Business Doc Europe

When Sabine Fayoux Cantillo took over as Visions du Réel Head of Industry last autumn, the former Associate Director of Program at Chicken & Egg Films in New York was, in a sense, simply coming home. “When this opportunity came up, it was a no-brainer to return to a festival which has meant a lot to me in my career as a documentary worker…and to raise my child in my childhood home,” she tells BDE.

Shot on 16mm, its carefully graded black tones echoing the shadowy, ever-shifting levels of diffused light-and-shade as experienced by unsighted people, A Blind Song documents the tac-til Choir on their visit to Japan to explore the ancient tradition of the Goze - blind nomadic female musicians whose tradition dates back to medieval times. BDE talks to directors Stefano Canapa and Natacha Muslera, along with Cécile Sans, responsible for both writing and voice.

Chronicling one person’s experience of travelling across continents to escape a North African prostitution ring, Coming From the Sea follows a young Nigerian woman who embarks on a perilous odyssey across Europe to rebuild her life and protect her child - but the ghosts of her past are never far behind. “I don't like this word migrants we use in France. I prefer exiled people,” producer Emmanuel Gras tells BDE. “I want us to see them not as just figures of people who come, but as human beings, and above all as adventurers and explorers.”

‘What we are trying to depict is this volcano as a mirror of the world… we cannot control it, so we have to be in contact with nature, and somehow co-exist together,” says Jasmina Sijercic, producer of a new documentary about the island of Stromboli, where the active volcano is a perpetual presence. Business Doc Europe caught up with her ahead of the ParisDOC Work-in-Progress screening of The Island, directed by Sara Rastegar and Simone Pozzi, on 25th March.

Chilean René Ballesteros’ feature documentary, world-premiering in Paris, follows the stories of two Mapuche men, Juan and Daniel, who were taken from their Chilean homeland as children and adopted by European families in dubious circumstances. A trained psychologist, the film has a personal undertow for the director. “Once I met Albert Maysles…and he told me that the link between being a psychologist and making documentaries is listening,” he tells BDE. “With both Juan and Daniel there was a connection, because I was trying to listen to myself, too.”

Dutch Bart van den Aardweg discusses his dynamic new documentary, shot in both Belgium and The Netherlands, which addresses alienation and how youths may resort either to criminality or radicalisation as an outlet. “I wanted to explore the mind of somebody on the so-called wrong path further and deeper, and to create an interior monologue, to connect their thoughts to the physical shape I had used before. And I knew that I had to live amongst my characters to catch the real story, make them talk to me.”

Three feature documentaries and one doc hybrid are selected for the Cannes sidebar section dedicated to independent, ground-breaking cinema. “The films presented are all gestures that bring us together—stories rooted in a poetic reality that is joyful, unexpected, but above all free and unformatted. They thus emerge as powerful acts of resistance—and of hope,” the ACID programmers collectively write.

The 12 films that constitute this year’s Main Competition represent an “absolute highlight of what is happening currently in documentary cinema,” write organisers, and are eligible for nine awards across the festival’s host cities of Warsaw, Wrocław, Gdynia, Poznań, Katowice, Łódź and Bydgoszcz. The 23rd Millennium Docs Against Gravity festival runs 8 to 17 May 2026, and online from May 19 to June 1.

Among the 19 features and shorts selected for Cannes Directors Fortnight 2026 are five documentaries. These include Thanks for Coming, the final instalment of Alain Cavalier’s ongoing filmed diary. “We are delighted by the significant presence of documentaries (3 features and 2 shorts)…showcasing highly distinctive works that demonstrate the exceptional richness and vitality of [the form],” comments Artistic Director Julien Rejl.

Running May 7 to 17, the 29th Barcelona International Documentary Film Festival will open with Mehrdad Oskouei's story of resistance, A Fox Under a Pink Moon. John Wilson returns to DocsBarcelona with The History of Concrete, a humorous reflection on concrete and urban life, and the festival will tawad its Docs d'Honor prize to filmmaker Mark Cousins, who will present a retrospective of his work.

Guest of Honour will be leading UK thesp Maxine Peake, while the festival will also embrace actor Miriam Margolyes, Oscar-winning director Andrea Arnold and broadcaster and environmentalist Chris Packham. A one-off celebration of Sir David Attenborough at 100 will bring together leading filmmakers and activists to reflect on his extraordinary legacy. The 2026 edition of Sheffield DocFest, dubbed ‘Realities in Motion,’ will run June 10-15.

The award will go to one of 12 feature documentaries about luminaries working within the arts – ranging from film, music, and theatre to literature and the avant-garde. Festival partner The National Fryderyk Chopin Institute funds the €2000 prize. The 23rd MDAG will take place from May 8-17, 2026 in cinemas across seven Polish cities (Warsaw, Wrocław, Gdynia, Poznań, Katowice, Łódź, and Bydgoszcz), and online from May 19 to June 1.