loving Ika (Sweden) by Emilio Di Stefano and Fabian Sigurd. “We close this edition of MIA knowing that we have taken an important step in the market’s evolution,” comments Gaia Tridente, Director of MIA.

Independent documentary producers must rethink how they finance, market and distribute their work as traditional buyers commission fewer films, executives from Dogwoof, Scenery and US public television station THIRTEEN argued October 22 at MIA 2026. Moderated by Baltic Balkan Productions’ Ieva Ūbele, the panelists examined three different routes to sustaining ambitious non-fiction.

For British docmaker Kim Longinotto, the camera is far from an impartial observer. It can shift power dynamics, encourage unexpected conversations and even change the lives of those standing behind it. Speaking during a ‘fireside chat’ moderated by MIA’s Head of Doc Content Marco Spagnoli on 20 October in Rome, the director reflected on nearly five decades of filmmaking, explaining why she rejects conventional interviews, avoids imposing explanations on audiences and considers emotional involvement essential to her work.

With changing viewing habits reshaping documentary commissioning, representatives of BBC Storyville, Sweden’s SVT and Al Jazeera Documentary told producers at MIA 2026 that opportunities remain, but financing, rights and the way films reach audiences increasingly demand a different approach. The discussion was moderated by Canadian producer and broadcaster Rudy Buttignol, president of NXT.

Minerva Pictures is bringing Alex Infascelli’s 75-minute centenary documentary Ducati – 100 Years of a Legend to Rome’s MIA, where it will be presented on October 21. Narrated by Stefano Accorsi and featuring Keanu Reeves and leading MotoGP riders, the film looks beyond the motorcycles to the people who made them possible. Now in the final editing stage, the feature is seeking additional international broadcast and distribution partners, with its producers keen to reach audiences beyond the motorcycle world.