Nick Cunningham

“Chile arrives at IDFA with a vibrant and diverse presence that celebrates both new voices and master documentarians, reaffirming the creative strength and international recognition of our cinema,” Flor Rubina, Deputy Director of Chiledoc, comments of her country’s presence in Amsterdam this year. Highlights include Blue Silence (by Matías Rojas Ruz) in International Short Film Competition, and two films in Signed; Letters to My Dead Parents by Ignacio Agüero and Invisible Life by Bettina Perut and Iván Osnovikoff.

In Benjamin Bucher’s debut feature, Joyce, a 22-year-old African-Chinese dancer, tries to find her way in Europe – torn between artistic and identity-related self-discovery, and financial dependence on her mother’s TikTok business. “The film deals with universal themes that many of us can relate to, such as the search for independence, migration and globalisation, identity and the attempt to preserve real moments in an increasingly staged world,” producer Olivier Zobrist tells BDE.

In his new feature documentary, Danish docmaker Michael Madsen seeks to explore, together with visionary architect Daniel Libeskind, “the edge of human creativity” through the completion and recording of six architectural challenges over six days. “On the one hand, Architecture as Invention will aim to be a creative playground; and on the other, it will aim to be a portrait of this century as envisioned by Mr. Libeskind: the chaos, the wars, the destruction, the Holocaust; but also, the love, the memories and the dreams,” producer Per Damgaard Hansen tells Business Doc Europe.

Dutch director Nordin Lasfar dicusses his dynamic new documentary that chronicles the asymmetric relationship in Tangier between Paul Bowles and Mohammed Mrabet, two highly contrasting literary lions. “These were two people that were genuinely interested in each other, but found themselves in a neo-colonial system that wasn't fair,” Lasfar underlines. “Paul was part of the group where the power lies. And Mohammed was part of the group that was suppressed.”

Emmy-winning docmaker Carla Gutierrez (Frida) 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. “We wanted to see this conflict. And also we wanted to experience how the society was reflecting on Sara's offer to bring the change in the society,” says co-director Eyni.

Isabel Arrate Fernandez talks to BDE about her first IDFA as Artistic Director. For her, the next 11 days are about more than audience numbers, box-office revenues and the number of Forum meetings. “IDFA is also about encounters, stepping out of your bubble, making unexpected connections,” she says. “We aim to create a meaningful experience for the audience and for the film professionals that attend.”

Dutch director Maasja Ooms discusses her new documentary, world-premiering at IDFA, about people who hear voices in their heads, and how psychiatric treatment is as much about talking to the voices as to the hosts. It is a film that is ripe for impact. “The beautiful thing is that the people in the film have a mission themselves,” says Ooms. “There's also a whole voice-hearers movement that wants to free itself, so we're going to connect with that and ride along.”

Director Diego Gutierrez and editor Albert Markus discuss their existentialist documentary that chronicles Gutierrez's’s return to his homeland to find answers to some of life’s fundamental questions. Mexico may be the location of the odyssey, but the themes are universal. ‘The sinking boat is the planet,” Gutierrez underlines. “Mexico, I think, is more of a metaphor for the world.”

The goal of the pitch event, organised by Polish docfest Millennium Docs Against Gravity, is to “promote international co-productions, leverage the expertise of festival guests, and create a space where globally impactful films can emerge.” write organisers. Up to 12 projects will be selected for presentation at session, and guests will include producers, world sales agents, festival programmers, and commissioning editors from European broadcasters. Deadline for submissions: February 1, 2026.

Submissions for the 41st DOK.fest München are now open, with organisers looking for “stirring, moving, curious, impressive and relevant documentary films,“ both international and national. From 6 to 17 May 2026, the selected documentary films will be presented in Munich cinemas and special venues, and from 11 to 24 May 2026, they will be shown exclusively @home on the festival‘s digital screen throughout Germany.