Nick Cunningham

Croatian Igor Bezinović’s feature doc tells the story of the flamboyant, some say narcissistic, politician Gabriele D’Annunzio who staged a coup in the Croatian port town of Rijeka, and thereafter ruled for 16 months. In the film, local residents and a variety of amateur actors are drafted in to play the role of D’Annunzio. Sales of the film are handled by Lightdox. Icarus is handling the US release of the film, while the ICA is aboard for the UK. The ceremony of 38th European Film Awards took place in Berlin on January 17.

Swiss docfest Visions du Réel has announced US filmmaker Kelly Reichardt as Guest of Honour of its 57th edition (17–26 April 2026). Reichardt will take part in the Festival with a masterclass and a retrospective of her work, as well as a carte blanche, while her latest feature film, The Mastermind, will also be screened ahead of its limited theatre release. The full programme of the 57th Visions du Réel will be announced March 25.

Organisers of the 76th Berlinale announced January 14 the complete list of doc titles in its Panorama and Generation sections, and titles so far selected for Berlinale Special. Eleven docs are selected for Panorama, and four in the various Generation sub-sections, while six doc features and series are so far slated for Special. The upcoming Berlinale will run February 12 to 22.

Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus’ feature doc, which world-premiered at Venice, explores the investigative journalism career of Seymour Hersh, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who covered the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War and the Abu Ghraib torture scandal during the Iraq War. The filmmakers talk to US filmmaker Kirsten Johnson.

In the short doc Classroom 4, thirty students - 15 of whom are imprisoned, 15 coming from a local college - engage in a fifteen-week course on the history of crime and punishment in the US, all as part of the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program. What emerges is a moving and uplifting study in human connection and a deep acknowledgement of shared values, despite the radically contrasting circumstances of the participants. Director Eden Wurmfeld, professor Reiko Hillyer and student Nick Fiveoaks discuss the Oscar-shortlisted film with BDE.

Ten international films are in the long list in the Documentary category, while four documentaries are long-listed in the Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer category. Round two voting runs to January 20, with final nominations to be announced Tuesday 27 January on the BAFTA YouTube channel. The winners will be revealed Sunday February 22.

BDE talks to Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing about their Oscar short-listed feature doc Folktales, set in Arctic Norway and chronicling a year in the lives of three students at a folk high school in Norway. No family. No social media. Just classmates and sled dogs by way of companionship. “I did not know I was going to come out of this experience so changed, so touched. I had this incredible life experience that is part of me now,” says Grady.

BAFTA-winner Felipe Bustos Sierra’s documentary about one of Scotland’s most spontaneous and successful acts of civil resistance in recent memory will open the festival’s 22nd edition on 25th February. Executive-produced by two-time Oscar® winner Emma Thompson, Everybody To Kenmure Street will world-premiere in World Cinema Doc Comp at the upcoming Sundance FF.

Award-winning director Nanfu Wang (One Child Nation, Hooligan Sparrow) talks to Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni about their acclaimed feature doc about Iranian Sara Shahverdi, who, as the first elected councilwoman of her remote Iranian village, fearlessly breaks patriarchal traditions by training teenage girls to ride motorcycles, and by stopping child marriages. The film is short-listed within the Documentary Feature Category of the upcoming Academy Awards.

The industry arm of Cinéma du réel (March 21-18 2026) “actively supports the distribution, promotion and placement of feature documentaries by linking, at a key stage of the production process, project holders (filmmakers and producers) to industry professionals,” organisers write. The deadline for the Works-in-Progress of ParisDOC 2026 (25-26 March) is January 7 2026.