Nick Cunningham

Five films are nominated in the BAFTA Documentary category. Two of these (Mr Nobody Against Putin and The Perfect Neighbor) are also nominated within the 2026 Oscar Feature Doc category. Meanwhile, one documentary is nominated in the BAFTA Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer category. The winners will be announced during the 79th BAFTA film awards ceremony, set to take place Sunday, February 22, at London’s Royal Festival Hall.

The feature-length doc tells the story of the wildly popular, annual Easter Sunday tradition in San Francisco known as Hunky Jesus. Hosted by the legendary drag and activist group the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, “the event is a defiant expression of community, performance, and radical joy in the face of exclusion and repression,” the festival writes. The 40th BFI Flare will run 18 – 29 March 2026 at BFI Southbank, London.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced January 22 2026 the nominations in the documentary categories of the 98th Academy Awards®. Five films will now advance to each of the Documentary Feature Film and Documentary Short Film categories. Two hundred and one films were eligible for the Doc Feature category, while 117 films qualified in the Short Doc category. In December 2025 the shortlists were whittled down to 15 films within each category.

UK producer Beth Earl talks to BDE about Jane Pollard and Iain Forsyth’s highly creative feature doc on the late Marianne Faithfull, which world-premiered at Venice 2025 and is now selected for Sundance. “I think that there is this moment now in our culture where we're re-examining how people are remembered, and who should be remembered and why are they remembered and what we remember them for,” Earl tells BDE of the film’s illustrious subject.

Running 25 February to 8 March, the festival will open with Felipe Bustos Sierra’s local documentary Everybody to Kenmure Street, executive produced by Emma Thompson. Other Scottish docs include Molly vs the Machines, Marc Silver’s story of a heartbroken father’s quest to uncover the truth behind his daughter's death, and Sailm nan Daoine (Psalms of the People), Jack Archer’s documentary on Scotland’s tradition of Gaelic psalm singing. Both will world premiere in Glasgow.

The Catalan docfest will also present a retrospective of Cousins’ work during the upcoming edition, which will take place May 7 to 17. Furthermore, during his visit to Barcelona, Cousins will give a masterclass and present the Spanish premiere of the first episode of his new series, The Story of Documentary Film, following its world and European premieres at the Sundance and Berlin festivals respectively.

The 2026 edition of CPH:DOX’s flagship financing and co-production event will bring together 101 directors and producers representing 23 countries who will present 30 new doc projects spanning early to late development and production. “The 2026 CPH:FORUM selection tells the story of the times we live in through the lenses of filmmakers who challenge the status quo, take risks and engage in dialogue with the world,” comments Mara Gourd-Mercado, Head of Industry & Training.

Directed by Anna Fitch and Banker White, the US documentary details how, after losing her friend Yo, director Anna builds a detailed one-third scale version of her friend’s house. It is just big enough for Anna to squeeze into, and inside lives a puppet of Yo. When the pair first met, Yo was 73 and Anna was 24. The 76th Berlinale runs February 12 to 26, 2026.

European Film Promotion will welcome filmmakers and industry professionals to its EUROPE! HUB at Sundance (22 Jan – 1 Feb), “highlighting and celebrating the presence of European films in this year’s line-up,” the organisation writes. European films in World Cinema Doc Comp include All About the Money by Sinéad O’Shea, To Hold a Mountain by Biljana Tutorov & Petar Glomazić, Closure by Michał Marczak, and the UK doc features Everybody to Kenmure Street by Felipe Bustos Sierra, Birds of War by Janay Boulos & Abd Alkader Habak and One In A Million by Itab Azzam and Jack MacInnes.

International FIPRESCI members will vote for the best documentary film of the past year, making this award “one of the most important distinctions in global documentary cinema,” writes Millennium Docs Against Gravity. “It is a great honor for MDAG and for the Polish film industry that, among all festivals worldwide, [it] has been chosen as the place where this exceptional award will be presented.” The first winner will be announced during the MDAG opening ceremony on May 7 2026.