MODERN TIMES REVIEW: Industry

At Movies that Matter 2026

Steve Rickinson — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 17:03:03 GMT

Movies that Matter 2026 returns from 20 to 28 March in The Hague, Netherlands, with a strong new edition centred on documentary, human rights, and urgent international political cinema. The festival remains one of Europe’s most important spaces for films that engage with the forces shaping the present. Before we arrive on-site, we take a closer look at the programme, highlight a selection of key titles, and speak with director Laurens Korteweg about the making of an edition under financial pressures.

Follow Editor-in-Chief Truls Lie on Telegram and Industry Editor Steve Rickinson on Twitter. Join our Facebook Group, Modern Times Review, for an uncensored conversation on all things «Modern Times». And don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, and Bluesky.

News

Movies that Matter sets a politically charged course for 2026 festival; unveils complete programme

Interview

«We need a different appreciation of culture in society»

Laurens Korteweg discusses Movies That Matter 2026, financial pressure, Dutch cultural cuts, and the challenge of sustaining a human rights festival.

Films

9-Month Contract

Director: Ketevan Vashagashvili

It's not just Georgia where are women trying to find a way out of social misery through surrogacy.

American Doctor

Director: Poh Si Teng

Following three American physicians in and beyond Gaza, American Doctor confronts genocide, media legibility, and the ever-collapsing distance between war and domestic responsibility.

Coexistence, My Ass!

Director: Amber Fares

Noam Shuster Eliassi’s path from UN hopeful to fearless comedian, testing taboos and hope between Jews and Palestinians in Israel.

Cutting Through Rocks

Director: Sara Khaki, Mohammadreza Eyni

In a conservative Iranian village, one divorced woman’s political rise sparks fierce resistance, gendered repression, and bold feminist defiance.

MARIINKA

Director: Pieter-Jan De Pue

A rare glimpse across the lines of Russia’s war in Ukraine, where brother has been set against brother, and families brutalised by conflict.

Melt

Director: Nikolaus Geyrhalter

Geyrhalter’s latest observes global snowscapes and people amid tourism and research, documenting vanishing ice, extreme weather, and urgent climate-policy questions.

The Voice of Hind Rajab

Director: Kaouther Ben Hania

Silver Lion - Grand Jury Prize at the 82nd Venice Film Festival, Kaouther Ben Hania’s film follows Hind Rajab’s calls, Red Crescent coordination, and an ambulance denied until it’s shot.

Traces

Director: Alisa Kovalenko, Marysia Nikitiuk

Winner of the Panorama Audience Award at this year's Berlinale, Traces, details the powerful story of women seeking to survive and thrive after being raped and tortured by Russian forces during the war in Ukraine.

Inside CPH:DOX 2026

Steve Rickinson — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 16:03:00 GMT

As CPH:DOX 2026 opens today and runs through 22 March, Modern Times Review heads back to Copenhagen for one of the key annual meeting points between nonfiction cinema and industry exchange. This year, our coverage will follow the festival across both the public programme and the professional ecosystem, with a particular focus on the DOX:AWARD world premieres, all of which we’ll be reviewing in the days ahead. We will also be on site during the CPH:INDUSTRY days, as the festival’s industry strand gathers filmmakers, producers, funders, and decision-makers from across the field between March 15 and 20.

Alongside our editorial presence, Modern Times Review is also part of Ekko’s international panel of critics for the CPH:DOX 2026 critics grid. Elsewhere, the festival’s wider industry context includes the return of EUROPE! Docs, the EFP and CPH:DOX showcase, highlighting six DOX:AWARD world premieres for the North American market.

News

Interview

CPH:DOX INTER:ACTIVE 2026: Hypervigilance politics

Mark Atkin discusses CPH:DOX INTER:ACTIVE 2026, the «hypervigilance» theme, embodied storytelling, and the distribution barrier facing immersive art.

«No audience is braver than people who come to documentaries»

CPH:DOX Head of Programme Niklas Engstrøm speaks to Modern Times Review about the 2026 festival, democratic dialogue, film curation, and documentary form.

Films

A Little Gray Wolf Will Come

Director: Zhanna Agalakova

Identity politics form the foundation of former high-flying Russian public television correspondent Zhanna Agalakova’s debut documentary.

Amílcar

Director: Miguel Eek

Built from original letters, poems, and political writings, Amílcar offers a subjective, meditative portrait of Amílcar Cabral and the fight for Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde’s independence.

Better Go Mad in the Wild

Director: Miro Remo

Rural twin brothers resisting modern life, where imagination, memory, and rebellion shape a fading yet vivid freedom.

