Eight new documentaries nearing completion and developed at dok.incubator 2025, will be pitched November 16 during the organisation’s annual preview showcase at IDFA (LAB 111, 15.30).
“From personal coming-of-age stories, poetic journeys of liberation and womanhood to scientifically, legally, and environmentally focused documentaries showing attempts and determination to make a change,” dok.incubator writes, “this carefully selected documentary collection presented at this year’s dok.incubator preview creates a powerful mosaic of today’s world, demonstrating the richness of filmmaking approaches and cultural backgrounds.”
Adds Andrea Prenghyová, CEO of dok.incubator: “This year’s collection of films offers an extraordinary range of styles, from musical and comedic documentaries to deeply personal auteur films, including a film which is also being turned into an HBO docu-series. It spans continents and perspectives — from South America to Kazakhstan. Tackling urgent global issues such as sustainability, women’s rights and science, these are profound works shaped by years of devoted filmmaking.”
Among the eight documentaries, there is a story of a charismatic rural middle-schooler who becomes a rap star (Meant to Be); a journey of two former gangers from Riga who decide to go legal (Wise Guys), and a requiem to the vanishing world, told through the legacy of seven siblings devoted to a glacier (La pietà).
In Smoking Shores, a unique community of surfers seeks joy and solace in the waves, shadowed by the UK’s last great steelworks and uncertainty about the future, while We Are Stardust unfolds the intriguing mystery of cosmic dust. River Dreams follows a river in Kazakhstan, interviewing women who live nearby, politically and personally embodying the river in them. Meanwhile, the female point of view is the core of Blossoming, capturing three generations of women and hidden truths of a family, but also in La Mona, a journey of a rebel fighter and mother who lays down her weapon in Colombia’s historic peace agreement, only to discover that peace can be as cruel as war.
All eight films presented at dok.incubator preview are ready to premiere soon, and kickstart their festival lives. “Thanks to the success of previous dok.incubator films, the expectations are very high. Over the past 14 years, the workshop has helped 14 films to get into Sundance, two of them won major awards at this year’s CPH:DOX and one of them is also a part of Best of Fests at IDFA 2025 (Always),” organisers underline.
DOK.INCUBATOR 2025 SELECTION
- Blossoming by Kamila Serwicka. Producer: Adrianna Rędzia. Produced by: Lumisenta Film Foundation. Estimated date of release: April 2026. Logline: A daughter returns with her camera to uncover the hidden truths of her own family, capturing three generations of women bound by silence, resilience, and love.
- La Mona by Nadja Drost, Bruno Federico. Producer: Michal Sikora. Associate producer: Juliána Horváth. Produced by: Lonely Production. Estimated date of release: January 2027. Logline: ‘La Mona,’ a rebel fighter and mother, must reinvent her life as she lays down her weapon in Colombia’s historic peace agreement, only to discover that peace can be as cruel as war.
- La pietà by Rafa Molés, Pepe Andreu. Producer: Alba Santos Cloux. Co-producers: Ólafur Rögnvaldsson, Arūnas Matelis.Produced by: SUICAfilms. Co-produced by: Axfilms, Studio Nominum. Estimated date of release: January 2026. Logline: A pale veil, like a shroud, drapes the glacier’s skin. Ancestral voices howl a warning through the walls of an abandoned Icelandic farmhouse. A requiem for devotion, for memory, for a vanishing world.
- Meant To Be by Olivér Márk Tóth. Producer: László Józsa. Produced by: Speakeasy Project. Co-produced by: HBO. Estimated date of release: February 2026. Logline: From countryside classrooms to sold-out arenas, a teenage rapper pours his struggles into music that defines his Gen Z generation – while battling the pressure of fame and addictions.
- River Dreams by Kristina Mikhailova. Producer: Dana Sabitova. Co-producer: Vadim Jendreyko. Produced by: 24 FPS. Co-produced by: Mira film. Estimated date of release: January 2026. Logline: In Kazakhstan no river meets the ocean, but Kristina’s film floods the land with River girls.
- Smoking Shores by David Roland Warwick. Producer: Dewi Gregory. Executive producers: Sonja Henrici, Michael Sheen, Kimberley Warner. Produced by: Truth Department. Estimated date of release: September 2026. Logline: In the shadow of the UK’s largest steelworks, a unique surfing community finds joy and solace in the waves – as a green tide of change threatens to engulf the town.
- We Are Stardust by Elisabeth Rasmussen. Producer: Benedikte Bredesen. Co-producer: Ulrik Gutkin. Associate producer: Jamie Hever. Produced by: Wonderline Productions. Co-produced by: CFC Short & Doc. Estimated date of release: June 2026. Logline: What if the mysteries of life could be found in the gutter? This is the quest of two unlikely characters who embark on a journey to explore our connection to the stars.
- Wise Guys by Ieva Ozolina. Producer: Madara Melberga. Produced by: FA Filma. Estimated date of release: January 2026. Logline: In Riga, on the Eastern border of Europe, two former gangsters decide to go legal. They start a debt collection agency, still relying on the skills from their criminal past.
