News

Inna Shevchenko, Ukrainian feminist activist and the leader of international women's movement FEMEN, pitched her urgent new project, about the Ukrainian survivors of war who are rehabilitating in the Lviv Superhumans Center. “People rebuilding their bodies part by part, rebuilding themselves part by part, they rebuild the very idea of Ukraine - and they are rebuilding the country and the nation itself,” she told the professional audience.

The deadline for submissions for CPH:DOX’s international financing and co-production event CPH:FORUM is fast approaching, with a cut-off date of November 5, 2025. The call also includes the second edition of CPH:RoughCut, which will present 5 projects at late stage looking for distributors (including theatrical), sales agents, buyers, high profile festival premieres and other forms of exhibition.

The Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM) has unveiled the full program of its 28th edition, which will take place from November 20 to 30, 2025. With a selection of 136 films from 47 countries, bringing together the works of established filmmakers and promising new talents, “RIDM remains true to its mandate to present the richness of diverse perspectives on the world through the most stimulating and distinctive visions of documentary cinema,” write organisers.

Lynne Sachs’s new feature doc will world premiere in the upcoming IDFA Signed section. Since 1990, the filmmaker has collected 600 business cards—from a hairdresser, a therapist, a textile artist. Together they form an archive of encounters. A lifetime of tactile, face-to-face encounters reminds her of identities passed from hand to hand.

The professional and educational program of the Verzió Documentary Film Festival kicks off November 12 ahead of five days of masterclasses, workshops, and presentations. For the first time in collaboration with the Hungarian Documentary Association (MADOKE), Hungarian doc projects in development will be showcased to both professionals and the public.

The two festivals may run concurrently, but that is no hindrance to Polish docmakers who are out in force this year at both Ji.hlava IDFF and DOK Leipzig. Seven Polish productions have been selected for the Czech docfest, while eight projects are pitched in Leipzig, in addition to a basketful of selections in the festival program. (Still: Trains by Maciej J. Drygas)

Fossil Matter follows twin scientific endeavours undertaken within a natural history museum in southern Patagonia; firstly, to excavate an ichthyosaur, a marine reptile from the Cretaceous period, and secondly to retrieve the carcass of a whale stranded on the shores of Tierra del Fuego. It’s “a project rooted in the far south that involves scientists, artists, historians, and filmmakers who are convinced that research - across all its disciplinary expressions - can be a step toward rewriting the story of southern Patagonia and envisioning possible futures for the planet,” Panizza tells BDE.

The Best International Competition Film was awarded to The Night Is Fading Away by Ezequiel Salinas and Ramiro Sonzini (Argentina). The International Competition Jury Award went to Tell Me a Fairy Tale by Ebrû Avci (Turkey), while the Jury Award for Best International Competition Director was won by Fantasy by Isabel Pagliai (France). The Doclisboa Award for Best Portuguese Competition Film was picked by Água Mãe, by Hiroatsu Suzuki and Rossana Torres.

Located in the east-German city of Halle, Kindesmutter tells the story of Anne who became a mother at the age of 17. Her daughter Leonie (now 14) runs the risks of taking the same path of drug addiction. To break the cycle, Anne determines to change her life, but can she become the role model her daughter needs before it’s too late? “While the film is rooted in the social realities of Eastern Germany, Anne’s struggle to break cycles of poverty, addiction, and stigma speaks to universal experiences of motherhood, resilience, and hope,” producer Friedemann Hottenbacher tells BDE.

Kim Hess’s There You Go follows new ballet director Demis Volpi during his first season at the Hamburg State Opera, after the departure of legend John Neumeier who, over the previous 50 years, had turned the Hamburg Ballet into an internationally renowned company. “What began as a portrait of a promising new beginning has, in a few months, become a chronicle of a historic cultural conflict,” producer Lotta Schmelzer tells BDE.