Cinema Kawakeb

Director: Mahmoud Al Massad

Inside a crumbling theatre in Amman, refugees guard reels and memories while century-spanning archives map the road from declarations to today’s Palestine.

Climate in Therapy

Director: Nathan Grossman

A Gestalt-inspired session lets climate scientists grieve, rage, and exhale, revealing systemic neglect and surprising ‘Safe Spaces’ outcome.

Ghost Elephants

Director: Werner Herzog

With Ghost Elephants, Werner Herzog creates another work within his transgressive anthropology.

Nova ‘78

Director: Rodrigo Areias, Aaron Brookner

An electrified archive of 1978’s Nova Convention with Burroughs, Ginsberg, Cage, Smith colliding in a space where theory met punk poetry on 16mm.

The Encampments

Director: Michael T. Workman, Kei Pritsker

From Chicago 7 to Columbia, The Encampments shows how protest is reframed as threat, as language like terrorist and «anti Semite» is used to silence dissent.

Traces

Director: Alisa Kovalenko, Marysia Nikitiuk

Winner of the Panorama Audience Award at this year’s Berlinale, Traces, details the powerful story of women seeking to survive and thrive after being raped and tortured by Russian forces during the war in Ukraine.

A Window East in Trieste

Steve Rickinson — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 11:02:34 GMT

From 16 to 24 January 2026, the Trieste Film Festival returns as Italy’s most vital window onto Central and Eastern European cinema, a nine day survey of premieres, rediscoveries, and the region’s restless present. This year’s 37th edition pairs its celebrated Documentary Competition with broader strands and conversations, with When East Meets West running in parallel. In this newsletter, find our interview with documentary programmer Rada Šešić, alongside reviews across the festival’s nonfiction sections, and we will be on site in Trieste, filing dispatches as the programme unfolds.

News

«Wild Roses» brings Slovenian women’s cinema to the 37th Trieste Film Festival

Trieste announces opening/closing films for 2026 festival

Interview

«It’s not about building a slogan or a topic. It’s about building trust between the films»

The Trieste Film Festival is Italy’s key window onto Central and Eastern European cinema, and its 2026 documentary competition arrives as ten Italian premieres shaped by war, migration, labour, and the afterlives of institutions.

Films

9-Month Contract

Director: Ketevan Vashagashvili

It's not just Georgia where are women trying to find a way out of social misery through surrogacy.

Cent’anni

Director: Maja Doroteja Prelog

Love, illness, and resilience on a transformative cycling journey through Italy.

Forget Me Not

Director: Anja Medved

Visual essays that probe memory and denial, arguing that oblivion may comfort the vulnerable but doesn’t avert violence.

In the Penal Colony

Director: Gaetano Crivaro, Silvia Perra, Ferruccio Goia, Alberto Diana

Sardinia’s last penal colonies merge inmates, workers, animals, machines, and wind into a lyrical collective cry for freedom.

Landscapes of Resistance

Director: Marta Popivoda

An unorthodox documentary on the exceptional journey of one of Serbia's first female partisans, who helped lead the resistance in Auschwitz.

Militantropos

Director: Yelizaveta Smith, Alina Gorleva, Simon Moskovyi

From mass graves to choral singing, images traverse Ukraine’s landscapes, questioning identity while war normalises behaviours unimaginable.

The Kartli Kingdom

Director: Tamar Kalandadze, Julien Pebrel

Three generations endure postwar exile in a fractured building above Tbilisi.

The Sky Above Zenica

Director: Nanna Frank Møller, Zlatko Pranjic

A Bosnian town grapples with pollution, health crises, and conflicting interests, as citizens demand accountability from a massive steel plant.

Smoke Sauna Sisterhood

Director: Anna Hints

Female solidarity through Estonian women continuing an age-old tradition.

Trains

Director: Maciej Drygas

IDFA best film award winner Polish director Maciej Drygas's entrancing Trains is a mesmerising journey through much of the 20th century by rail, accompanied by a subtly intense soundtrack.

We Live Here

Director: Zhanana Kurmasheva

A Kazakh family affected by a Soviet-era nuclear test site

Moldox Turns 10

Steve Rickinson — Wed, 26 Nov 2025 12:02:59 GMT

The 10th MOLDOX Festival runs in Chișinău from 26–30 November 2025 under the theme «Chaos. Reinventing Reality,» framing documentary film as both witness to crisis and a tool for imagining alternatives. The programme features 27 feature-length and six short documentaries, mostly premieres, tracing stories from Siberia to Khartoum, India’s red-light districts to Moldova’s depopulated villages, and confronting war, migration, trauma, utopian experiments, and collective healing. Standout titles include The Voice of Hind Rajab and the IDFA-winning Trains. A 2025 innovation is Green Vine, a national competition spotlighting Moldovan filmmakers, with an international jury awarding distribution and development support. Marking the 10th anniversary, MOLDOX adds a Queer Choir concert, public panels, and side events such as concerts, a photo and poster exhibition at Cărturești la Muzeu, parties, and a MOLDOX Bookshelf open through 30 November. MOLDOX Lab returns with workshops and masterclasses for emerging professionals, focused on documentary as social change.

