Business Doc Europe

In her analysis of a murder in a small close-knit Florida community, Geeta Gandbhir, who won the Directing Award for US documentary at Sundance 2025, presents a devastating critique of race, inequality and the vigilante-style ‘stand your ground’ legislation in operation in the US today. “The right to defend yourself…has been weaponised against black and brown people as a licence to kill,” she tells BDE. The film is in the running for a Feature Doc Academy Award.

Opening the 22nd Glasgow FF, Everybody To Kenmure Street is about neighbours and activists in the south side of the city who, in the early summer of 2021, came together in an act of inspirational civil resistance to prevent the immigration authorities taking away two residents from their community. Filmmaker Felipe Bustos Sierra discusses his film, which world-premiered at Sundance, with Business Doc Europe.

Joshua Seftel’s new film follows well-known CBS broadcast journalist Steve Hartman and his friend, photographer Lou Bopp, as they visit homes of kids who lost their lives in school shootings. “I felt that this approach Steve was taking was just a beautiful way of reframing the issue and taking it out of the usual political debate,” Seftel tells BDE, “and focusing on the human toll this was taking and the ripple it leaves with these families who no longer have a child, but just have an empty room.”

US filmmaker Craig Renaud talks to BDE about his late brother; docmaker, journalist and eponymous subject of the Oscar-nominated Armed Only With a Camera. Brent was the first US journalist to die while reporting on the war in Ukraine and, at times, the film makes for a very difficult and disturbing watch. “When Brent was killed, it was instinctual, I knew that I had to keep filming…it was a hundred per cent what Brent would have wanted me to do,” Craig underlines. Brent Renaud is also credited as co-director of the film.

Ukrainian Iryna Tsylik presented her animated docudrama project Red Zone, about life during just one day of war, last week at EFM. “I chose an animated format for this film because, I believe, it can address even the most intimate and painful experiences safely but accurately,” she comments. “Animation pairs beautifully with my personal art form, poetry. Unlike a more traditional documentary, these two art forms can express the absurdities of my mundane life (which is really anything but mundane), with just the right amount of humour and a hint of magic.”

The only documentary in 2026 Berlin Competition, YO (Love is a Rebellious Bird) is a paean to love and friendship, and told using puppets. It details the close relationship between director Anna Fitch and her best friend Yolanda Shea, 50 years her senior. “It feels good, and I feel like the process of bringing it [the film] to the world is very dynamic and alive, and Yo feels present in that too,” Fitch tells Business Doc Europe before the February 20 world premiere.

Visions du Réel announced February 25 Sergei Loznitsa as the Special Guest of the 57th edition of the festival (17–26 April). Loznitsa will participate with a masterclass and a selected retrospective of his documentary work. “With a filmography marked by astonishing diversity – from short to feature films, oscillating between fiction and documentary – Loznitsa is a major figure of contemporary non-fiction cinema, and beyond,” the festival writes.

The Krakow Film Festival and Polish Documentary Film Directors Guild have established the Marcel Łoziński Documentary Award, valued at €7,000, to acknowledge documentary films that expand the artistic boundaries of the medium. The winner will be announced during the upcoming Krakow FF (May 31 to June 7). “In a world dominated by algorithms and ready-made formats, the prize recognises films that defy convention, steadfast in their honesty and creative vision,” the festival writes.

Institute of Documentary Film (IDF) is inviting documentary professionals to attend East Doc Platform 2026 (EDP), taking place from 19 to 25 March 2026 at the French Institute in Prague, and held in association with the One World International Human Rights Film Festival. This year’s edition carries special significance as the Institute of Documentary Film celebrates 25 years of activity in 2026. “Alongside its rich programme, the platform will reflect on a quarter-century dedicated to supporting documentary cinema,“ write organisers.

Mr Nobody Against Putin by Pasha Talankin and David Borenstein was handed the gong for Best Documentary during the Bafta award ceremony February 22 at London’s Festival Hall. The film, which is also nominated for Academy Award, follows a Russian teacher (Talankin) who documents the Putin administration’s movements in controlling public perception of the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Yo (Love is a Rebellious Bird), the only documentary in Berlin Competition, picks up the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution. The Berlinale Documentary Award was given to If Pigeons Turned to Gold by Pepa Lubojacki. In the Teddy Awards, the Best Documentary/Essay Film award went to Brydie O’Connor for Barbara Forever. All doc awards…

How do you prove a documentary’s effectiveness in a climate of shrinking public resources, risk-averse commissioning and opaque platform metrics? That question sat at the heart of the DocSalon event titled Data on Impact, Please! Essential Needs in Non-Fiction Financing, an open-format conversation held on 15 February that repeatedly returned to a simple diagnosis: the sector is being asked to justify itself with data it often cannot access, cannot standardise and has little capacity to collect.