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The winners of the international competitions of CPH:DOX 2026 were announced March 20. The international competition line-up included a total of 74 films, hand-picked from thousands of submissions from around the world, featuring 53 world premieres, 17 international premieres, and 4 European premieres. The main prize, the DOX:AWARD, was awarded to ‘Whispers in May’ by Dongnan Chen.

A community of Congolese plantation workers turning art into a tool for land restitution and ecological repair took centre stage at the CPH:DOX Roughcut showcase held on 16 March, as filmmakers Céd’art Tamasala and Renzo Martens presented The Dawn of the Post Plantation. “This film is a tool,” DRC artist Tamasala underscored. “A tool to get back our land, our dignity and to bring the sacred back into our community.”

The winners of the CPH:INDUSTRY Awards 2026 were announced March 19, with the Eurimages New Lab Outreach Award, valued at €30,000, going to Don’t Let The Sun Go Up On Me by director Asmae El Moudir and producer Emma Lepers. The Sandbox Films Science Pitch Prize 2026, worth $25,000, went to Matrescence by Kathryn Ferguson. produced by Eleanor Emptage, Rosie Crerar. All awards…

Irish filmmaker Gar O’Rourke (Sanatorium) returned to CPH:DOX this year with The Siege of Paradise, a character-driven documentary exploring the human consequences of over-tourism in Italy’s Cinque Terre. “A few years ago an Italian friend told me about this small place of fewer than 4,000 people receiving more than four million tourists every year,” O’Rourke recalled. “I wanted to understand what that actually felt like.”

Moroccan filmmaker Asmae El Moudir presented her new hybrid doc project Don’t Let the Sun Go Up on Me, which concerns teenager Fatimazahra who, before her sad passing, suffered from xeroderma pigmentosum (XP), a rare genetic condition that makes exposure to sunlight potentially fatal. Now her younger sister Meriem carries forward Fatimazahra’s dream of travelling to Norway’s Lofoten Islands, where the polar night allows for months without sunlight. “I’m looking for ways to keep her alive,” the filmmaker explained. “Through her voice, through her own images — creating a dialogue between the living and the absent.”

Estonian filmmaker Maris Salumets presented her investigative documentary War on Women during this year's CPH:DOX Rough Cut presentation, held on 16 March. Salumets offered industry professionals an early look at a project that seeks to map the global networks driving anti-gender politics across Europe. “This is a film about my own journey investigating the anti-gender movement in Europe and its close ties to US and Russian money and influence,” she told the Copenhagen audience.

DocsBarcelona will open its 29th edition on May 7 with the Iranian film A Fox Under a Pink Moon, in which sixteen-year-old artist Soraya Akhlaghi documents her attempts to escape Iran, where she lives with her abusive husband, and reunite with her mother in Austria. The festival, which runs From May 7 to 17, 2026, also gives a glimpse of first selections in its Official and Visions Competition sections.

The awards of the 28th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival were handed out March 15 2026. The Int’l Comp Golden Alexander was handed to Closure by Michał Marczak, while the Silver Alexander went to Birds of War by Janay Boulos & Abd Alkader Habak. The Newcomers Competition Golden Alexander “Dimitri Eipides” was won by At No Cost by Mary Bouli, while the Newcomers Silver Alexander went to Replica by Chouwa Liang. All awards…

Mr. Nobody Against Putin by David Borenstein and Pavel Talankin won the Oscar® for Best Documentary Feature at the 98th Academy Awards, held March 15 in LA. “In the name of our future, in the name of all of our children, stop all of these wars now,” the film's protagonist and co-director Talankin said in Russian from the stage via a translator. The Oscar® for Best Doc Short went to All the Empty Rooms by Joshua Seftel.

The 24th FIFDH attracted more than 32,000 festivalgoers who not only watched 50+ films (incl 35 docs) but attended discussions featuring more than 200 guests from the worlds of art, science, politics and activism. Thirteen films received awards at the prize ceremony, held on March 14. “These films shed light on realities too often overlooked, and open up powerful new perspectives. We are proud to celebrate works that inspire courage and give voice to those too often unheard,” said Laila Alonso Huarte and Laura Longobardi, Editorial Co-Directors, FIFDH. All doc winners, plus further Longobardi comment.