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The awards of the second Doxumentale were handed out June 19 with the Best Documentary award going to The Age of Water by Alfredo and Isabel Alcántara. The festival runs to June 22, serving up a feast of documentary storytelling across different media, comprising forty documentary films, ten live podcasts, readings from nine new non-fiction books, a curated kids’ programme and seven VX projects. Thereafter, selected films will show online to June 30. All awards…

Executive producer Salla Kozma (pictured) announced June 19 the launch of her new Monaco and Finland-based film and TV production company Pig & Horse Productions. She also announced a “dynamic slate” of high-quality documentaries and unscripted formats, foremost among which is the high-end doc Reflections of Gaugin which “delves into the mystifying world of infamous art, wealth and power.”

In Sheffield, Amilcar Infante and Sebastián González’s Unwelcomed has its European premiere in Journey, while two new Chilean projects are selected for MeetMarket. At Sunny Side of the Doc, 3 Chilean docs are selected across the market’s pitch sessions. “As the Ministry of Cultures, we remain committed to the audiovisual sector, supporting the presence of Chilean works and projects in major documentary markets and festivals,” says Carolina Arredondo, Minister of Cultures, Arts and Heritage.

The pitch event, to run during Ji.hlava Industry Days (Czech Republic, October 28–31), is dedicated to the “new generation of European producers, new formats, innovative trends, and visions for the future.” This year will see a special pitch section focused on Croatia, which is the Ji.hlava Industry guest country 2025. The deadline for applications is June 30.

Netflix has secured UK streaming rights to the feature documentary, The Cancer Conflict, directed by Thomas Meadmore and produced by Go Fish Films. The film, which delves into the personal journeys of two cancer patients navigating the complexities of treatment choices in an era rife with misinformation, is set to premiere on the platform on July 8. Sales are handled by Java Films.

At Dokumentale Good Media Pitch (June 12), Georgian director Ketevan Vashagashvili and producer Nino Chichua made their Impact presentation for 9-Month Contract, which shines the spotlight on Tbilisi’s unregulated surrogacy market. In the film, Zhana is undergoing her third surrogate pregnancy. “There is a lot of power imbalance between prospective foreign parents and surrogate mothers,” said Vashagashvili. “Because of their very different socioeconomic backgrounds, these women - Georgian surrogate mothers – often need legal protection, and they don't have access to it.”

To avoid a potential legal dispute, the Berlin-based festival Dokumentale announced during its opening that it will forthwith drop the ‘k’ and go instead by the name of Doxumentale. “Doxumentale is a declaration of love - for our former name, for documentary media, and for the power of constructive collaboration,'”explained festival directors Vivian Schröder and Anna Ramskogler-Witt.

26 projects have been selected for the 29th edition of Baltic Sea Docs, the Riga-based co-production and co-financing forum running 31 August to 5 September 2025. The selection includes 22 projects in development and at production stage, along with four projects in post-production presented in the forum’s Coming Soon section. Once again, there is a strong presence from the Baltic states, alongside projects from Ukraine, Finland, Poland, and other countries in the region.

US actress Kim Novak will receive the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival (La Biennale di Venezia), running 27 August to 6 September 2025. The award will coincide with the Venice world premiere of ‘Kim Novak’s Vertigo’, the new feature doc by writer-director Alexandre O. Philippe. The film is sold by Dogwoof who boarded the project at Cannes 2025.

Doc Edge, New Zealand’s premier international documentary festival and an Oscar® qualifying event, announced June 9 the finalists for its Doc Edge Awards 2025. The Awards will be held on Thursday, 3 July, at the Grand Millennium Auckland, and will be handed out across four categories: New Zealand Feature Film, New Zealand Short, International Feature Film, International Short.