News

MOLDOX unveils 2025 programme under «Chaos. Reinventing Reality» theme

Interview

«We are ten years old, but we are still young»

At ten years old, MOLDOX meets Moldova’s EU horizon and the war’s shadow with «Chaos. Reinventing Reality,» testing whether documentary can fortify a fragile public sphere.

Films

Bright Future

Director: Andra MacMasters

The sensory and ideological layers of a forgotten Cold War festival, exploring fleeting solidarity, ideological discord, and the fragility of socialist dreams.

Coexistence, My Ass!

Director: Amber Fares

Noam Shuster Eliassi’s path from UN hopeful to fearless comedian, testing taboos and hope between Jews and Palestinians in Israel.

Cuba & Alaska

Director: Yegor Troyanovsky

Laughing in the face of death, the two heroines of journalist-turned-filmmaker Yegor Troyanovsky’s debut documentary Cuba & Alaska pitch viewers into the agony and ecstasy of Ukraine’s frontlines.

Cutting Through Rocks

Director: Sara Khaki, Mohammadreza Eyni

In a conservative Iranian village, one divorced woman’s political rise sparks fierce resistance, gendered repression, and bold feminist defiance.

Flowers of Ukraine

Director: Adelina Borets

On the outskirts of Kyiv, a woman in her 70s demonstrates her love of freedom.

Holding Liat

Director: Brandon Kramer

The horror of the conflict in Gaza for all innocents is underlined.

Khartoum

Director: Anas Saeed, Rawia Alhag, Ibrahim Snoopy, Timeea M. Ahmed, Phil Cox

A mirror to pain, resistance, and hope.

The Voice of Hind Rajab

Director: Kaouther Ben Hania

Kaouther Ben Hania’s film follows Hind Rajab’s calls, Red Crescent coordination, and an ambulance denied until it’s shot.

Trains

Director: Maciej Drygas

Polish director Maciej Drygas’s entrancing Trains is a mesmerising journey through much of the 20th century by rail, accompanied by a subtly intense soundtrack.

Majordocs 2025

Steve Rickinson — Tue, 25 Nov 2025 18:00:50 GMT

Building on its announced tribute to French filmmaker Claire Simon, Majordocs frames listening as both an aesthetic principle and an ethical stance. The feature competition presents eight documentaries from eight countries, touching on colonial legacies, identity, mental health, and the social effects of digital life. Industry and public programmes extend the theme through DocSessions and masterclasses, including sessions led by sound designer Philippe Ciompi and a masterclass by filmmaker Ben Rivers. MajorDocs Pitch showcases five new non-fiction projects, while MajorDocs Educa and the Communities initiatives broaden access through student screenings and supported tickets for audiences.

News

MajorDocs reveals full lineup for seventh edition, sets sound-focused programme

7th MajorDocs highlights sound, honours Claire Simon

Films

Action Item

Director: Paula Ďurinová

When mental health and political crisis collide, reflection transforms into resistance.

Fiume o Morte!

Director: Igor Bezinović

A crowd-sourced, carnivalesque reconstruction of Rijeka 1919–20, Fiume o Morte! dismantles D’Annunzio’s cult and exposes the roots and afterlives of fascism.

Songs of Slow Burning Earth

Director: Olha Zhurba

Olha Zhurba’s meditative take on the war avoids frontline images to show how the conflict affects ordinary people.

To the West, in Zapata

Director: David Bim

A hypnotic black and white portrait of family life on the margins, where propaganda blares from the radio and love becomes the last reliable safety net.

Inside Porto/Post/Doc 2025

Steve Rickinson — Thu, 20 Nov 2025 18:02:23 GMT

In 2025, Modern Times Review again joins Porto/Post/Doc. From 20–29 November, Porto hosts 135 films under the theme «The Time of a Journey», with a programme that treats mobility, memory, and class as shared political terrain. Here, we preview films from the International Competition, the new medium-length and short sections, Cinema Falado’s Lusophone dialogues, and spotlights, tracing how the festival’s screenings, talks, and industry strands turn the city into a ten-day school of critical seeing and debate.

