Business Doc Europe

In his new feature doc, world-premiering in Sarajevo, Damir Markovina urges his father, politician Roko Markovina, both to return to the Bosnian city of Mostar from which he exiled himself over 30 years ago, and to acknowledge the repercussions of the personal and political choices and decisions he took back then. “If you don't deal with a problem, your children will have to deal with it, in one way or another,” the director tells BDE.

Dutch producer Renko Douze discusses Ukrainian Helena Maksyom’s feature doc Don't Ask Me If I Killed, sold by Esther van Messel’s First Hand Films, that chronicles the director’s life as a soldier in defence of her country. “It’s such a special and individual story. It’s really her story - and a very human perspective on the frontline,” Douze says of the film, receiving its International Premiere in Sarajevo Documentary Competition.

In her new feature doc, world-premiering at Sarajevo FF, Dutch-based Croatian director Tatjana Bozic discusses the business of loneliness, and being a stranger in a strange land. “It explores the loss of roots, community, and identity through the lens of migration and motherhood. As I discovered while making the film, the feeling of not belonging often begins long before we cross borders, it starts within our own families.”

Jordanian Asmahan Bkerat’s feature doc debut tells of the Afro-Palestinian-Bedouin Najar family living on agricultural land on the outskirts of Amman, the Jordan capital, whose bucolic yet fragile existence is severely threatened by plans to construct modern villas in their immediate vicinity. “I wasn’t a filmmaker before meeting the Najars,” says Bkerat. “This film was born out of the threat they faced, the brutality and destruction of the land, a threat that compelled me to pick up a camera, to document what was left of it and them.”

Polish director Kamila Serwicka discusses her intensely personal debut documentary, telling how a family of women escape and survive years of domestic abuse. “This film is my companion through our transformation. I want to show the power that rises when women unite, to give hope and courage to those who are still silenced,” Serwicka tells Business Doc Europe.

Palestinian Mohanad Yaqubi discusses his latest feature documentary, which he describes as a letter to the late revolutionary Lebanese documentary director Jocelyne Saab, and in which he reframes much of the work she made between 1973 and 1983. “I'm not able to do armed struggle. I'm not able to do political work. I'm not able to do social work. I'm not a doctor. I'm nothing. The only contribution I can make is to save some of these films for the next generations,” Yaqubi explains to BDE the sense of duty he feels as a filmmaker.

Seventeen documentary films from across the Nordic region have been selected to compete at this year’s Nordisk Panorama FF (17-22 September 2026). In addition to its strong film programme, the fest will honour, for the fourth consecutive year, the role of the producer, with five producers nominated for the unique Nordic Documentary Producer Award. Nordisk Panorama will open September 17 with Norwegian Guro Saniola Bjerk’s In Cod We Trust.

Seven new major projects from Central and Eastern Europe will be presented August 16 during the 22nd edition of Docu Talents from the East at Sarajevo FF's CineLink Industry Days. All the selected projects are currently in post-production, with premieres expected between September 2026 and August 2027. The most promising projects will be awarded by an international jury and announced during a prize ceremony on August 17. 

Five near-ready doc projects will be presented August 16 during the CineLink Industry Days of the 32nd Sarajevo FF. Industry Days marks the final staging post in the three-module series that kicked off at Sofia in May 2026. Organised by CineLink and the Balkan Documentary Center, Docu Rough Cut Boutique is a platform dedicated to documentary projects at an advanced phase of the editing process.

Described as “a psychedelic doom scroll through the mind of a master Canadian politician,” and a “genre-bending collage of Canadiana,” Winnipeg director Matthew Rankin’s Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney will premiere in the festival’s Midnight Madness sidebar. Additionally, National Film Board of Canada) will world premiere Carol Nguyen’s feature documentary Still Night, Burning House at TIFF 2026, and oversee the launch of the NFB/TIFF short documentary initiative REDEFINED.

Sarajevo FF’s CineLink Talks will “open a wider conversation about how films gain recognition, how that visibility is sustained and what responsibilities follow once institutions decide to support a work,” organisers write of the five panels, scheduled for August 17 and 19. Leading doc voices include producers Radovan Síbrt, Robert Y. Chang and Ada Solomon, as well as IDFA’s Adriek van Nieuwenhuijzen and Ji.hlava IDFF’s Marek Hovorka.

European winners include UK docmaker Jason Elliott for I Want to Live, in the Documentary category. In the Alternative/Experimental category, Viktorie Štěpánová (Czech Republic) triumphed with her documentary Volklore, as did Dutch Nina Broers with her short doc Where Is My Sex Drive? The prizes will be presented at TIFF 2026, where gold, silver and bronze placements will be announced across the four categories, which also include Narrative and Animation.