Nick Cunningham

In Maria Cheresheva and Georgi Totev’s HB0 Avanpost-winning project, a disillusioned Jewish peace activist retreats to her home in rural Bulgaria, finding an unlikely lifeline in a long-distance friendship with a Gazan woman fighting to keep her family alive. “Where Shall We Go? is a film born from an urgent need to preserve humanity at a time when war is trying to erase it,” the directors underlined in Sarajevo.

Peter Akar and Rita Balogh’s feature project Kind of Adults, presented in Sarajevo, is described as “a raw, immersive coming-of-age documentary co-created with charismatic Gen Z teens over six turbulent years.” The film won two awards during CineLink; the DOK Leipzig Preview Award, and the East Doc Caravan Award. “We did not set out to explain a generation. We simply stayed with the same group of young people long enough to witness how time quietly transformed them, and us,” comments Akar.

The Czech Film and Television Academy (CFTA) announced August 19 Pepa Lubojacki’s feature documentary as the Czech candidate for an Oscar® in the category of International Feature Film. The doc had its world premiere in February this year at the Berlinale, where it won the award for Best Documentary Feature, as well as the independent Caligari Film Prize.

Docs Beyond, the new 3-module audience, impact & training programme from the Institute of Documentary Film, seeks to give documentary teams the time, expertise and practical tools to “find its audience, build the right partnerships and turn its topic into meaningful action.” Docs Beyond is intended for producers, directors, screenwriters, distributors and other members of documentary creative teams based in the Czech Republic.

The two titles are Imperium by Sergei Loznitsa (Germany-France-Italy-Lithuania), and Act 3 by Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor (Ireland-UK). “Our 2026 competition selection brings an astounding array of filmmaking styles to the screen. As ever, it’s been creatively nourishing for myself and the team to encounter each of these works - we’re excited to share these with audiences in October,” comments Kristy Matheson, BFI London Film Festival Director. The 70th edition runs 7 – 18 October 2026.

Seven highly promising docs from CEE, scheduled for theatrical release over the next 12 months were presented on Sunday August 16 as part of CineLink Industry Days at Sarajevo FF. The Docu Talent Award went to the Luxembourg–Slovak co–production Ora et Labora (pictured) by Dzhovani Gospodinov, while the DAFilms.com VoD distribution Award went to the Slovak project Retuning directed by Sára Prokopová. Ji.hlava IDFF further revealed the professionals for the Emerging Producers programme 2027, and the Guest Country of Ji.hlava IDFF 2026 as Montenegro.

Dublin-based former Yugoslavian filmmaker Dragana Jurišić talks to Business Doc Europe about her debut documentary, a film both joyous and heart-rending, which tells the stories of maverick filmmaker Hari Džekson, a director of westerns, and his home town of Bijeljina, where the war in Bosnia started in 1992. In the feature doc, Jurišić also sets out to create her own western in the style of Hari. “When we were filming, everyone came together - Serbs, Roma, Muslims, Croats. It was such a joyful happy atmosphere, and there was absolutely no reason why these people shouldn't be friends - except for these man-made identity structures that are imposed on them.”

The documentary, which explores the loss of home against the backdrop of the Gaza War, celebrated its world premiere in 2025 in Venice Giornate degli Autori, where it won the Cinema & Art Award. In early 2026, Who Is Still Alive (Qui vit encore) received the Prix de Soleure at the Solothurn Film Festival and was nominated for Best Documentary at the Swiss Film Awards. The film continues to screen at numerous international festivals, most recently in the Panorama Suisse section of the Locarno Film Festival.

In a village on the edge of an expanding coal mine in southwest Turkey, five women – olive farmers and housewives – transform from neighbours into activists in order to protect their forest, the last natural barrier between the mine and their community. "I hope [the film] leaves audiences with the feeling that meaningful change often begins by transforming people long before it transforms the world,” says director Selen Çatalyürekli. The project won the Movies That Matter Award in Sarajevo.

The Pardo d’Oro in the Concorso Cineasti del Presente and the Swatch First Feature Award were both awarded to The Illusion of an Everlasting Summer (La ilusión de un verano sin fin) by Alessandra Sanguinetti. The Grand Prix Semaine de la Critique – Prix SRG SSR went to Blossoming by Kamila Serwicka. Also in Concorso Cineasti del Presente, the Special Jury Prize CINE+OCS was given to Mohanad Yaqubi for Revolutionaries Never Die.