Baltic Sea Docs 26

“Access to our main characters is quite good. Getting them to listen…is another matter,’ says Ukrainian Roman Bondarchuk of his kids, the main subject of his Baltic Sea Docs project My Shadows Grow Faster Than Me. After fleeing Russia’s invasion, Bondarchuk and partner Dar’ya Averchenko, also a filmmaker, document their three children growing into English life. As they prepare to return home, they are unsure whether the Ukraine they long for will feel like home to their children.

“One of the strongest USPs of Wise Guys is its extraordinary access,” producer Madara Melberga tells BDE of fellow Latvian Ieva Ozoliņa’s feature documentary, currently in early post-production, in which two former gangsters decide to go legit, while still relying on the skills honed in their criminal past. “Ieva has been allowed remarkably close [access] to men who come from the highest levels of the criminal and prison hierarchy. It is an environment that normally remains closed to outsiders, particularly to people with no connection to criminal circles.”

“What began as a playful creative experiment developed into a deeply personal story exploring the mother-son dynamic, the concept of home, and rebuilding distant family relationships,” explains Estonian producer Merili Laur of Beautiful Stupid Thing, directed by Carlos E. Lesmes and selected for Baltic Sea Docs. In the film, which is currently in post-production, Carlos and his mother Angela reunite after she takes the transformative decision to migrate from Colombia to Estonia.

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?”

This year, Baltic Sea Docs celebrates its 30th edition, marking three decades of supporting documentary filmmakers from the Baltic Sea region, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and beyond. The 30th edition of the forum will take place from 6–11 September 2026. The project selection for the upcoming edition has concluded, with a total of 26 documentary projects selected for presentation.

The call for documentary projects is now open for the 30th edition of Baltic Sea Docs, the region’s leading documentary co-production pitching forum, taking place in Riga, Latvia on 6–11 September 2026. In addition to projects participating for the first time, up to four projects previously pitched at Baltic Sea Docs and now in post-production will be presented in the Coming Soon session.