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The film, directed by Kristina Mikhailova, will have its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival in the Forum Special section. River Dreams marks a historic milestone as the first documentary from Kazakhstan ever selected for Berlin. “My film is a love-hate letter to Kazakhstan, told through a female gaze, already an act of resistance where I come from,” says director Mikhailova. (See exclusive first look at the film’s official poster.)

CPH:DOX announced February 5 the line-up of artworks and experiences for its 2026 INTER:ACTIVE exhibition, running March 11-22 and centred on the theme of HYPERVIGILANCE’ “The works in this year’s INTER:ACTIVE exhibition expose the collective anxiety of a society on high alert, where we struggle to retain agency over our image, body, and voice,” comments CPH:LAB’s Head of Studies, Mark Atkin.

Visions du Réel announced February 5 that U.S. filmmaker and journalist Laura Poitras will be the Special Guest at the opening of the 24th edition of VdR–Industry, the Festival's programme dedicated to industry professionals. Laura Poitras is the author of a post-9/11 trilogy, which concluded with the Oscar-winning film CITIZENFOUR. Poitras’ latest film, Cover-Up, which world-premiered at Venice 2025, paints a portrait of American journalist Seymour Hersh, who broke a series of major stories, from the Watergate scandal to the revelations of torture at Abu Ghraib during the Iraq War.

The feature doc concerns Rio’s Projeto ViDançar initiative that offers underprivileged children, living in the notoriously violent Complexo do Alemão favela, the opportunity to express themselves through ballet. The idea came to producer Mike Downey (also outgoing Chair of the European Film Academy) back in 2013 when in Rio to shoot a film. Friend Stephen Daldry was there too, in part to present a screening of his Billy Elliot. “I think, there and then, the seeds of this documentary were sown,” says Downey, who also reflects to BDE on his 25 years at EFA.

Running March 8 to 10, the Geneva-based industry programme will present a packed schedule of keynotes, screenings, case studies and analyses of best practices from around the world. Core to proceedings is the pitch of 12 international film projects developed during the Impact Lab training programme, and a 4 further impact projects in Swiss Focus. The event offers filmmakers the opportunity to connect with impact producers, philanthropists and key human rights organisations based in Geneva and beyond.

French sales company Andana Films has boarded Tawfik Sabouni’s The Other Side of the Sun (see trailer) which receives its world premiere in Berlin Panorama 2026, in which the director returns to post-Assad Syria to meet four fellow former detainees of the notorious former Saidnaya prison. “The film reveals the horror of a system and its executioners, while also bringing out a profound human beauty born from the protagonists’ listening and solidarity,” says Stephan Riguet, Andana Films MD.

European Film Promotion has appointed international media executive and producer Irina Ignatiew-Lemke as its new Managing Director. She will take over the role from Sonja Heinen on 1 August 2026, who will step down after ten years in charge. “[Irina] understands both the creative and business side of today’s global film landscape and has a strong sensibility for the diverse realities, structures and needs of EFP’s member countries,” says EFP President Vítor Pinheiro.

To Hold a Mountain wins World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary while the U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary goes to Nuisance Bear. Other prizes in World Documentary Competition are awarded to Birds of War (Special Jury Award for Journalistic Impact); Everybody To Kenmure Street (Special Jury Award for Journalistic Impact), and One In A Million (Directing Award). All doc awards…

Xuban Intxausti’s Live Till Death examines the experiences of Basque women as they confront cancer “through a collective, feminist, and transformative lens.” It follows members of the Iñurri association as they defy the stigma often attached to the disease. “It’s a little thing, you know, a little story in a little country, but somehow I think that it's something amazing, because they are facing the illness in a new way,” director Intxausti tells BDE.

Valley of the Heart (CZ) tells the story of Purna between the ages of 24 and 33. He is a young man who has grown up in a secluded valley deep within Nepal, but he longs for escape. When his father dies, he leaves the valley for the first time to settle in the Czech Republic. “The emotions of beginning anew, of estrangement and adaptation, are deeply familiar. I believe that whatever melancholy emerges from this dimension of the story will be balanced by the vitality of the courtship scenes and the cultural collisions that ensue,” producer Jiri Konečny tells BDE.