Business Doc Europe

Tristan da Cunha may be the most remote inhabited island on the planet, but it is nevertheless the place where Loran Bonnardot, a piano-playing doctor from Paris, is determined to settle. His existentialist journey, part-fictionalised, is chronicled by Swiss director Tobias Nölle. “I saw in Loran a castaway from our hyper-competitive society, seeking an authenticity we’ve lost, on an island secluded from our war-torn world; a dream I wanted to transform into a cinematic experience,” he says.

In her new feature doc, a deep longing for motherhood, intensified by relentless pressure from those around her, compels a woman (Alejandra) to stage a false pregnancy, which leads to her eventual exposure and incarceration. “I always think reality is stranger than fiction,” Alberdi tells BDE. “I thought the events were extraordinary but, at the same time, quickly I connected with the questions about the depression of motherhood.”

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.”

At Berlin’s EFM, one of this year’s conversations about documentary form and legacy focused on Barbara Forever, Brydie O’Connor’s debut feature portrait of pioneering US experimental filmmaker Barbara Hammer. After bowing at Sundance last month, the film is celebrating its international premiere in the Forum Special sidebar of the Berlinale. BDE reports.

After its highly successful launch in 2025, NLWave, the showcase for upcoming feature films, documentaries and animation from the Netherlands, returns to Utrecht for its second edition on 1 and 2 October 2026. At last year’s inaugural edition, eight feature doc projects either at early stage or as works-in-progress, were presented. Additionally, three recently completed feature docs were screened.

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.