News

Docs Ireland returns to Belfast June 23 to 29 for its seventh edition, showcasing “hard-hitting, eye-opening, and life-affirming documentaries from Ireland and around the world,” organisers write. It also features a “robust” industry programme, connecting filmmakers with leading commissioners and film financiers, drawing a host of influential industry representatives to the city. The festival also presents IGNITE-Docs LASAIR a new Irish language Talent development programme.

In Krakow, debutant Zofia Sawicka pitched her intriguing doc project, which is set on a train progressing through the wilderness. The further the train goes, the more diverse becomes the mosaic of personal stories that shed light on the human condition. “For me, personally, this project is a love poem about power and the beauty of being a human, and this magical feeling of connections and encounters inside the train,” said Sawicka.

Actor/director/producer Dawid Szurmiej presented his doc project that tells the story of the eponymous Polish luminary, the only actress from behind the Iron Curtain to be nominated for an Academy Award, but who was forced into exile at the height of her career as anti-semitic riots swept across Eastern Europe in 1968. “Ida Kaminska went from being the cornerstone of Yiddish culture before the war, to becoming the bridge of a lost culture of 300,000 Jews of Warsaw and the 3 million Jews of Poland,” Szurmiej said of her legacy.

“Jakub Jakubik is a director of remarkable sensitivity—he listens carefully to his characters and the spaces they inhabit,” says Polish producer Michał Sadowski ahead of the KFF Industry Docs to Go presentation of his latest project. In the film, yet another person has drowned in the river near the synagogue converted into a liquor store. Waldek, a long-time teetotaler, the homeless Marek, and the Polish Jew Dawid must confront what more and more is being to resemble a curse.

Ukrainian Sergiusz Bażenov’s feature project tells a story that should never have had to be told. It tells of a filmmaker who becomes a military paramedic in a team with a Dutch volunteer. Together, they witness how war changes people — and themselves. “I’m aiming for a more universal message about war itself, and how it transforms people,” the director tells BDE. “I was certainly transformed by it, and I believe that in today’s world, no one is truly safe, that war can reach anyone. That’s why I want the viewer to imagine themselves in our place. To feel that every death, however distant, diminishes us all.”

Polish Mariusz Biernacki’s feature doc debut The Herd takes on the thorny issue of what it means to be a man in the 21st Century. “Unlike women, who have had clear directions for change through feminist movements and numerous support networks, men today frequently lack guidance,’ the director tells BDE. “Many feel lost, and this has contributed to the rise of phenomena such as incel communities and broader issues of male isolation and frustration.”

Maestra tells the story of the legendary Lidia Grychtołówna who, at the age of 96, remains the world’s oldest active concert pianist. But now she is preparing for her final concert. “What begins as the story of a quiet, nearly forgotten woman becomes a powerful portrait of a radiant artist reclaiming her place in the spotlight,” says producer Iwona Harris. “Her transformation into the vibrant, commanding maestra is the emotional core of the film.”

Although the events of Hide Me in the Light are set in Ukraine, the film does not focus directly on the war. Rather, it is a character-driven documentary centered around the story of childhood friendship. Nevertheless, the theme of loss is very much in evidence. “Told from the children’s perspective, the story is emotional and deeply moving,” producer Kateryna Ptashka tells BDE. “Viewers can connect with these children because they will recognise something of their own childhood in them."

The “first and only” nationwide digital forum (now live) is dedicated to the UK’s documentary community, marking “a major milestone in its mission to create a more connected, empowered, and collaborative sector,” the organisation writes. “The Forum offers a rare alternative: a non-corporate, non-extractive online space owned and shaped by its members.”

The Beldocs Pitching Forum handed out its awards on 24 May 2025 during a ceremony presented by Head of Industry, Andrijana Sofranić Šućur. The forum was held 22-25 May as part of the 18th edition of Beldocs – Belgrade Int’l Doc Film Festival. The Film Center of Montenegro Award for Best Project in Development to the Armenian project My Name is Enough. The Best Project in Progress Award by Al Jazeera Balkans was presented to Sentence from Birth (Moldova). All awards…