Nick Cunningham

The Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival announced November 1 the awards for its 29th edition. The Best Czech Documentary was named as Time to the Target by Vitaly Mansky, made as a co-production. The Best World Documentary Award went to Polish filmmaker Natalia Koniarz for Silver. The Best Debut Award was given to So Close, So Far by Chinese director Yudi Zhu. The Audience Award went to Mr. Nobody vs. Putin by directors David Borenstein and Pavel Talankin. The Bolivian film collective Grupo Ukamau received the Award for Contribution to World Cinema.

US filmmaker Yoruba Richen pitched her short film project Free Joan Little, which tells the story of the eponymous 20-year-old African American woman who, in 1975, became the first woman acquitted of murder in a sexual assault case. “The film shows how, nearly half a century before movements that we know today, such as the MeToo Movement, Say Her Name, Black Lives Matter, people were forming innovative coalitions and demanding justice for issues that we are still fighting for today in our democracy,” said Richen.

After she suffered a vicious homophobic attack on a London bus, the story of Melania, from Uruguay, went viral on social media and across global communications outlets. Director Laura Gabay, a close friend of Melania, was deeply affected by the news, and travelled to reunite with her friend. Together they decided to retell Melania’s story, “but from an intimate place, not to repeat the story as it was told by the mass media,” Gabay explained her project at Ji.hlava.

Eleven industry awards were presented October 21 to the most promising projects at Ji.hlava New Visions Forum 2025. In total, fifty-five projects from Europe, United States and East & Southeast Asia were presented, whether in development, production or post-production. The winners received numerous cash awards, and in-kind awards handed out in association with partners of Ji.hlava IDFF. All winners…

Twelve prizes were awarded at DOK Industry during the 68th edition of DOK Leipzig, taking place 27 October to 2 November. The outstanding projects were recognised across three DOK Industry formats: seven awards were presented at the DOK Co-Pro Market, the festival’s major co-financing and networking event, four prizes at the short film pitch DOK Short n’ Sweet, and one award went to a project at DOK Preview Germany.

Inna Shevchenko, Ukrainian feminist activist and the leader of international women's movement FEMEN, pitched her urgent new project, about the Ukrainian survivors of war who are rehabilitating in the Lviv Superhumans Center. “People rebuilding their bodies part by part, rebuilding themselves part by part, they rebuild the very idea of Ukraine - and they are rebuilding the country and the nation itself,” she told the professional audience.

The deadline for submissions for CPH:DOX’s international financing and co-production event CPH:FORUM is fast approaching, with a cut-off date of November 5, 2025. The call also includes the second edition of CPH:RoughCut, which will present 5 projects at late stage looking for distributors (including theatrical), sales agents, buyers, high profile festival premieres and other forms of exhibition.

The Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM) has unveiled the full program of its 28th edition, which will take place from November 20 to 30, 2025. With a selection of 136 films from 47 countries, bringing together the works of established filmmakers and promising new talents, “RIDM remains true to its mandate to present the richness of diverse perspectives on the world through the most stimulating and distinctive visions of documentary cinema,” write organisers.

Lynne Sachs’s new feature doc will world premiere in the upcoming IDFA Signed section. Since 1990, the filmmaker has collected 600 business cards—from a hairdresser, a therapist, a textile artist. Together they form an archive of encounters. A lifetime of tactile, face-to-face encounters reminds her of identities passed from hand to hand.

The professional and educational program of the Verzió Documentary Film Festival kicks off November 12 ahead of five days of masterclasses, workshops, and presentations. For the first time in collaboration with the Hungarian Documentary Association (MADOKE), Hungarian doc projects in development will be showcased to both professionals and the public.