Business Doc Europe

Cherished Hollywood star, dedicated runner and raconteur extraordinaire, Bruce Dern is, as director Mike Mendez notes, also a law unto himself. What’s more he is, in an American sense, somewhat posh. “It’s not in the movie but Eleanor Roosevelt babysat him!” Mendez tells BDE. “It continues throughout his life. He is always next to greatness. Whether it is Elia Kazan, Alfred Hitchcock or Quentin Tarantino, his entire life, he always rides along greatness…I kind of look at him like a real-life Forrest Gump.”

David and Liani Greaves, son and grand-daughter of pioneering filmmaker William Greaves, were in Cannes this week with their towering film in which, back in 1972, some of the most important still-surviving figures of the ‘Harlem Renaissance,’ the flowering of African-American authors, artists, musicians and intellectuals during the 1920s and 1930s, attended a dinner party at Duke Ellington’s beautiful New York townhouse…and talked. David and Liana sat down with BDE for a little more talking, about the film (which world-premiered at Sundance) and the 50-year journey to complete it.

French director Tom Fontenille talks to Business Doc Europe about his deeply personal feature documentary A Secret Heart, world-premiering May 20, which chronicles both his father’s transition into a woman [Lilou) and Tom’s own journey of acceptance, together with his sister Manon. Tom remembers when his dad suggested to his son that he would prefer to be portrayed on camera as a woman, rather than a man. “It was on that day that the film was born and the shooting truly began,” Tom underlines.

In her feature documentary, prominent filmmaker, actress and activist Pegah Ahangarani reflects on her turbulent experiences and those of her family in post-revolution Iran over the last 40 years. “International recognition is always enjoyable - but I am really, really aiming this film at my own people, the Iranian people,” she tells BDE. “Especially now because now they are in such darkness, such despair, I think they might need a small reminder of their own courage, their own persistence in this fight…I do hope they have the chance to see it.”

In The Match, Juan Cabral and Santiago Franco revisit one of the greatest, and most controversial, games of football ever played, the 1986 World Cup quarter-final between Argentina and England. The match took place just a few years after the two countries went to war over the Malvinas (the Falklands) “We wanted to tell a balanced story about these two nations. It’s beyond football,” co-director Cabral tells BDE.

Before the May 17 Ji.hlava IDFF/J-Docs Hub reception at Cannes Marché, Yamagata IDFF’s Asako Fujioka sat down with BDE to discuss the new J-DocsHub initiative, whose goal is to create “a structured pathway for Japanese documentary makers to engage with the global market, develop internationally competitive projects, and build long-term partnerships with overseas producers, broadcasters, and distributors.” The Yamagata docfest is partnering with Cannes Docs this year, in line with Marché du Film’s choice of Japan as Country of Honour.

UK/Irish producer Mike Downey has been shortlisted in the ‘Heritage Champions’ Category of the European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Awards for his contribution as Chairman of the European Film Academy. The awards are usually given to restoration projects, but for the first time the category of Heritage Champion has nominated an individual from the world of cinema. The Awards Ceremony will take place 28 May at the Nicosia Municipal Theatre, Cyprus.

DX’Hub, the professional arm of Berlin-based Doxumentale, is described as “an intimate space for workshops, tools, talks, and meaningful encounters around documentary and non-fiction storytelling.” At its core is the Good Media Pitch, during which Impact pitches for seven new and vital documentary projects will be presented to the industry in attendance. The third edition of DX’Hub runs May 28-31.

Serbian capital Belgrade is once again a key meeting point for the international documentary community as the 19th edition of Beldocs International Doc FF opens May 20, running to May 26 across multiple venues throughout the city. This year’s edition presents more than 100 documentaries, short films, VR works and interactive projects across 15 programme sections, reaffirming the festival’s growing position within the European documentary landscape. This year Beldocs became a qualifying festival for the European Film Academy Awards in the Doc category.

At the May 19 close of Cannes Docs 2026, section head Pierre-Alexis Chevit hosted the Docs-in-Progress Awards Ceremony during which this year’s winners were announced. Over the past days, eight showcases of docs-in-progress from around the world were presented, totalling 33 new creative documentary projects. The big winner was Super Sila by Mohammed Alshareef [Palestine Showcase] which won both the IEFTA Award and the Al Jazeera Documentary Award. All awards…

To the West, in Zapata, directed by David Bim, was announced May 19 as winner of the inaugural Marcel Łoziński International Documentary Award, established jointly by the Kraków Film Festival and the Polish Documentary Film Directors Guild. “It is a remarkable documentary – one that unites beautiful, painterly imagery and precise dramatic construction with genuine emotional force,” the jury observes. “With remarkably restrained means, and never transgressing the boundaries of his protagonists’ intimacy, the young director speaks about the matters that give meaning to our lives – love, family and work.”

At this year’s Doc Day, Academy Award-winning Ukrainian filmmaker Mstyslav Chernov and Deutsche Kinemathek artistic director Heleen Gerritsen offered highly thoughtful and sensitive reflections on the ethical and artistic dilemmas facing filmmakers working in conflict zones. “We are balancing on this thin line between being truthful and realistic and honest, and trying to be exciting,” said Chernov, adding: “The filmmaker who tries to tell a war story cannot cleanse it...It has to be terrifying.”