Cannes 25

If documentaries at Cannes sail on a sea of fiction, then Pierre-Alexis Chevit’s Cannes Docs sidebar represents something of a safe harbour for all doccers, be they filmmakers, producers, sellers or docfests. Cannes Docs is furthermore a place with a clear and proud identity, Chevit tells BDE. “It is a strategic place of community gathering for all of us doc-believers, to stand our ground in Cannes and affirm, loud and clear, that docs are cinema. Period.”

The winners of the Doc Alliance Award 2025 were announced May 20 during the Doc Day Lunch, held at the Marché du Film in Cannes. The Doc Alliance Award for Best Feature Film (€5,000), was presented to The Shards (Georgia/Germany) by Masha Chernaya. The Doc Alliance Award for Best Short Film, valued at €3,000 went to We Had Fun Yesterday (Belgium) by Marion Guillard.

Ana Alice de Morais, Artistic Co-Director at RIDM, the Montreal International Documentary Festival, and Marc Gauthier, Executive Director, reflected to BDE on their 2025 Cannes Docs experience. “This was our sixth Docs In Progress [in Cannes] in seven years,” Gauthier said of what is now becoming almost an annual event. “Cannes Docs has really managed to create a home for creative documentary…it’s a special thing in this global madness.”

The Austrian-produced Militantropos, made by Ukrainian filmmakers Smith, Gorlova and Mozgovyi, attempts to capture the human condition through the fractured realities of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It is the first part of an eventual trilogy. “The first film [is] about the transformation of a human within the war. The second film will speak much more about death and how death influences society, and the third will be about the connection between the war in Ukraine and the world outside,” Gorlova tells BDE.

At the close of Cannes Docs 2025, section chief Pierre-Alexis Chevit hosted the Docs-in-Progress Awards Ceremony during which this year’s winners were announced. Over the past days, eightshowcases of docs-in-progress from around the world were presented, forming a total of 32 new creative documentary projects. The IEFTA Award went to Asphalt by Hamza Hamideh [Palestine Showcase] while the Al Jazeera Documentary Award went to Everybody to Kenmure Street by Felipe Bustos Sierra [Scotland Showcase]. All awards…

During a highly moving interview on Doc Day of Cannes Docs, Sepideh Farsi discussed her documentary, selected for Cannes ACID. The film consists of cell phone conversations with the smiling Fatma Hassona (Fatem), a young photographer who is documenting the war in Northern Gaza. As has been widely reported, Fatem was killed the day after the announcement of the Cannes selection by a targeted missile on her home. “It's strange that we never met physically,” said an emotional Sepideh. “She would be here, and we know why she's not.”

The Palestine Film Institute (PFI) is back at the Marché with a dedicated showcase of four documentaries to be presented at Cannes Docs May 19. “Our art and culture - and in particular, our cinema - have always played a fundamental role in protecting our narrative and reflecting our struggles as Palestinians over the past 77 years to merely exist,” says PFI Co-Founder, Legal Board and Programming Consultant Mohanad Yaqubi.

When Raoul Peck was offered access to “everything by George Orwell,” not only the novels but also the diaries and letters of the English author of 1984 and Animal Farm, he couldn’t say no. “But then it is my job to find what is my angle, what is my organic approach to the subject and come up with something different as well,’ he tells BDE of his scorching new feature documentary Orwell: 2+2=5 which launched in the Cannes Premiere section earlier this week.

There was big news in advance of today’s Scottish Documentary Institute (SDI) and Screen Scotland Docs-in-Progress showcase in the Cannes Marché. Oscar winner Emma Thompson was announced as exec producer of one of the projects being presented, Felipe Bustos Sierra’s new doc Everybody To Kenmure Street. Celebrating direct action, the rousing film tells the story of how neighbours and activists came together to surround an immigration van holding two residents from one of Scotland’s most diverse communities.

This week, MIA (Mercato Internazionale Audiovisivo) unveiled new partnerships and programmes for its 11th edition, to be held in Rome, October 6 to 10 2025. Core to proceedings was a discussion on Scenari Transalpini - an initiative of Institut Français Italia in partnership with MIA, Villa Medici and Cinecittà. Documentary and non-fiction at MIA revolve around the Doc Co-production Market & Pitching Forum (deadline for submissions June 19) and the Italians Doc It Better programme.