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Over the coming months, the dok.incubator rough-cut programme will workshop eight documentary projects from Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary, soon to be released internationally. They will be worked in parallel with eight previously announced International projects. “From topics spinning around ecology, animal rights, beauty standards and independent press to personal family stories and artists’ portraits, the selected [regional] films have the ambition to premiere at prestigious festivals in the coming year,” organisers write.

Acid will screen world premieres of Sepideh Farsi’s Put Your Soul On Your Hand and Walk, and Namir Abdel Messeeh’s second feature doc Life After Siham, as well as the French premiere of Sylvain George’s Obscure Night – Ain’t I A Child? The Critics Week sidebar for first and second features will include a sole doc, Imago by Déni Oumar Pitsaev, as will Directors Fortnight, which has selected the Ukrainian feature doc Militantropos by Alina Gorlova, Yelizaveta Smith and Simon Mozgovyi.

Copan by Carine Wallauer won in Brazilian Feature and Medium-Length Film Comp while Writing Hawa by Najiba Noori took top prize in the International Feature & Medium-Length Film Comp. Sukande Kasáká/Ailing Land and Am I the Skinniest Person You’ve Ever Seen? were awarded Best Brazilian Short Film and Best Int'l Short Film, respectively.

Clarisa Navas' The Prince of Nanawa won the Grand Prize in the International Feature Film Competition, while Bani Khoshnoudi's The Vanishing Point won the Jury Prize in the Burning Lights Competition. The Jury Prize in the National Competition was won by Les Vies d'Andrès of Baptiste Janon and Rémi Pons. The The Audience Award went to Cutting Through Rocks by Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni. All prizes…

For almost half a century, legendary New York photographer and filmmaker Robert Frank diligently captured his own life on film and video. But the footage was never seen, because for years it sat in the basement of his New York apartment, collecting dust. Until now. “We had it transferred professionally to high resolution files and it was like unlocking a time capsule. It's a visual diary of his life over those decades,” director Laura Israel told the professional audience in Nyon.

Vladlena Sandu’s dramatic and poetic hybrid film tells a deeply personal story of life during the Chechen war as neighbours are murdered, her family is targeted, and the capital Groznyis  turned into a battlefield. The film also seeks an answer to a fundamental question. How can the cycle of violence - that shapes the lives of children and is inevitably passed to the next generation - be broken?

The first All-Inclusive Award (€5,000) will be presented to Patrice: The Movie by Ted Passon. The prize honours documentary film productions in which filmmakers with disabilities play a leading role. DOK.forum also announces Industry Training Talks for 2025, the seven projects selected for this year’s Master’s Pitch and The Baltics as this year’s region in focus.

The 23rd VdR–Industry programme concluded April 9 with an award ceremony during which CHF 80,000 of prizes were distributed to 13 projects. These included the second presentation of the Eurimages Co-production Development Award, a €20,000 cash prize, as well as the CHF 10,000 prize from visions sud est, Switzerland’s national fund designed to encourage independent film production in countries with low production capacity. All awards…

Given annually during Visions du Réel to a film that highlights current issues shaping the future world, The UN Perception Change Award was presented April 9 to Britta Strampe (Bandenfilm) producer of Daniel Abma’s The Family Approach. The film, which also won the ver.di Prize for Solidarity, Humanity and Fairness at DOK Leipzig 2024, focuses on the lives of five teenagers who live together and the social workers who look after them.

Opening with Andres Veiel’s Riefenstahl, this year's program “delves into the continent's past to consider its present and future with a section dedicated to archive, where documentary filmmakers explore the dark folds of the 20th century with found footage,” organisers write of the festival running March 8 to 18. Elsewhere, the new Visions competition section showcases daring films that explore the limits of non-fiction from unusual angles, and 13 Catalan-produced documentaries reaffirm the festival's commitment to the country's talent.