News

Porto/Post/Doc 2025 announces full film programme

Porto/Post/Doc 2025 announces opening/closing titles; Cinema Falado foregrounds Lusophone voices

Porto/Post/Doc unveils 2025 theme and dual filmmaker spotlights

Films

Bye Bye Tiberias

Director: Lina Soualem

Four generations of Palestinian women take us on a journey through family, war, memory and identity.

Fiume o Morte!

Director: Igor Bezinović

A crowd-sourced, carnivalesque reconstruction of Rijeka 1919–20, Rijeka or Death! dismantles D’Annunzio’s cult and exposes the roots and afterlives of fascism.

Flophouse America

Director: Monica Strømdahl

Inside one motel room an intimate portrait of American poverty unfolds.

Foragers

Director: Jumana Manna

The petty politics of Palestinian persecution as seen through the lens of age-old traditions of foraging for medicinal herbs.

Little Syria

Director: Reem Karssli, Madalina Rosca

Filmed over 20 years across several countries, a group of Syrian refugees in Berlin fight for justice for Assad-regime victims.

Midnight Traveler

Director: Hassan Fazili

The Fazili family shoots their perilous journey from Afghanistan through the Balkan migration route to an uncertain future on three mobile phones.

Militantropos

Director: Yelizaveta Smith, Alina Gorleva, Simon Moskovyi

From mass graves to choral singing, images traverse Ukraine’s landscapes, questioning identity while war normalises behaviours unimaginable.

Nova ‘78

Director: Rodrigo Areias, Aaron Brookner

An electrified archive of 1978’s Nova Convention with Burroughs, Ginsberg, Cage, Smith colliding in a space where theory met punk poetry on 16mm.

Only On Earth

Director: Robin Petré

Robin Petré’s cinematically sprawling Only on Earth journeys deep into southern Galicia as wildfires rage on.

Yanuni

Director: Richard Ladkani

The intimate cost of fighting for the Amazon.

Chile showcases broad slate of films, talent, and projects at IDFA

Steve Rickinson — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 08:01:19 GMT

Headlining the delegation is Blue Silence (Silencio Azul) by Matías Rojas Ruz, world-premiering in the International Short Film Competition. Set on the coast near Manquemapu, the short revisits the 1965 Janequeo sinking through textured analogue imagery and fragmented memory.

Two Chilean features appear in Signed, IDFA’s showcase for distinctive authorial voices: Ignacio Agüero’s Letters to My Dead Parents (Cartas a mis padres muertos) and Bettina Perut & Iván Osnovikoff’s Invisible Life (Vida Invisible). Agüero’s film threads five decades of family and national history, beginning with his father’s death days after Allende’s election, through archival and new footage in what he calls a «wandering cinema.» Perut and Osnovikoff follow microbiologist-parliamentarian Cristina Dorador into the Atacama, tracing research on drug-resistant «superbugs.»

In Best of Fests, José Jiménez’s Dead Tongue (Lengua Muerta)—co-produced with Sebastián Sánchez—portrays a solitary man on a southern beach, his halting speech circling an unspoken secret tied to the Pinochet era.

Letters to My Dead Parents, a film by Ignacio Agüero

Chilean participation extends to IDFA’s professional platforms. Two filmmakers—Sidka Saavedra Vera and José Jiménez—join IDFAcademy (13–16 November). Saavedra brings the post-production project The Boy Girl and the Gothic Orca (El niño niña y la orka gótika), weaving Buenos Aires’ underground gothic drag scene with a first-person transition narrative. Jiménez attends with EXTERRA (co-directed with Celeste Rojas Mugica), exploring sites and documents linked to Ingrid Olderock, a notorious DINA agent. Ignacio Agüero will also serve on the Envision Competition jury.

Around a dozen Chilean projects at various stages will circulate in IDFA’s market, including:

Ballover Films: Children: The Memory That Remains (Hijos: la memoria que queda) (Dir. Francisco López Balló; Prod. Francisco López, Lize Bouzidi, Jean Elios) and Territories (Territorios) (Dir. López Balló; Prod. Francia Aranda).
La Ventana Cine: The Capture (of Paul Schaefer) (La Captura) (Dir. Rafa Valdeavellano; Prod. Carola Fuentes) and I Don’t Want to Say Goodbye (No quiero decir adiós) (Dir. Carola Fuentes; Prod. Rafa Valdeavellano).
Galgo Storytelling: VR work Knowing Your Nature (Dir. Francisca Silva; Prod. María José Díaz) and feature Chuchu (Dir./Prod. María José Díaz).
Mimbre Films: No Money No Honey (Dir. Nicole Costa; Prod. Daniela Camino) and Of Water and Death (De agua y muerte) (Dir. Vicente Barros; Prod. Rocío Romero).
Cangrejo Films: Artifacts of War (Artefactos de Guerra) (Dir. Jorge Caballero; Prod. Ana Giralt, Diego Pino) and Object (Objeto) (Dir. Loreto Quijada; Prod. Fernando Bascuñan, Sebastián Züger, Loreto Quijada), a Chile–Germany co-production.

