Nick Cunningham

Representatives of Film Fund Luxembourg, Flanders Image, SEE NL and Wallonie Bruxelles Images are in Lisbon to attend Nebulae, the Doclisboa Industry Space, in order to boost collaboration with the Portuguese and wider doc industries. The program sees the presentation of 11 projects in development and works-in-progress from the Benelux, a Jumpgate session designed to foster wider cross-border collaboration, and two core Industry round tables.

“The Industry section at Doclisboa is a space for fostering both creative and production-based collaborations. It is also a space for the kind of cinema that the festival believes in — one that values artistic integrity, reflection, and community,” Marina Thomé, the festival’s Director of Industry and Development, underlines to Business Doc Europe as doors opened on the 2025 edition of the Portuguese docfest.

“We need to care for the people that bring the films here, and we need to care for the people that come to watch the films - it's like a mantra,” director Helder Beja tells BDE on the eve of Doclisboa 2025. The Portuguese docfest (Oct 16 to 26) presents 211 films from 54 countries, which include 93 feature films and 118 shorts. Thirty-nine of the films play as world premieres, while 31 films are made by Portuguese filmmakers. The 23rd edition of Doclisboa opens October 16 with Palestinian Kamal Aljafari’s With Hasan in Gaza.

The selection includes 15 titles in Opus Bonum International Competition, and 11 titles in First Lights competition for debut films. The Czech Joy comp section presents 18 new Czech docs. In total, 305 films are selected for this year's Ji.hlava IDFF, which include 76 world, 28 international, and 15 European premieres. The festival opens Oct 24 with Virtual Girlfriends by Czech director Barbora Chalupová. “Documentary cinema has long been the most dynamic and inspiring area of filmmaking,” confirms Ji.hlava IDFF director Marek Hovorka. The festival runs Oct 24 to Nov 2.

Doc veteran Irena Taskovski will present the first part of her 3-module program, which seeks to “redefine success in film through wellbeing and conscious leadership,” October 16 to 20 during the Sitges FF. Further sessions will be held next year in Amsterdam during Movies That Matter (March) and at Sunny Side of the Doc (June). “We are creating a space where creativity and wellbeing are not in conflict - but fuel each other,” says Taskovski. “This is how we build lasting filmmaking sustainable carries and success.”

Selections were unveiled October 14 for the main International and Envision competition sections of the upcoming IDFA, running November 13 to 23. The festival also announced selections for the entire IDFA DocLab program, as well as the Luminous and Frontlight sections, and the nominations for all cross-section awards. The festival will open Nov 13 with a selection of short films: As I Lay Dying by Mohammadreza Farzad & Pegah Ahangarani; Intersecting Memory by Shayma' Awawdeh, and happiness by Firat Yücel.

The European Film Academy announced October 14 the shortlists for the European Film Awards 2026, taking place on 17 January 2026 in Berlin. The 38th European Film Awards honour the “greatest achievements in European cinema,” and are presented jointly by the European Film Academy and European Film Academy Productions. Fifteen films are included in the Documentary shortlist.

Millennium Docs Against Gravity is inviting submissions for its 23rd edition, running in cinemas May 8-17 and online May 19 to June 1 2026. The Polish festival takes place simultaneously in seven different cities – Warsaw, Gdynia, Wrocław, Bydgoszcz, Katowice, Poznań, and Łódź. “In May 2025, we invited audiences on a cinematic journey around the world and into themselves,” write organisers. “Over 181,000 people took part in both parts of the festival.” The submissions deadline for the 2026 edition is January 9.

Prague-based sales agent Filmotor has acquired worldwide rights (excluding Switzerland) to Elephants & Squirrels, the debut feature documentary of Swiss filmmaker Gregor Brändli. The film will world premiere in International Competition at DOK Leipzig on October 27, before screening in the Best of Fests section at IDFA 2025.

National Film Board of Canada (NFB) is entering the free, ad-supported streaming television (FAST) space for the first time with the launch of TopDocs, which will feature 150 hours of programming drawn from the NFB’s extensive library of 6,000 titles, with approximately 20 hours of fresh content to be added each month. “TopDocs is a bold step forward in how we connect global audiences with powerful documentary storytelling,” said Nathalie Bourdon, NFB Director of Distribution. The new channel launches at MIPCOM (13-16 October).