Business Doc Europe

At the upcoming European Film Awards, host Mark Cousins will veer away from what he sees as the growing emptiness of formula-driven cultural rituals. But rather than reject the awards format outright, Cousins aims to work through it, he tells BDE, retaining the core business of giving out prizes while puncturing the overall predictability of such events. “This is almost like taking our vows again, our cinematic vows, reminding ourselves why this art form is so extraordinary,” he says.

Fifty years after her grandmother Michaela Madden was kidnapped and held hostage, director Mimi Wilcox connects this very personal story to the infamous tales of heiress Patty Hearst and Swedish Kristin Enmark, the victim most closely associated with the origins of the term Stockholm Syndrome. As Wilcox tells BDE, her Oscar-shortlisted short film has sparked heated debate about whether the syndrome actually exists, or whether it’s a construct dreamed up by authorities and psychiatrists, invariably male, to demonise the behaviour of hostages, invariably women.

Hilla Medalia’s Oscar-shortlisted short film follows the silent vigil being held in Tel Aviv by a small group of Israeli activists who stand in a public square holding photos of Palestinian children killed in Gaza by Israel. “We did this film very quickly. We started in June and it was already in theatres in LA at the end of September,” Medalia says. “And we did it with no money…it felt urgent and we needed it out.”

In the short doc Classroom 4, thirty students - 15 of whom are imprisoned, 15 coming from a local college - engage in a fifteen-week course on the history of crime and punishment in the US, all as part of the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program. What emerges is a moving and uplifting study in human connection and a deep acknowledgement of shared values, despite the radically contrasting circumstances of the participants. Director Eden Wurmfeld, professor Reiko Hillyer and student Nick Fiveoaks discuss the Oscar-shortlisted film with BDE.

BDE talks to Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing about their Oscar short-listed feature doc Folktales, set in Arctic Norway and chronicling a year in the lives of three students at a folk high school in Norway. No family. No social media. Just classmates and sled dogs by way of companionship. “I did not know I was going to come out of this experience so changed, so touched. I had this incredible life experience that is part of me now,” says Grady.

David Borenstein talks to BDE about his extraordinary feature doc, co-directed with Pavel "Pasha" Talankin, a Russian teacher who secretly documents his small town school's transformation into a war recruitment center during the Ukraine invasion. “To see the road he has taken in the last year and a half, will I ever see something like that again in my life? I don’t know…it is dramatic! That has been a joy to me,” Borenstein marvels at how the softly spoken former teacher has transformed his life.

Swiss docfest Visions du Réel has announced US filmmaker Kelly Reichardt as Guest of Honour of its 57th edition (17–26 April 2026). Reichardt will take part in the Festival with a masterclass and a retrospective of her work, as well as a carte blanche, while her latest feature film, The Mastermind, will also be screened ahead of its limited theatre release. The full programme of the 57th Visions du Réel will be announced March 25.

Organisers of the 76th Berlinale announced January 14 the complete list of doc titles in its Panorama and Generation sections, and titles so far selected for Berlinale Special. Eleven docs are selected for Panorama, and four in the various Generation sub-sections, while six doc features and series are so far slated for Special. The upcoming Berlinale will run February 12 to 22.

Ten international films are in the long list in the Documentary category, while four documentaries are long-listed in the Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer category. Round two voting runs to January 20, with final nominations to be announced Tuesday 27 January on the BAFTA YouTube channel. The winners will be revealed Sunday February 22.

BAFTA-winner Felipe Bustos Sierra’s documentary about one of Scotland’s most spontaneous and successful acts of civil resistance in recent memory will open the festival’s 22nd edition on 25th February. Executive-produced by two-time Oscar® winner Emma Thompson, Everybody To Kenmure Street will world-premiere in World Cinema Doc Comp at the upcoming Sundance FF.

The industry arm of Cinéma du réel (March 21-18 2026) “actively supports the distribution, promotion and placement of feature documentaries by linking, at a key stage of the production process, project holders (filmmakers and producers) to industry professionals,” organisers write. The deadline for the Works-in-Progress of ParisDOC 2026 (25-26 March) is January 7 2026.

Twenty-four new projects will be pitched January 28 and 29 2026 in Biarritz. “Without the questions, challenges and dilemmas that documentaries raise, we risk losing some of the essential element in our democratic systems: dialogues, debates and narratives that bridge the divide rather than creating confrontations and information bubbles,” write organisers. “The 2026 Fipadoc International Pitches is our contribution to democracy, so we better can avoid a future of 'democrazy.'”