Chiledoc is a public–private initiative supported by ProChile (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) and the Chilean Documentary Corporation (CCDoc), promoting Chilean documentary worldwide through strategic promotion, network-building and sector development

Verzió turns 22

Steve Rickinson — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 19:02:13 GMT

Verzió IHRDFF opens today, 11 November, under the theme “We Exist Together” (11–19 Nov across Hungary; online 20–30 Nov), premiering Coexistence, My Ass! and unveiling a 49-film, 11-section programme spanning Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, Iraq, and beyond. Our editor-in-chief is serving on the festival jury, and our industry editor is tutoring the Young Critics Workshop. DocPro runs 12–16 Nov with a new MADOKE collaboration—five days of masterclasses, workshops, and public showcases that connect makers, students, and audiences—turning Budapest into an open forum.

News

Verzió DocPro returns with workshops, industry talks and project showcases

Verzió IHRDFF announces full 2025 film programme

Verzió 2025 Sets November dates and unveils «We Exist Together» theme

Films

9-Month Contract

Director: Ketevan Vashagashvili

It’s not just Georgia where are women trying to find a way out of social misery through surrogacy.

Coexistence, My Ass!

Director: Amber Fares

Noam Shuster Eliassi’s path from UN hopeful to fearless comedian, testing taboos and hope between Jews and Palestinians in Israel.

Cuba & Alaska

Director: Yegor Troyanovsky

Cutting Through Rocks

Director: Sara Khaki, Mohammadreza Eyni

In a conservative Iranian village, one divorced woman’s political rise sparks fierce resistance, gendered repression, and bold feminist defiance.

Flophouse America

Director: Monica Strømdahl

Inside one motel room an intimate portrait of American poverty unfolds.

Immortals

Director: Maja Tschumi

Three voices seek identity and connection as Baghdad emerges as a living character shaped by politics and patriarchy.

Militantropos

Director: Yelizaveta Smith, Alina Gorleva, Simon Moskovyi

From mass graves to choral singing, images traverse Ukraine’s landscapes, questioning identity while war normalises behaviours unimaginable.

Only on Earth

Director: Robin Petré

Robin Petré’s cinematically sprawling Only on Earth journeys deep into southern Galicia as wildfires rage on.

The Helsinki Effect

Director: Arthur Franck

With a gently satirical outer wrapping and a deadly serious inner core, Arthur Franck’s account of the seminal Helsinki Agreement of 1975—The Helsinki Effect—demonstrates just how historic a diplomatic process that was at the time seen as tedious and irrelevant really was.

The Long Road to the Director’s Chair

Director: Vibeke Løkkeberg

Restored 1973 footage from Berlin’s Women’s Film Seminar amplifies women’s voices on authorship abortion rights and power still urgent in today’s media.

The Propagandist

Director: Luuk Bouwman

The rise and fall of a filmmaker who reshaped Dutch cinema by serving Nazi propaganda during World War II.

With Hasan in Gaza

Director: Jamal Aljafari

A 2001 MiniDV journey across the Gaza Strip captures quiet daily life under occupation while hinting at looming catastrophe and the resilience of its people.

Chile Sets Focused Slate for DOK Leipzig 2025

Steve Rickinson — Sat, 25 Oct 2025 17:00:59 GMT

Chile will arrive at the 68th DOK Leipzig (27 October–2 November 2025) with two official selections and one project at the DOK Co-Pro Market, alongside a 14-strong industry delegation coordinated by Chiledoc. Five producers travel with backing from the Ministry of Culture’s programme for participation in international markets, which has reinstated Leipzig after several years away.

Green Desert, a film by Meliza Luna

In the International Feature Film Competition, Green Desert by Meliza Luna will have its world premiere. The film traces a decade of environmental damage in south-central Chile, linking pine monocultures, drought and wildfires, while weaving archival materials and family testimony. Araucaria Cine and Vestigio Cine produce it.

Chilean animation is represented in competition by Petra and the Sun from Malu Furche and Stefania Malacchini, receiving its German premiere after winning a Special Jury Prize at Tribeca. The short follows Petra, 71, who discovers the preserved body of a mountaineer amid an extreme thaw in Chile’s southern Andes.

Fossil Matter, a film by Tiziana Panizza

At the DOK Co-Pro Market, Tiziana Panizza’s Fossil Matter documents the extraction of a 130-million-year-old ichthyosaur from the southern ice fields, drawing connections to museum objects from a region once described as «the end of the world.» The market is a financing and networking platform that connects producers and filmmakers with international partners.

