Business Doc Europe

In her latest feature documentary, Giedrė Žickytė tells the dramatic story of the late Irena Veisaitė, a fellow Lithuanian and academic, Holocaust survivor and human rights activist. “Irena genuinely cared about the ‘other’ and was truly interested in each person - perhaps this is why she was so beloved,” Žickytė tells BDE. “She knew how to show sincere attention and respect to everyone, no matter their position, status, nationality, religion. Another important thing was the human values she embodied, her wisdom, and the way she naturally became a moral authority.”

The feature documentary Dispatch - a prose poem to life and a paean to grief, longing and nostalgia - immerses us into the mind of Indian director Anu Vaidyanathan after the death of her much-loved mother-in-law, a mathematician from pre-Partition Punjab. “The making of it felt a bit like a fever dream,” the director tells BDE of her feature doc, which world-premiered at BAFICI (Buenos Aires). “I think the upside of grief is you have extreme clarity about what you don't want, and I did not want one more day, one more hour spent imagining a time when I would have a completed film.”

Tin Castle may have been presented as a Work-in-Progress in Nyon this week but audiences won’t have long to wait for the completed feature. The French-Irish co-production (previously titled A Road Less Travelled) will have its world premiere in Critics’ Week in Cannes next month. In the doc, director Alexander Murphy follows the O’Reillys, an Irish traveller family living in a fixed caravan. French producer Cosme Bongrain explains more…

My Skin And I, the new project from artists and filmmakers Milton Guillén and Fiona Guy Hall, is generating buzz even before its completion. It won two awards at VDR Industry this week after being presented in the works in progress section, and has already secured funding from both US and European sources. “The project really lives in this space where the political intersects with the personal and [looks at] how these two aspects of our lives are fundamentally intertwined,” Guy Hall tells BDE.

In Nyon, the producer/director team of Johnny Brewin and Laura Plancarte presented their project Boom!, the story of George and Sonia, a boxing couple in West London. The pair run a successful gym. They’ve got kids and are very much in love. They are also hyper competitive. “We are chasing the rush,” notes director Plancarte, who identifies closely with her subjects. “Obviously, I don’t put myself at risk like they do. But as an independent filmmaker, you need to do 10 roles yourself…and it is exhausting. Why do I choose this [as a career]? I am the same as them…I cannot think about everything else!”

In Edgar Hagen’s new film, The Roots Of Madness (screening in The National Competition at Visions Du Réel), the filmmaker accompanies the near-legendary German war reporter Ulrich Tilgner on a journey back to Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and beyond. “The special thing about him is that he always tried to understand the people, not only the politics,” Hagen observes of the journalist’s humanistic, ground-level approach to his work.

Sheffield DocFest has announced the fifty doc projects for the 2026 edition of MeetMarket, all of which are at various stages of production. “The 2026 MeetMarket programme, which runs 11 to 12 June, is a distinctive and totally varied mix of bold, vivid and socially conscious work,” organisers write. Featured in the line-up are five Rough Cuts, first edits selected to be shown to the UK and international industry delegates in attendance.

Olivia Sophie van Leeuwen is selected to represent the Netherlands as Producer on the Move at Cannes 2026. Producers on the Move is European Film Promotion’s (EFP) long-standing programme to promote promising producers and foster international co-productions. On the Croisette, van Leeuwen will be presenting director Willemiek Kluijfhout’s new doc project The Woman Who Made Van Gogh Famous.

Running June 10 to 15, the festival will open with the protest doc We, The Hated by UK doccer Rich Felgate, ahead of a programme that presents 80 feature films and 24 shorts, including 45 World Premieres, 17 International Premieres, 5 European Premieres, and 35 UK Premieres from 64 Countries. “In 2026, we are navigating a world defined by both profound uncertainty and constant transformation. Our theme, Realities in Motion, captures this momentum, reflecting how our lives are continually reshaped by collective action,” says Raul Niño Zambrano, Creative Director.

The 15th Finnish Film Affair (FFA) invites project applications from feature films and documentaries with international potential. The Showcase Day, taking place on Thursday, 24 September, offers an opportunity to present projects to international industry professionals and network with guests ranging from sales agents and co-producers to investors and festival programmers. Application deadline: Friday, 5 June 2026.

The 11th edition of the Verzió DocLab (14 – 18 November) is accepting applications, offering emerging European documentary filmmakers a “high-impact, all-in-one development platform” combining an intensive workshop on editing and story development, the presentation of a trailer or an excerpt to decisionmakers, and one-on-one meetings with international industry professionals.

This year, MDAG Polish Competition will feature ten “outstanding” films competing for three awards – the Best Polish Film Award, the Best Production Award from Smakjam Studio, and the Polish Arthouse Cinemas Association Award. “These are titles awarded at the most important international festivals [and] many of them will have their world premieres,” write organisers. All will celebrate their Polish premieres. The 23rd edition of Millennium Docs Against Gravity runs May 8 to 17 within 7 Polish cities, and online from May 19 to June 1.