Sheffield 25

In her analysis of a murder in a small close-knit Florida community, Geeta Gandbhir, who won the Directing Award for US documentary at Sundance 2025, presents a devastating critique of race, inequality and the vigilante-style ‘stand your ground’ legislation in operation in the US today. “The right to defend yourself…has been weaponised against black and brown people as a licence to kill,” she tells BDE of her Netflix doc.

“I think these are good times for documentaries as a genre, I'm very optimistic,” DocFest’s Raul Niño Zambrano tells BDE on the eve of the festival’s 32nd roll-out. “Yes, there is something specific in the current climate - with misinformation, with artificial intelligence, with fake news - but I think we are really playing a key role in shaping the landscape of what the discussions can be about. We are giving something necessary, but also something different.”

The song Agadoo was just about as bad as it gets, an opinion that many people also formed about Black Lace, the band that sang it. Frontman Dene Michael Betteridge has probably sung it more than 20,000 times, director Kim Hopkins tells BDE of the group’s willing subject of her touching new doc Still Pushing Pineapples, which opens the 32nd Sheffield DocFest. Would he appear in a warts-and-all account of his life, she asked him at the beginning of the process. Absolutely, was the answer. “I think he has the philosophy that all publicity is good publicity,” Hopkins says.

Kicking off at Sheffield DocFest and Sunny Side before further roll-out across Europe, the 2025 Ex Oriente Features and Series workshop programs are designed “to support daring, author-driven documentaries from Central and Eastern Europe,” write organisers. This year’s edition brings together 12 feature-length documentary projects and 5 docuseries in development or early production stage, selected for their “creative potential and international relevance.”

The programme includes 51 world, 16 international, 8 European and 39 UK premieres from 68 countries of production. Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato are named as Guests of Honour while the first solo exhibition in the Alternate Realities Programme features Baff Akoto’s cutting-edge immersive work Collateral Echoes. Talks to include a BBC Interview with Professor Brian Cox, a Channel 4 Masterclass with Oobah Butler, and David Blaine x Nat Geo: Bringing the Magic to Factual.

Still Pushing Pineapples is described as “a melancholy yet heartfelt look” into the story of Dene Michael, the former singer of UK pop outfit Black Lace. The festival also announced Professor Brian Cox as Guest Speaker. Additionally, award-winning producers Norma Percy & Lucy Hetherington will talk with UK journalist Nina Hossain. The 32nd Sheffield DocFest will run June 18-23.

Taking place Thursday 19 & Friday 20 June 2025, MeetMarket is part of a marketplace programme of talent development, pitches, roundtables and conferences designed to connect new projects with industry partners that runs across the festival. The selection includes 49 doc projects in development, production, and at rough cut stage, to be pitched in one-to-one meetings to UK and International industry representatives and experts.

The role is a joint leadership position and she will work in collaboration with Creative Director Raul Niño Zambrano. Poskitt will be responsible for the charity’s business affairs, including growing audiences, overseeing production and operations, and extending the festival’s partnerships and fundraising avenues. “In a world where truth, perspective, and empathy are more crucial than ever, documentaries offer us a deeper understanding of our shared human experience,” said Poskitt on taking up the role.