News

Mexican-Salvadoran filmmaker Tatiana Huezo will be the Guest of Honour at IDFA 2026, which takes place from November 12 to 22. IDFA will present a Retrospective of Huezo’s work, alongside a personal Top 10 film selection. Also announced is the Dead Angle: Common Ground focus program; a spotlight on pioneering American filmmaker William Greaves; and the 20th anniversary of IDFA DocLab, themed Shared Realities.

Dawood Hilmandi’s feature documentary Paikar has been selected as the Netherlands’ official entry to the 99th Academy Awards in the International Feature Film category. The film world-premiered at IDFA, where it won the Best First Feature Award and FIPRESCI Award. At Hot Docs it received the Emerging International Filmmaker Award, and has been presented at numerous other festivals worldwide including DOKfest Munich and the Guanajuato International Film Festival. The film is produced by prolific Dutch outfit BALDR Film.

Eight awards were handed out at the end of the 30th Baltic Sea Docs which this year ran September 6 to 11. The inaugural ARTE European Talent Development Award, which comprises a €10,000 development grant in exchange for a first-look deal, was won by the Lithuanian project Two of Us (pictured), directed by Jūratė Samulionytė, and produced by Dagnė Vildžiūnaitė and Danielė Kunčinaitė. A total of 26 documentary projects were selected for this year’s edition.

The Official Special Jury Prize was awarded to Naza by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor (UK). The film also won the independent Edipo Re Student Award and the Green Drop Award. The Impact Golden Globes Prize went to Letters from the Silenced Country (Listy) by Andrei Kutsila. while a Queer Lion Award went to Theo Rollason for Queer Edward II. Bibiana Rojas Gómez and Juan David Cárdenas the Mario Serandrei - Hotel Saturnia Award for Best Technical Contribution for The End of Times. The Cinema & Arts Best Film Award was won by Takashi Miike for Shumei: The Living Legacy of Kabuki.

The 22nd edition of the DOK Co-Pro Market of DOK Leipzig welcomes 35 projects from 34 countries looking to connect with new international financing and co-production partners. This year’s selection represents a wide geographic spread, spanning all continents and featuring countries typically less represented in the international film arena, including the DR Congo, Namibia, Palestine, Kazakhstan, and Nigeria. Women filmmakers also maintain a strong presence in the line-up, comprising 50 percent of directing talent.

The Ji.hlava New Visions Forum, a core industry event of the Ji.hlava International Documentary FF, will showcase a new selection of documentary projects from emerging and established filmmakers. A total of 29 projects from 15 countries will be presented during the Forum, taking place October 28–30, offering their teams the opportunity to connect with potential co-production, financing, sales, and distribution partners.

Serbia-based sales company Films Mundi has acquired exclusive international sales rights (excluding Poland) to Kamila Serwicka’s feature documentary Blossoming (A teraz wiosna). The acquisition follows the film’s world premiere at the Locarno Film Festival’s Semaine de la Critique, where it won the Grand Prix Semaine de la Critique – Prix SRG SSR. “It was the film’s poetic, atmospheric quality, emotional honesty and tenderness that drew me so strongly to it," Neda Lukić, Founder of Films Mundi, tells BDE.

Running March to October 2026, the main objective of the EURODOC flagship programme is to enhance the artistic and financial development of film projects, to improve know-how in terms of international co-production and company management, and to reinforce the set of continuously evolving skills a career in independent production requires. “We believe that project development and career-building go hand in hand,” the organisation writes. Deadline for application: November 23 2026.

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.