Ji.hlava 2025

Steve Rickinson — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 17:01:02 GMT

Ji.hlava IDFF returns 24 Oct–Nov 2 for its 29th edition, ten days and 300+ films spanning premieres, radical experiments, and sharp retrospectives. Alongside the Inspiration Forum and Industry Days (28–31 Oct), this year’s Conference on Ethics in Documentary Filmmaking zeroes in on AI: creative control, authorship, and responsibility, with academic and industry panels on Thursday, 30 Oct.

News

Ji.hlava ethics conference takes on creative control and authorship in AI age

Ji.hlava IDFF unveils full 2025 programme

Ji.hlava New Visions Forum 2025 unveils 14 European projects

Ji.hlava IDFF unveils first 2025 titles

Films

Better Go Mad in the Wild

Director: Miro Remo

Rural twin brothers resisting modern life, where imagination, memory, and rebellion shape a fading yet vivid freedom.

Child of Dust

Director: Weronika Mliczewska

Born of war and raised in hardship, a man’s search for his father becomes a reflection on identity, healing, and generational trauma.

Coexistence, My Ass!

Director: Amber Fares

Noam Shuster Eliassi’s path from UN hopeful to fearless comedian, testing taboos and hope between Jews and Palestinians in Israel.

Fiume o Morte!

Director: Igor Bezinović

A crowd-sourced, carnivalesque reconstruction of Rijeka 1919–20, Rijeka or Death! dismantles D’Annunzio’s cult and exposes the roots and afterlives of fascism.

Flophouse America

Director: Monica Strømdahl

Inside one motel room an intimate portrait of American poverty unfolds.

I Shall Not Hate

Director: Tal Barda

A Palestinian doctor’s heartbreaking loss fuels his mission for peace, emphasizing the need for compassion and unity in the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Mr. Nobody Against Putin

Director: David Borenstein, Pavel Talankin

How a small-town teaching assistant became an unlikely whistleblower on the grim reality of wartime propaganda.

Orwell: 2+2=5

Director: Raoul Peck

Our current reality, as summarised by George Orwell.

Resilience

Director: Tomas Elsik

The rhythms of nature meet the harshness of human industry, painting an urgent, visually poetic portrait of Central Europe’s endangered ecosystems.

Riefenstahl

Director: Andres Veiel

Leni Riefenstahl shaped a controversial legacy, prompting reflection on whether her work’s fascist ideals still resonate in contemporary culture.

The Tree of Authenticity

Director: Sammy Baloji

Through evocative imagery and sound, The Tree of Authenticity challenges colonial legacies in the Congo Basin, giving the forest agency beyond human-dominated histories.

Time to the Target

Director: Vitaly Mansky

Lviv, a city caught between everyday life and an unending funeral procession during war.

Now Available

Doclisboa 2025

Steve Rickinson — Thu, 16 Oct 2025 17:01:40 GMT

The 2025 Doclisboa unfolds in Lisbon from 16–26 October, bringing 200+ films, debates and warm-ups across Culturgest, Cinema São Jorge, Cinemateca Portuguesa and more. Modern Times Review will be on the ground with Industry Editor Steve Rickinson reporting, and we also publish an in-depth interview with the festival’s new director, Hélder Beja, on curatorial direction, premieres and politics.

News

Doclisboa 2025 announces opening/closing films and first program highlights

Interview

«We do not believe in neutrality»

Inside Doclisboa 2025, Hélder Beja outlines political choices, funding hurdles, and urgent premieres across Portugal and Benelux this October in Lisbon.

Films

Ghost Elephants

Director: Werner Herzog

With Ghost Elephants, Werner Herzog creates another work within his transgressive anthropology.

Nova ‘78

Director: Rodrigo Areias, Aaron Brookner

An electrified archive of 1978’s Nova Convention with Burroughs, Ginsberg, Cage, Smith colliding in a space where theory met punk poetry on 16mm.

The Long Road to the Director’s Chair

Director: Vibeke Løkkeberg

Restored 1973 footage from Berlin’s Women’s Film Seminar amplifies women’s voices on authorship abortion rights and power still urgent in today’s media.

The Tree of Authenticity

Director: Sammy Baloji

Through evocative imagery and sound, The Tree of Authenticity challenges colonial legacies in the Congo Basin, giving the forest agency beyond human-dominated histories.

Toni, My Father

Director: Anna Negri

From prison rituals to 1970s utopias, Anna Negri’s film reframes Toni Negri beyond labels, tracing conatus, family conflict, and the power of happy passions.

