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The Ji.hlava New Visions Forum is a financing, co-production, and networking platform dedicated to supporting documentary production in all its diversity and creativity, and which has served as a successful launchpad for numerous European, Asian, and U.S. documentaries. Projects presented at the Forum over the past three years have gone on to premiere at major festivals, including Hot Docs, Sundance, Rotterdam, Berlinale, Cannes, and Locarno. The submission deadline is April 30.

Visions du Réel unveiled April 22 the winners of the 24th edition of VdR–Industry. More than CHF 80’000 in cash and in-kind prizes were awarded to 12 projects during the awards ceremony in Nyon. The Eurimages Co-Production Development Award, which grants €20,000 to support international co-productions at an early stage, was handed to Uganda by Daniel Mann. The final visions sud est Award, which has long encouraged independent film production in countries with low production capacities with a CHF 10'000 prize, went to Job 1:21 by Samuel Suffren.

In Small Talk, director Mateo Ybarra turns his attention toward the mysterious world of a Swiss finishing school - a place where women come to learn those last lessons in etiquette that will enable them to thrive in high society. “For me, it was really important to be as transparent as possible and to open a dialogue,” the director insists to BDE. He may not share the school’s values but he was determined to treat his subjects with respect. “To make fun of people or to be condescending was not of interest to me.”

Summer Drift (aka Virages) was presented this week in Vision Du Reel’s “Swiss Films Presents” showcase. A few minutes of footage were shown but audiences and buyers will have the chance to see the entire movie next month when it has its world premiere in the Cannes Festival Acid section. “I would say it’s a documentary-comedy, a ‘fiction-réel’ as we say in France, turned into a summer comedy,” producer Aurélien Marsais suggests to BDE.

“It’s always good to tell sad stories with a glimpse of burlesque humour,” Italian-Swiss director Davide Tisato reflects on his new project Two Donkeys and a Saint (Il Nostro Miracolo, presented this week in Visions du Réel’s ‘Swiss Films Previews’ strand). In the film, a motley crew of inhabitants from rural Tuscany set out on a 200km walk to the Vatican in Rome to petition the Pope to intervene on behalf of their struggling community. They’re accompanied by two donkeys and a statue of a local saint, ‘Santa Caterina.’

US indie cinema’s most fastidious (and ostensibly fiction) director Kelly Reichardt talked at length about her love of small things and her “granular” approach to filmmaking during her VdR Masterclass, presented April 21. “While we were having lunch, Emilie [Bujès, VdR Artistic Director) was trying to convince me that there is not a difference [between documentary and fiction]. As I said, I don’t know how documentaries are made. It is such a different process. I love watching them…[but] everything I do, it’s all made up!”

MDAG Industry will take place from 7 to 11 May in Warsaw’s State Ethnographic Museum. ”From working with personal and family archives, through giving voice to communities living in the shadow of political change, to practical accessibility tools – this year, the Industry programme brings together filmmakers, producers and institutions who treat inclusivity not as an add-on, but as a foundation of contemporary documentary cinema,” organisers write. ”The guiding theme of this year’s programme is the voices that have been kept on the margins for far too long.”

With a program structured around five thematic threads of Art, Change, Female Lens, Nature and Together, this year’s edition presents a total of 46 international documentary feature films and 12 short films. Non-fiction book readings, live podcasts, and a virtual reality exhibition will offer alternative entry points into documentary storytelling. Running May 27 to June 7, Doxumentale “transforms Potsdamer Platz into a vibrant meeting space for film, literature, podcasts, and immersive media."

DOK.fest Munich has unveiled the programme for its 41st edition. 106 films from 49 countries will be screened, 23 of which will have their world premiere, and a further 59 films will have their international or German premiere. Films will compete for three main prizes, the VIKTORIAs for International and German Competitions, and for Cinema of Urgency. This year, the programme team selected from 1,440 submissions – a new record for the festival. DOK.fest Munich runs this year May 6 to 18.

The Brazilian project, directed by Ana Ahranha and produced by Mariana Genescá (Amana Cine) highlights the challenges around the protection of farms and nature against pesticides. It also features the main character's desire to fight for a better world for her daughter. The team wins two free Market Passes for Sunny Side of the Doc 2026, which will take place from June 22 to 24, 2026, in La Rochelle, France.