Nick Cunningham

In her latest feature documentary, Giedrė Žickytė tells the dramatic story of the late Irena Veisaitė, fellow Lithuanian and academic, Holocaust survivor and human rights activist. “Irena genuinely cared about the ‘other’ and was truly interested in each person - perhaps this is why she was so beloved,” Žickytė tells BDE. “She knew how to show sincere attention and respect to everyone, no matter their position, status, nationality, religion. Another important thing was the human values she embodied, her wisdom, and the way she naturally became a moral authority.”

Sheffield DocFest has announced the fifty doc projects for the 2026 edition of MeetMarket, all of which are at various stages of production. “The 2026 MeetMarket programme, which runs 11 to 12 June, is a distinctive and totally varied mix of bold, vivid and socially conscious work,” organisers write. Featured in the line-up are five Rough Cuts, first edits selected to be shown to the UK and international industry delegates in attendance.

Olivia Sophie van Leeuwen is selected to represent the Netherlands as Producer on the Move at Cannes 2026. Producers on the Move is European Film Promotion’s (EFP) long-standing programme to promote promising producers and foster international co-productions. On the Croisette, van Leeuwen will be presenting director Willemiek Kluijfhout’s new doc project The Woman Who Made Van Gogh Famous.

Running June 10 to 15, the festival will open with the protest doc We, The Hated by UK doccer Rich Felgate, ahead of a programme that presents 80 feature films and 24 shorts, including 45 World Premieres, 17 International Premieres, 5 European Premieres, and 35 UK Premieres from 64 Countries. “In 2026, we are navigating a world defined by both profound uncertainty and constant transformation. Our theme, Realities in Motion, captures this momentum, reflecting how our lives are continually reshaped by collective action,” says Raul Niño Zambrano, Creative Director.

The 15th Finnish Film Affair (FFA) invites project applications from feature films and documentaries with international potential. The Showcase Day, taking place on Thursday, 24 September, offers an opportunity to present projects to international industry professionals and network with guests ranging from sales agents and co-producers to investors and festival programmers. Application deadline: Friday, 5 June 2026.

The 11th edition of the Verzió DocLab (14 – 18 November) is accepting applications, offering emerging European documentary filmmakers a “high-impact, all-in-one development platform” combining an intensive workshop on editing and story development, the presentation of a trailer or an excerpt to decisionmakers, and one-on-one meetings with international industry professionals.

This year, MDAG Polish Competition will feature ten “outstanding” films competing for three awards – the Best Polish Film Award, the Best Production Award from Smakjam Studio, and the Polish Arthouse Cinemas Association Award. “These are titles awarded at the most important international festivals [and] many of them will have their world premieres,” write organisers. All will celebrate their Polish premieres. The 23rd edition of Millennium Docs Against Gravity runs May 8 to 17 within 7 Polish cities, and online from May 19 to June 1.

The 66th Krakow Film Festival (May 31 to June 7) will open with Marc Isaacs’ Synthetic Sincerity. The festival has also unveiled first titles selected for its International and National Competition sections. “The [opening] film we have selected is a vital contribution that compels us to reflect upon the transformation unfolding before our eyes – the changing role of the creator and our relationship to AI,” says festival director, Barbara Orlicz-Szczypuła.

The prizes of the 57th Visions du Réel were handed out April 24. Director Xisi Sofia Ye Chen won the Grand Prize of the International Feature Film Competition with From Dawn to Dawn, her first feature-length film. Hassen Ferhani received the Burning Lights Competition Award for Alea Jacarandas. The National Competition Jury awarded Nicole Nicole, Lauren Dällenbach’s feature debut, and the Audience Award went to Birds of War by Janay Boulos and Abd Alkader Habak.

The Ji.hlava New Visions Forum is a financing, co-production, and networking platform dedicated to supporting documentary production in all its diversity and creativity, and which has served as a successful launchpad for numerous European, Asian, and U.S. documentaries. Projects presented at the Forum over the past three years have gone on to premiere at major festivals, including Hot Docs, Sundance, Rotterdam, Berlinale, Cannes, and Locarno. The submission deadline is April 30.