Nick Cunningham

German archive doyenne Monika Preischl guides Business Doc Europe through what has come to be known as Archive Day at DOK Leipzig, when the German and European libraries gather to entice filmmakers towards their collections, and when the doc industry meets to interrogate the archive business, its practices and ethics. But first, she offers a corrective…

In Anna Khazaradze’s Berliner, co-produced by German Heino Deckert, we meet Nana, a Georgian immigrant who has lived in Berlin for thirty years, and who translates for newly arrived migrants while navigating her own memories of displacement. “The film’s strongest foundation is the trust I have built with Nana over more than six years,” Khazaradze tells BDE. “The film connects directly with Georgian and German audiences, while its themes of migration, belonging and care are very universal themes.”

Two projects, Folil, A Journey to the Roots by Loreto Plubins, and Snails, directed by Max Kerkhoff, have been selected for the DOK Co-Pro Market. Chile will also be very much present in the DOK Leipzig retrospective ‘Kino und Kampf: Latin America between East and West,’ featuring films related to Chile’s political and cinematic history. “The fact that a Latin American retrospective now includes major historical films from Chile shows how highly our cinema is valued, both in Germany and by the festival itself,” comments Diego Pino Anguita, Deputy Director of Chiledoc.

Five Polish producers will be representing six projects during DOK Industry as part of the Delegation Mix&Mingle/Round Table meetings. In addition, the project The Gap by Paweł Ferdek, will take part in co-pro meetings as part of the DOK Co-Pro Market. Additionally, eight films, five of which are docs, are selected for the festival, including three in International Doc Film Comp: Blossoming by Kamila Serwicka; I’m Painting a Self-Portrait, but All I See Is My Sister’s Face by Helena Stańczyk; and Letters from the Silenced Country by Andrei Kutsila.

One of the completed projects presented at DOK Industry in 2026 is Simone Unger’s debut feature doc Matter and Spirits, selected for DOK Preview Germany and which focusses on three precious objects in a Leipzig museum, giving them voice and tracing their histories back through a colonial past. “The film helps to understand why it is necessary to continue the debate about the colonial heritage and the question of restitution,” says German producer Alexander Tanz of Lumalenscape.

In her highly personal feature documentary, director Annina Lehmann explores the rural landscape of her childhood in Brandenburg, asking people about their fears and longings. Between ethnographic study and a search for home, the film encounters ghost stories, village parties, feelings of loss and craving for connection. “The film grows out of a specific place, and from Annina’s own childhood there,” producer Margarita Amineva-Jester tells BDE ahead of the Oct 26 presentation of the project in Leipzig, “but the emotional and political forces it explores are visible across Europe, the United States and much of the world.”

“Eastkids explores the long-term consequences of reunification through the lives of people who experienced it directly, and a younger generation who inherited its consequences without experiencing it themselves,” German producer Leon Harms tells BDE of Julius Gintaras Blum’s feature doc project, selected for Leipzig’s October 26 pitch event. The doc centres on the city of Chemnitz, once the heartbeat of East German industrialism but which has all but lost its identity post-reunification.

In the middle of Brussels, “the heart of Europe,” an Audi factory is closing. Production of the hybrid Q8, priced at 100,000 Euros, is moving to Mexico and 4,000 people are set to lose their jobs, among them Ali, Aziz, Joaquin and Mousse, who are profiled in German Mimi Zak’s feature doc, presented as a WiP in Leipzig. “The film stands with the people who carry the weight of this chaotic, hit-or-miss transformation on their shoulders,” producer Floris Steinbach underlines to Business Doc Europe. “It tells their story - and it’s a European story, not just a Belgian one.”

In International Competition, the City of Lisbon Award for Best Film went to For the Moon by Éric Baudelaire, while the Doclisboa Award for Best Portuguese Comp Film was won by Everyone’s Voice. The Doclisboa International Competition Jury Award went to Noli me tangere, by Ghassan Salhab, and the Médecins Sans Frontières – Portugal Jury Award for Best International Competition Director was presented to João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata for 13 Pins. All awards…

The Industry boss briefs Business Doc Europe on what documentary professionals can expect during her 2026 DOK Industry programme, which kicks off October 26. “Our emphasis is always on providing a welcoming, meaningful and inclusive working space for all DOK Industry participants,” Tennstedt underlines her offer. “What unites most of them is what brings them to DOK Industry: new encounters, collaborations, inspiration, exchange and skill sharing.”