Business Doc Europe

The first documentary ever to open Berlinale’s Generation Kplus section, Brazilian Eliza Capai’s delightful feature engages the talents of a group of young girls to examine the business of…well, being young girls. As well as some other big topics, such as death and religion and their future lives. “I felt it was really powerful, because when we laugh about these topics in this crazy world, we are able to think about these topics,” Capai tells BDE of her experience with the girls. “We were able to create empathy.”

Business Doc Europe interviews Isa Willinger, one of seven German film talents selected for German Films’ Face to Face showcase of February 16. In her recent feature doc No Mercy (2025), sold by Cinephil, Willinger interviewed a series of other female filmmakers who inspire her today. “Film is really a more popular medium,” says the former academic. “For me, it was always important to communicate with an audience - and not just a super tiny niche audience.”

Stuck in Berlin after the pandemic, artist and filmmaker Viv Li, who comes from solid, traditional stock back in Beijing, decided to embrace the German capital’s ‘alternative’ culture scene. Her resulting (mis)adventures are as hilarious as they are poignant, especially when seen in counterpoint to her sober, albeit loving, family life back home. “I realised that there is less and less of ‘binary’ in how we live. There are a lot of differences, but in the end, we're the same,” she suggests to Business Doc Europe.

Fil Ieropoulos’s hybrid feature Uchronia invokes the wild and restless spirit of Symbolist poet Arthur Rimbaud, as it offers up a latter-day critique of identity, revolution and the role of the artistic avant-garde. It is a film of glorious excess, characterised by a wanton curiosity and a vagabond unrest of style. “Major film festivals are increasingly risk averse these days, much more than they were in the 80s and 90s, the director says. “That said, we are very happy to be at Forum Expanded, the most daring section of the whole of the Berlinale.”

Esther Bannenberg oversees her second edition as chief of DocSalon, which kicks off February 13, running through to Feb 17. “What excites me most is bringing in the networking dynamics at DocSalon and the Archive Market,” she tells BDE, “to make sure that we facilitate business opportunities as well as strengthen the ties between creatives and industry execs [and] an open informal exchange on all levels, while serving the documentary eco systems to explore which innovations can help to overcome challenges and create new opportunities.” Bannenberg is joined in conversation by Tanja Meissner, Head of Berlinale Pro.

Indian filmmaker Madhusree Dutta could not understand why her mother, who died of Alzheimer’s in 2015, would talk so much about tigers, even though she had never mentioned seeing one before her illness. But after hearing the story of the eponymous US Flying Tiger planes that were operational in the Himalayas during WW2, things began to fall into place for Dutta, at which point she was inspired to embark on a genre-defying study of memory, war and infrastructure. Dutta discusses her new film with BDE.

The 45 participants come from 32 countries and 5 continents worldwide. During the 27th program, lasting eight months, all participants will develop their documentary projects, slates and their careers. This year’s first residential session will take place in Porto (Portugal) in March, the second session will be run in Tallinn (Estonia) in June and thw final session in Strasbourg. Numerous EURODOC alumni have projects at Berlinale 2026 within Forum Special, Forum and Panorama sections, as well as EFM.

From 6 to 15 March 2026, the International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (FIFDH, Geneva) returns “at a time of accelerating authoritarianism, weakening international law and growing repression. Civilians, and especially marginalised groups, are bearing the brunt of these shifts. FIFDH responds by highlighting resistance, solidarity and collective action,” the festival writes.

The seventy-four titles, “hand-picked from thousands of submissions from around the world,” features 53 world premieres, 17 international premieres and 4 European premieres. At the heart of the festival are six juried competition sections judged by leadinginternational experts, as well as a €10,000 Audience Award. The program is anchored by the flagship competition section, the DOX:AWARD, which comes with a €10,000 prize for which 12 films will compete.

Organisers of Cinéma du reel have announced the 37 films selected for Competition in 2026. Running 7 to 117 minutes, and sourced from across the globe, the films “will once again showcase contemporary documentary in all its diversity, as world, international or French premieres,” the festival writes. The 48th edition of the Paris-based event runs March 21-28.

Movies that Matter will “move forward with a single-director structure” as of 16 April 2026, the festival says in an online post. Margje de Koning will take on the role of Managing Director-Trustee. Laurens Korteweg, who has served as Business Director-Trustee since September 2023, will leave the organisation following a carefully planned transition period. The decision has been taken in response to ongoing financial pressure and is aimed at safeguarding the organisation’s future, the festival writes.

Oscar-nominated actress Fernanda Torres talks to Petra Costa, herself nominated for a feature Doc Academy Award in 2020 for The Edge of Democracy, about the latter’s latest work, Apocalypse in the Tropics, nominated in the Bafta Best Documentary category 2026. The film examines the influence of evangelical Christianity on far-right politics in Brazil, especially during Jair Bolsonaro’s term of office (2019-23). In 2025 Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years in prison after he was found guilty of orchestrating a coup d'état to overturn the 2022 election results.