Now Available

Nordic/Docs 2025 — Lines of Flight

Steve Rickinson — Tue, 09 Sep 2025 17:00:36 GMT

Norway’s Nordic/Docs runs 9–14 September at Fredrikstad Kino, presenting 70+ films alongside talks, debates, seminars, a masterclass, and awards. The festival opens with a portrait of post-injury resilience in Fighter and brings back the Oscar-winning No Other Land with producers attending. Beyond the opener, the lineup spans archival work, social issues, and intimate diaries—covering health care, family, nature, migration, and community. The masterclass pairs two acclaimed Nordic directors, while a veteran filmmaker screens a new archival project on the 1970s feminist movement. Education and regional outreach remain central, with school screenings and local spotlights. The 2025 profile centres Sámi rights, climate, animal welfare, poverty, war, and hard-won hope.

News

Nordic/Docs announces full 2025 programme

Interview

«We look for documentaries which make a difference»

Festival Director Paul René Roestad speaks with Modern Times Review on the 2025 edition of the Fredrikstad, Norway documentary festival.

Films

Fighter

Director: Sunniva Sundby, Mari Bakke Riise

After a dockside dive leaves MMA fighter Geir Kåre Cemsoylu Nyland facing paralysis, Fighter tracks his two-year recovery and a candid reckoning with toxic masculinity.

Flophouse America

Director: Monica Strømdahl

Inside one motel room an intimate portrait of American poverty unfolds.

No Other Land

Director: Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor

Receiving both awards and death threats, No Other Land is a poignant exploration of resistance, solidarity, and the quest for justice in a land marked by conflict.

The Gardener, the Buddhist & the Spy

Director: Håvard Bustnes

A corporate spy embeds with environmental activists, flips (sort of), and drags an asbestos empire into view. What follows isn’t a clean exposé but a knot of moral grey zones.

Now Available

Baltic Sea Docs 2025

Steve Rickinson — Mon, 01 Sep 2025 17:02:43 GMT

From 31 Aug–5 Sept, Riga hosts the 29th Baltic Sea Docs (BSD), presenting 26 creative documentary projects with public screenings in the capital and regional towns. Founded in Denmark and run since 2006 by Latvia’s National Film Centre, BSD spotlights feature-length docs from the Baltic Sea region, Eastern Europe and the Caucasus: 22 new projects in development/production and four returning in post, across 14 countries. Industry highlights include the “Coming Soon” strand for festival and sales partners, plus intensive training and access to financiers. The film programme opens 2 Sept with Dmytro Hreshko’s Divia (2025), alongside BSD-connected titles 9-Month Contract, Letters from Wolf Street, and On Sacred and Profane. Modrn Times Review will also be on site.

News

Baltic Sea Docs opens this week with 26 projects and expanded industry events

Films

9-Month Contract

Director: Ketevan Vashagashvili

It's not just Georgia where women are trying to find a way out of social misery through surrogacy.

Coexistence, My Ass!

Director: Amber Fares

Noam Shuster Eliassi’s path from UN hopeful to fearless comedian, testing taboos and hope between Jews and Palestinians in Israel.

Divia

Director: Dmytro Hreshko

Nature is rarely discussed in the current war effort, but Divia is not silent.

Letters From Wolf Street

Director: Arjun Talwar

When immigrants are the scapegoats for all of Europe's ills, and the far right is resurgent, Arjun Talwar's poetic glimpse into the experience of life as a foreigner in Poland is a potent antidote to hatred.

The Helsinki Effect

Director: Arthur Franck

With a gently satirical outer wrapping and a deadly serious inner core, Arthur Franck's account of the seminal Helsinki Agreement of 1975—The Helsinki Effect—demonstrates just how historic a diplomatic process that was at the time seen as tedious and irrelevant really was.

Now Available

REGISTRATIONS TO MIA 2025 ARE OPEN

Steve Rickinson — Tue, 26 Aug 2025 07:01:31 GMT

The 11th edition of MIA | Mercato Internazionale Audiovisivo will take place from Monday 6th to Friday 10th October 2025, in Rome and on the MIA Digital platform.

Don’t miss the chance to meet global industry top professionals, discover the most recent trends in audiovisual technology and what’s new in terms of IPs and projects.

Register before September 7th 2025, to get your EARLY BIRD badge - allowing both on-site and digital access - at the discounted rate of € 250 + VAT.

Now Available

Makedox: Peeling the Onion

Steve Rickinson — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 17:02:25 GMT

MakeDox 2025 returns to Skopje 21–28 August with a bold programme of 75 creative documentaries, masterclasses, Doc Talks, workshops and more, unfolding across atmospheric venues. This year’s theme—“Who cares about reality?”—frames the 16th edition’s screenings and conversations, alongside the MakeCoProDox Forum (25–27 August). We’re also delighted to share that our Editor-in-Chief, Truls Lie, will serve on the Young Onion jury (Achievement by a First or Second-Time Filmmaker), spotlighting debut and sophomore talent.

