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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.

Anna Berthollet of French-based doc sales outfit Lightdox talks to BDE about her Cannes slate. She also discusses her decision to move into theatrical distribution on some titles. “We understood that with some of the films, you don’t need to set up the big machine to release them. To get into classical distribution is immediately to trigger bigger expenses…but still these films can still have some kind of potential outside the festival circuit which we want to explore.”

Eliza Petkova won the The VIKTORIA DOK.international Main Competition for Silent Observers. The VIKTORIA DOK.deutsch winner was named as Wir Erben by Simon Baumann. The VIKTORIA DOK.horizonte Competition – Cinema of Urgency prize went to Rashid, l’enfant de Sinjar by Jasna Krajinovic. A total of 64,200 euros in prize money was awarded. All winners…

The award of Best Film was given to Peruvian director Tatiana Fuentes at the May 17 awards ceremony. The festival has so far attracted 11,000 spectators as well as 800 accredited professionals. “This edition has been a celebration of documentary film as a place for collective reflection and shared experience,” said Maria Colomer, Co-Artistic Director and Head of Programming. All winners…

Beldocs Industry Days has unveiled the official selection of projects and participants for its 2025 edition, running May 21–25 in Belgrade, with an online component available to international guests. This year’s line-up reflects “the bold artistic vision and expanding reach of Beldocs,” welcoming over 40 projects and initiatives from the Western Balkans, Baltic States, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, and beyond—with Poland as the 2025 Focus Country.

The May 18 showcase will comprise “four cinematic, personal and political films” by CIRCLE alumni. CIRCLE Doc Accelerator is an annual training programme, open to up to 10 women and gender-expansive directors and producers who are developing documentary projects with strong international appeal. “Together we work to expand the notion of a safe space we co-created together, inspired by new possibilities and technologies,” says Biljana Tutorov, program director.