Nick Cunningham

In Jakob Krese’s new feature doc, three generations of a [former] Yugoslav family reflect on over half a century of upheaval, hope, destruction, and new beginnings. “The grandmother fought with the partisans against fascism while the mother - a remarkable poet, writer, journalist, and humanitarian aid worker - decided to support her friends during the siege of Sarajevo,” Slovenian producer Ivana Naceva tells BDE. “Now Jakob is passing this legacy on to his young daughter.”

Romanian filmmaker Laurentiu Garofeanu explains the importance of his feature doc project, pitched at CineLink 2025. In Lost and Found…, when a young Canadian woman, sold as an infant in post-Ceaușescu Romania, returns to reclaim her identity, she uncovers the machinery that trafficked the sister she never knew, one of 30,000 children “exported” for adoption. “The hidden history of Romania’s international adoptions is a wound that never healed, for the children sent abroad, the families left behind, and the country that let it happen,” the director tells BDE.

Producer Sonja Bozic discusses the CineLink project The Forbidden Aunt, in which Serbian star actress-turned-filmmaker Bojana Novaković uncovers dark family secrets and confronts her own past in “a darkly comedic, multi-generational portrait of women and trauma.” While the film will address a politically charged topic from a personal perspective, as seen through the lens of lived experience, “humour, soap opera re-enactments, and deeply human moments [will] make the film engaging and accessible,” Bozic tells Business Doc Europe.

Docs are squarely in the frame at the 31st Sarajevo Film Festival and its accompanying CineLink Industry Days. Documentary Competition includes 20 feature-length and short films, while the professional programme includes the Docu Rough Cut Boutique and Docu Talents from the East pitch events, the latter organised by Ji.hlava IDFF. Additionally, CineLink Works-in-Progress includes two doc projects. Plus talks and panels. Sarajevo Film Festival kicks off 15 August, running to August 22.

Representatives of Doc Alliance, which unites seven of Europe’s major docfests, will partake in 3 industry panels at this year’s Sarajevo Film Festival, presenting results from the network’s ongoing research project. For several years, the network has been collecting information about all member festivals, “focusing on the key areas of new technologies, inclusive programming, sustainability, emerging talents and educational practices.’ The panels will be held August 18.

Paris-based distributor Astrea has acquired international rights to the VR title A Long Goodbye, directed by Kate Voet & Victor Maes. The animated interactive film tells the story of Ida, a 72-year-old pianist living with dementia, and will celebrate its world premiere in Venice Immersive competition. “A Long Goodbye is a poetic experience about the impact of dementia, but above all it is about love,” write the filmmakers.

Members of the Czech Film and Television Academy (CFTA) have selected the documentary feature I’m Not Everything I Want to Be by Klára Tasovská as the Czech Republic's candidate for the Academy Award in the International Feature Film category. “The formally daring documentary about identity, freedom and inner defiance follows the life of photographer Libuše Jarcovjáková – a distinctive artist who regardless of the times and her surroundings decided to be true to herself,” writes the Czech Film Center.

German neuropsychiatrist Dr Johann Spittler, a man who seems both wise and compassionate, bears an enormous responsibility in assessing the decision-making capacity of individuals seeking assisted suicide. As a qualified doctor, he can also assist in their subsequent passing which, as we see in Pavel Cuzuioc’s Green Light, can be highly problematic. “[But] I'm convinced that this right of getting assisted is something every person should have,” Cuzuioc tells BDE before the film’s world premiere in Locarno. “It's not the state - or the law - that should forbid you that.”

Finnish directors Jenni Kivistö and Jussi Rastas discuss their new documentary, world-premiering at the leading Swiss festival. In the film, dancer/choreographer Sibiry is caught in an existential no-man’s land between Finland, where he feels like an outsider, and the Burkina Faso village of his youth, where he has now acquired the status of privileged European. “Our aim has been to craft a multidimensional film in aesthetics...reflecting the internal experience of a migrant that has his mind constantly divided between two very contrasting realities.”

The Nyon-based festival is inviting films for its Official Selection, and projects for VdR–Industry activities. Films in competition receive their world, international or European premiere. Early deadline for films and projects: October 17. Final deadline: Dec 15. The additional deadline for the 2026 VdR–Development Lab is November 6. The 57th edition of Visions du Réel will run 17 to 26 April 2026.