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The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) announced October 13 the main competition line-ups for its 39th edition, running November 12 to 22. Newly unveiled selections include the International and Envision Competitions, Luminous, Frontlight, the IDFA DocLab competition selections, and the nominations for all cross-section awards. The IDFA 2026 official selection includes 253 titles from 80 countries and opens with the world premiere of White Tiger Column by Robert Mentov, Dwight Jantzi and Bryan Dickie.

Organisers of Impact Days, the professional programme of the Geneva-based International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (FIFDH), announced October 13 the twelve projects selected for the event's 9th edition, running March 7 to 9 2027. Over the coming months, teams will be coached online on all matters impact, before the projects' presentation to international impact professionals and human rights organisations.

The festival’s 30th edition will showcase 350 films across its competitive and non-competitive sections, including 106 world premieres, 28 international premieres and 8 European premieres. Alongside the latest films from the Czech Republic and abroad, the programme includes the Films That Changed the World section and a retrospective of Vietnamese-American filmmaker and theorist Trinh T. Minh-ha. Selections for the Ji.hlava’s Short Joy competition is now available free of charge on DAFilms.com, where audiences can also vote for the winner.

DOK Leipzig has unveiled its competition line-up for the 69th edition (26 Oct to Nov 1). A total of 76 films, including 30 world premieres, are competing for Golden and Silver Doves across the four competitions, three of which are documentary-oriented, the fourth animation. “Many of this year’s competing films focus on Central and Eastern Europe. Giving more space to films and filmmakers in these countries is not only a key concern of DOK Leipzig, but also something I care deeply about personally,” says Ola Staszel, incoming festival director.

IDFA 2026 has unveiled a slate of 47 “outstanding” projects, culled from 859 submissions, for the 34th edition of IDFA Forum (November 15–18). Following an assessment involving 42 external experts, the final line-up brings together projects in development, production and near-completion, showcased across the Forum Pitches, Roundtable Presentations, Rough Cut Presentations and IDFA DocLab Forum.

Sales and distribution outfit Lightdox has acquired the international sales rights to Nostalgia for the Future, the new documentary by Belgian filmmaker and visual artist Brecht Debackere, narrated by acclaimed actress Charlotte Rampling. The film takes audiences deep into the mysterious world and extraordinary archive of legendary filmmaker Chris Marker, offering an intimate and visually inventive portrait of one of cinema’s most elusive figures. The film plays this week at Film Fest Ghent.

The Grierson Trust announced Oct 8 that Anna Godas, CEO and co-founder of Dogwoof, will be the recipient of the prestigious Grierson Trustees Award for 2026, sponsored by the BBC, and given in recognition of her role in distributing and producing multiple award-winning feature documentaries for more than 20 years. The award will be presented at this year’s British Documentary Awards ceremony, taking place November 10 November at London’s Roundhouse.

This year’s DOK Industry programme will be jam-packed with animation, not just to complement the festival’s programming line, but also “to establish DOK Industry as a meeting point for the international animated film community,” the festival writes. “Across all parts of the festival, DOK Leipzig is always exploring the boundaries of animation: from animated documentaries via experimental films all the way to the DOK Neuland extended reality exhibition,” organisers add.

CPH:DOX’s international financing and co-production event CPH:FORUM has put out the call for its 2027 edition. The deadline for submissions is November 3, 2026. The Forum will this year place emphasis on doc projects aimed directly at young audiences, and will continues its focus on creative documentary projects that tackle science “in ways that redefine the cinematic language and push the boundaries of what a science documentary can be,” write organisers.

The second edition of NLWave, the Utrecht-based two-day showcase of new Dutch film content, came to a close October 2 following the presentation of 35 early stage projects and works in progress. Fifteen of these were documentaries, some of which seem destined for selection at festivals before the end of 2026, into early 2027. The event attracted 60 industry toppers from the sales, distribution and festival sectors.