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On Wednesday, May 21, a sunlit stretch of the Plage du CNC transformed into a hub for cinematic memory and innovation. During this year’s Cannes Film Festival, an extraordinary presentation unveiled a ground-breaking educational initiative: a platform giving film students open access to 54 hours of rushes from Agnès Varda’s The Gleaners and I (Les Glaneurs et la Glaneuse, 2000), offering them the rare opportunity to edit this material in alignment with their own directorial visions.

On 20 May, in front of a live audience gathered on the Main Stage of Cannes, filmmaker Viv Li described her experiences as a first-time documentary director. “I’m honoured to represent the voices of first-time filmmakers at Cannes,” she said, before launching into a keynote that felt less like a formal talk and more like an audacious one-woman performance — in equal parts confession, stand-up and manifesto.

In an industry saturated with submissions and shifting audience behaviours, selecting documentaries for 'non-doc specific' film festivals remains an intricate craft — a fact that emerged during the May 20 'Real Talk panel organised for this year’s Cannes Docs. The conversation featured insights from Pamela Biénzobas (Locarno Film Festival), Paul Grandsard (Festival de Cannes), Michael Stütz (Berlinale), and Ania Trzebiatowska (Sundance Film Festival), under the moderation of Eric Hynes, Director of Film Curation and Programming at the Jacob Burns.

This week, MIA (Mercato Internazionale Audiovisivo) unveiled new partnerships and programmes for its 11th edition, to be held in Rome, October 6 to 10 2025. Core to proceedings was a discussion on Scenari Transalpini - an initiative of Institut Français Italia in partnership with MIA, Villa Medici and Cinecittà. Documentary and non-fiction at MIA revolve around the Doc Co-production Market & Pitching Forum (deadline for submissions June 19) and the Italians Doc It Better programme.

Raindance Film Festival announced May 20 that this year’s Netflix Documentary Talent Fund films will premiere in Official Selection. The documentary shorts will each be eligible to be considered for Raindance’s Oscar®-qualifying ‘Best Documentary Short’ jury award. The films will premiere on June 26, the closing night of the 33rd Raindance Film Festival.

At the close of Cannes Docs 2025, section chief Pierre-Alexis Chevit hosted the Docs-in-Progress Awards Ceremony during which this year’s winners were announced. Over the past days, eightshowcases of docs-in-progress from around the world were presented, forming a total of 32 new creative documentary projects. The IEFTA Award went to Asphalt by Hamza Hamideh [Palestine Showcase] while the Al Jazeera Documentary Award went to Everybody to Kenmure Street by Felipe Bustos Sierra [Scotland Showcase]. All awards…

The winners of the Doc Alliance Award 2025 were announced May 20 during the Doc Day Lunch, held at the Marché du Film in Cannes. The Doc Alliance Award for Best Feature Film (€5,000), was presented to The Shards (Georgia/Germany) by Masha Chernaya. The Doc Alliance Award for Best Short Film, valued at €3,000 went to We Had Fun Yesterday (Belgium) by Marion Guillard.

At the close of Cannes Docs 2025, section chief Pierre-Alexis Chevit hosted the Docs-in-Progress Awards Ceremony during which this year’s winners were announced. Over the past days, eightshowcases of docs-in-progress from around the world were presented, forming a total of 32 new creative documentary projects. The IEFTA Award went to Asphalt by Hamza Hamideh [Palestine Showcase] while the Al Jazeera Documentary Award went to Everybody to Kenmure Street by Felipe Bustos Sierra [Scotland Showcase]. All awards…

Etienne Huver, prize-winning investigative journalist, director and producer for Slug News, presented his upcoming feature documentary about Julian Assange, the world’s most famous whistleblower. “Since his release, especially with everything happening now in [Trump’s] America, there's a sense that Assange has become yesterday’s news, irrelevant to all the challenges the world is facing today. In fact, it's only now with the advantage of hindsight that the relevance of the case has become apparent,” Huver told the professional audience in Barcelona.

Each year since 2005, Sarajevo Film Festival and Ji.hlava IDFF have organised the Docu Talents from the East presentation of the region's “most remarkable” documentary projects. This year’s presentation of 7 projects will take place August 17 during Cinelink Industry Days. Directors and producers of the selected projects will be granted industry accreditations to the Sarajevo FF and two nights of accommodation. The deadline for submission of projects is May 31.