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Mr Nobody Against Putin by Pasha Talankin and David Borenstein was handed the gong for Best Documentary during the Bafta award ceremony February 22 at London’s Festival Hall. The film, which is also nominated for Academy Award, follows a Russian teacher (Talankin) who documents the Putin administration’s movements in controlling public perception of the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Yo (Love is a Rebellious Bird), the only documentary in Berlin Competition, picks up the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution. The Berlinale Documentary Award was given to If Pigeons Turned to Gold by Pepa Lubojacki. In the Teddy Awards, the Best Documentary/Essay Film award went to Brydie O’Connor for Barbara Forever. All doc awards…

How do you prove a documentary’s effectiveness in a climate of shrinking public resources, risk-averse commissioning and opaque platform metrics? That question sat at the heart of the DocSalon event titled Data on Impact, Please! Essential Needs in Non-Fiction Financing, an open-format conversation held on 15 February that repeatedly returned to a simple diagnosis: the sector is being asked to justify itself with data it often cannot access, cannot standardise and has little capacity to collect.

On February 16, EFM 2026 hosted a session titled Future Heritage – Securing the Future of Digital Cinema Archives, during which experts delivered a clear message to the documentary sector: the industry has embraced digital production, but long-term preservation remains dangerously fragile. The panel was part of Doc Salon’s Archive Day.

The leading Greek docfest revealed February 19 the fourteen-film selection for its International Competition. Prizes include the Golden Alexander, which is accompanied by a cash prize of 12,000 euros, and the Silver Alexander, accompanied by a cash prize of 5,000 euros. The 28th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival runs March 5-15.

At EFM 2026 Ji.hlava IDFF presented the current cohort of professionals partaking in its Emerging Producers programme, and put out the call for the next programme that will run 2026 through 2027. Every year the festival selects 18 talented producers (17 European and one representing a guest country), which it provides with educational, networking and promotional support. The applications deadline for the next programme is March 31.

Academy Award-winning Ahmir 'Questlove' Thompson sat down with Geeta Gandbhir to discuss her Oscar and Bafta-nominated The Perfect Neighbor, about the shooting of Ajike Owens, a Black mother of four, by her white neighbour, who claimed "stand your ground" rights in her defence. “It's really about the intersection of racism, polarisation, anger and predatory laws that lead to violence,” says Gandbhir of her Netflix documentary.

CPH:DOX returns to Copenhagen March 11–22 2026 for its 23rd edition, presenting more than 200 new films alongside debates, live talks, concerts, exhibitions and special events. 86 world premieres, 25 international premieres and 10 European premieres are featured in this year's festival, of which 63 are feature-length films. Key figures coming to Copenhagen include HBO cult icon John Wilson, French actress and director Juliette Binoche and acclaimed documentarian Louis Theroux, amongst many others.

At EFM 2026, a packed Café Connect saw a revealing conversation between German filmmaker Andres Veiel and Deadline’s Matt Carey. The 30-minute discussion, held on 17 February, ranged from Veiel’s latest feature Riefenstahl to questions of archival ethics, documentary responsibility and the renewed relevance of historical material in a tense global political climate.

On February 16, EFM hosted a candid roundtable that examined gaps and opportunities in international documentary co-production between Germany and Morocco. The Moroccan–German Non-Fiction Assembly, organised within the DocSalon strand in partnership with Morocco’s Cinematographic Centre (CCM) and FIDADOC Agadir, brought together producers, broadcasters, festival programmers and filmmakers to explore how ties between the two industries might be strengthened in practical terms.