News

What if the Iran-Contra affair had turned out differently forty years ago? Would there be peace in the Middle East now? Tal Barda’s Israeli/German three-part series Strings of Power poses this question. With “incredible” access to some of those involved, director Barda unearths archive footage and documents, alongside new material that has come to light. The director talks to Business Doc Europe.

“What initially began as a portrait of loss and transformation is now evolving into something luminous, where life, resilience, and affection create space for hope,” says producer Estephania Bonnett (Playlab Films, Barcelona) of her latest project, Captain. Currently in production and pitching this week during FIPADOC Pro Industry days, the film records a farewell between a father suffering from Alzheimer’s and his daughter (director Laura Otálora).

Jane Ray, Artistic Director of The Whickers, presented January 28 findings of her organisation’s eighth Cost of Docs survey to the professional audience at FIPADOC in Biarritz. The report includes revelations and insights about the use of technology and AI within the doc industry, positive and negative experiences in co-production, and the ever-present concern around funding. Before her presentation, Ray spoke exclusively to BDE.

After the December 2025 announcement to cancel its 2026 edition, Sunny Side of the Doc will return to La Rochelle (France) from 22 to 24 June 2026 with a new format in partnership with Documentary Campus. “Together with Documentary Campus, we are reinforcing our role as a key marketplace while creating fresh opportunities for the professionals who firmly stood up for it," says Aurélie Reman, Sunny Side MD.

Directed by acclaimed Belgian filmmaker Pieter-Jan De Pue, Mariinka will celebrate its world premiere at the CPH:DOX 2026 opening gala in the concert hall of the Royal Danish Academy of Music on March 10 at 19:00, in the presence of the director and the film crew, including two of the main protagonists in the film. The 23rd edition of CPH:DOX will take place March 11–22 in Copenhagen.

Five films are nominated in the BAFTA Documentary category. Two of these (Mr Nobody Against Putin and The Perfect Neighbor) are also nominated within the 2026 Oscar Feature Doc category. Meanwhile, one documentary is nominated in the BAFTA Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer category. The winners will be announced during the 79th BAFTA film awards ceremony, set to take place Sunday, February 22, at London’s Royal Festival Hall.

The feature-length doc tells the story of the wildly popular, annual Easter Sunday tradition in San Francisco known as Hunky Jesus. Hosted by the legendary drag and activist group the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, “the event is a defiant expression of community, performance, and radical joy in the face of exclusion and repression,” the festival writes. The 40th BFI Flare will run 18 – 29 March 2026 at BFI Southbank, London.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced January 22 2026 the nominations in the documentary categories of the 98th Academy Awards®. Five films will now advance to each of the Documentary Feature Film and Documentary Short Film categories. Two hundred and one films were eligible for the Doc Feature category, while 117 films qualified in the Short Doc category. In December 2025 the shortlists were whittled down to 15 films within each category.

Running 25 February to 8 March, the festival will open with Felipe Bustos Sierra’s local documentary Everybody to Kenmure Street, executive produced by Emma Thompson. Other Scottish docs include Molly vs the Machines, Marc Silver’s story of a heartbroken father’s quest to uncover the truth behind his daughter's death, and Sailm nan Daoine (Psalms of the People), Jack Archer’s documentary on Scotland’s tradition of Gaelic psalm singing. Both will world premiere in Glasgow.

The Catalan docfest will also present a retrospective of Cousins’ work during the upcoming edition, which will take place May 7 to 17. Furthermore, during his visit to Barcelona, Cousins will give a masterclass and present the Spanish premiere of the first episode of his new series, The Story of Documentary Film, following its world and European premieres at the Sundance and Berlin festivals respectively.