News

CPH:LAB, CPH:DOX's talent development and training programme, has selected nine new international immersive documentary projects for its 2026-2027 line-up. The curated selection spans a wide range of topics, genres, and artistic approaches, with a diverse group of storytellers from around the world behind the projects. Participants will spend the coming months in an intensive development phase, culminating in prototype presentations at CPH:DOX 2027 in Copenhagen, running March 10–21.

This year at DOK Leipzig (26 Oct – Nov 1), Young DOK is once again showing a selection of diverse and age-appropriate documentary and animated films, inviting audiences young and old to dream and reflect. The section is made up of Kids DOK - for youngest film buffs, of nursery and primary school age - and Young Eyes, which features films for teenagers. Alongside German productions and films with no dialogue at all, international titles will be screened with subtitles.

The second edition of NLWave presents a curated selection of 35 Dutch projects, ranging from early stage projects to works in progress, to an international group of festival programmers, sales agents and distributors. Fourteen of these are documentary projects, of which two are first-time pitches and twelve are WIPs. The showcase runs from 30 September to 2 October in Utrecht, where it coincides with the closing of the Netherlands Film Festival.

The 24th edition, running 15 to 25 October, will present 34 world premieres, 13 international premieres, three European premieres and 32 Portuguese premieres, “spanning generations, geographies and different ways of making and thinking about cinema,” organisers write. Doclisboa opens with Asphalt Guerrilla by Edgar Pêra, and closes with Thanks for Coming by 95-year-old Alain Cavalier.

DocsBarcelona has opened the call for submissions for its 30th edition, running 29 April to 9 May 2027. The festival will once again bring together a selection of the best international, Spanish and Catalan documentary cinema, with several competitive sections, special screenings, premieres and a major retrospective. Deadline for short docs: 28 September 2026. Deadline for feature docs: 30 November 2026. Early bird deadline for feature films: 2 October 2026.

The People’s Choice Documentary Award was presented to Barry Avrich for Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Been, while the People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award was presented to Matthew Rankin for Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney. Honourable Mentions went to The Black Box is Orange by Yuula Benivolski (Best Canadian Discovery Award), and Man in Motion: The Rick Hansen Story by Adrian Buitenhuis (Best Canadian Feature Award).

“Claus Melvad is an extraordinary inventor whose autism, ADHD, OCD and Tourette’s are both a source of huge challenges and, in his own words, his superpowers,” Danish producer Signe Skov Thomsen tells BDE of the subject of An Unlikely Hero, pitched at Nordisk Panorama 2026. But can Claus’ technology shed light on a crucial blind spot of climate science - that of rising sea levels? And can he prove to himself and his daughters, who have inherited his diagnoses, that he can make a difference and play his part in saving the world?

“Out of Place stands out through its intimate approach to Palestinian exile and culture, combining a deeply personal story with broader contemporary questions of identity, belonging, and displacement,” Swedish producer Mónica Hernández Rejón tells BDE of her Nordisk Panorama project, in which exiled Gazan director Mohammed Fares Al Majdalawi returns to his homeland where he senses an unspoken shift in the city, its people and himself.

In his debut feature doc, Ömer Sami sets out to revive the memory of his legendary childhood idol, the teacher Scott Peake, but what he discovers en route is far more complex than he had imagined. “The film reminds us of the value of teachers and their ability to profoundly affect generations. Whatever was invented in Scott’s stories, his impact on his students was real,” says Danish producer Monica Hellström of Ström Pictures.

Throughout his much-documented fall from grace, Finnish Olympic champion Mika Myllylä filmed his family with his home video camera, from which another, deeply personal story emerges. “The project combines a highly recognisable Nordic figure and major sports archive with an intimate family story that does not depend on prior knowledge of Mika,” producer Pasi Hakkio tells BDE of his Nordisk Panorama WIP. “That gives the film two routes into an audience: the very strong Nordic recognition of Mika, and the much broader international themes of family, addiction, elite sport, shame and inherited patterns.”