Nick Cunningham

In Ukrainian Yevhen Titarenko’s I See No Death, currently in early post-production and selected for Baltic Sea Docs, two friends volunteer for the war and become FPV drone operators. The camera stays with them long enough to observe how death gradually stops being an event and becomes a job. “The drones themselves are not the main subject of the film for us,” producer Natalia Khazan tells BDE. “What interests us is a simple question: what happens to a person when they kill another human being but do not physically see their death?”

The Nyon-based docfest is inviting films for its Official Selection, which includes six competition sections, as well as projects for VdR–Industry activities. Films in competition receive their world, international or European premiere. The early deadline is November 2. The final deadline is December 15. The 58th edition of Visions du Réel will run 9 to 18 April 2027.

Nordisk Panorama and ARTE, Europe’s leading cultural streaming service, are launching a new partnership to strengthen opportunities for emerging documentary projects and build closer connections between Nordic filmmakers and the European industry. At the heart of the partnership is the new ARTE European Talent Development Award, worth €10,000 and given to one of the 24 documentary projects pitched at Nordisk Panorama Forum.

In Luke Lorentzen’s sublime meditation both on community and competence, we meet some of the workers at the 60-strong Brooklin boatyard who, over four seasons, are tasked with building a 56-foot luxury sailboat. It is a film populated almost exclusively by men. “I think it just emerged...how they treat one another, and how they are men who are both very strong and very sensitive,” Lorentzen tells BDE. “They just have a spirit to them that I really enjoyed being with, and that felt different from the [male] ego or power or dominance that we often see in our culture.”

With precious little source material to work with – a mere 5 seconds of footage, a few photos and a handful of letters – how do you make a documentary about a woman who headed up one of Italy’s leading galleries, had a towering intellect and displayed uncommon wartime bravery, and whose influence over the culture and politics of post-WW2 Italy was substantial? Filmmakers Francesco Clerici and Mattia Colombo, whose Anatomy of a Portrait world-premieres at Venice FF, explain how to BDE.

During the Fipadoc International Pitch session (Biarritz) the 24 selected project teams will pitch to 60+ international funders from Europe and beyond. Decision makers from France TV, ARTE, RTBF, RTS, SVT, Al Jazeera, ZDF, HBO and many other broadcasters will be present together with distributors, sales agents, festival programmers and film funds. Application deadline: October 2 2026. Fipadoc Industry Days will run January 25-28, 2027.

The deadline for submissions of projects to MIA’s Italians Doc It Better showcase is September 6. Italians Doc It Better looks to facilitate the circulation of new Italian documentaries by providing producers with a platform to present their projects and secure international distribution. Eligible titles must be 100% Italian productions or co-productions in which Italy holds a majority share.

Erik Shirai unveils the secretive world of sumo in his new feature documentary, world-premiering in Venice and opening the festival’s Spotlight section. The film is, in equal parts, refined, elegiac and minimalist. “Two men on a dirt ring trying to fight each other, half naked. There's nothing more minimal or simpler than that.” Shirai tells Business Doc Europe.

Ryan Holliger dreams of making a film about his chaotic life, one in which he served 4 years in prison and fathered six kids with five women. Fellow school dad Robert Greene decides to help him in this quest as he feels a special kinship with Ryan, both having grown up in broken homes in working-class areas. “But the difference between he and I is he likes to fight, so he punched someone in the face a bunch of times and went to prison. I don't like to fight. I like to write poetry and make paintings and eventually I made movies, and that's where our lives diverged,” Greene tells BDE.

Diana Sanchez has been elevated to President of Hot Docs, with immediate effect. Restructuring the executive leadership team “to better accomplish the organization’s long-term strategic goals and growth,” Sanchez has appointed Mara Gourd-Mercado (currently at CPH:DOX) to the position of Executive Director. Gourd-Mercado begins her new role on October 19, 2026, and will report to Sanchez.