News

Makedox announces film programme for 2025 «Who cares about reality?» theme

Films

9-Month Contract

Director: Ketevan Vashagashvili

It's not just Georgia where are women trying to find a way out of social misery through surrogacy.

Coexistence, My Ass!

Director: Amber Fares

Noam Shuster Eliassi’s path from UN hopeful to fearless comedian, testing taboos and hope between Jews and Palestinians in Israel.

Matter Out of Place

Director: Nikolaus Geyrhalter

Following waste across the planet and the endless struggle of people to gain control over it.

No Other Land

Director: Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor

Receiving both awards and death threats, No Other Land is a poignant exploration of resistance, solidarity, and the quest for justice in a land marked by conflict.

Only on Earth

Director: Robin Petré

Robin Petré’s cinematically sprawling Only on Earth journeys deep into southern Galicia as wildfires rage on.

Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat

Director: Johan Grimonprez

How jazz music played a role in political manoeuvres during the Cold War.

Tata

Director: Lina Vdovîi, Radu Ciorniciuc

An intimate story of family trauma and exploitation, tackling patriarchal structures and the complex life of migrant labourers.

The Helsinki Effect

Director: Arthur Franck

The Mountain Won’t Move

Director: Petra Seliškar

The poetic rhythms of shepherding life in North Macedonia amidst breathtaking mountain landscapes and modern encroachments.

The Propagandist

Director: Luuk Bouwman

The rise and fall of a filmmaker who reshaped Dutch cinema by serving Nazi propaganda during World War II.

Viktor

Director: Olivier Sarbil

A deaf photographer’s inner world redefines war cinema.

Now Available

Lights, Camera, Prizren!

Steve Rickinson — Fri, 01 Aug 2025 17:01:44 GMT

DokuFest returns to the storied streets of Prizren this August for its 24th edition, bringing with it a vibrant showcase of boundary-pushing cinema from around the world. With record-breaking submissions from 111 countries, the festival has selected 104 standout films to compete across eight sections—many receiving their World, International, or European premieres. As Kosovo’s leading platform for documentary and short film, DokuFest continues to champion bold storytelling and regional talent. Alongside the screenings, audiences can expect a rich program of talks, music, and cultural events.

News

DokuFest unveils global documentary lineup for ‘View From the World’ strand

DokuFest 2025 unveils full competition lineup with record submissions

Films

Bright Future

Director: Andra MacMasters

The sensory and ideological layers of a forgotten Cold War festival, exploring fleeting solidarity, ideological discord, and the fragility of socialist dreams.

Cutting Through Rocks

Director: Sara Khaki, Mohammadreza Eyni

In a conservative Iranian village, one divorced woman’s political rise sparks fierce resistance, gendered repression, and bold feminist defiance.

Facing War

Director: Tommy Gulliksen

If this film was screened 30 years ago, we would have bought this narrative. But now, we have alternative media, independent authors, investigative journalists, Wikileaks and solidarity communities outside the military media research community.

Only on Earth

Director: Robin Petré

Robin Petré’s cinematically sprawling Only on Earth journeys deep into southern Galicia as wildfires rage on.

Special Operation

Director: Oleksiy Radynski

Unfiltered surveillance of wartime routine builds toward an unseen horror.

The Helsinki Effect

Director: Arthur Franck

The Mountain Won’t Move

Director: Petra Seliškar

The poetic rhythms of shepherding life in North Macedonia amidst breathtaking mountain landscapes and modern encroachments.

The Tree of Authenticity

Director: Sammy Baloji

Through evocative imagery and sound, The Tree of Authenticity challenges colonial legacies in the Congo Basin, giving the forest agency beyond human-dominated histories.

Unwelcomed

Director: Amilcar Infante, Sebastián González M.

This ambitious debut documentary, years in the making, captures Venezuela’s migrant crisis and Chilean radicalisation in urgent cinematic testimony.

Now Available

Melgaço on the Map

Steve Rickinson — Mon, 28 Jul 2025 18:08:15 GMT

Starting today, the MDOC – Melgaço International Documentary Film Festival returns with its most expansive and politically charged edition yet. Running from 28 July to 3 August, the 11th edition brings together 33 daring films from 23 countries, selected from over 800 submissions. With 28 Portuguese premieres and a new addition—the FIPRESCI Prize awarded by international critics—this year’s competition promises a powerful exploration of identity, memory, and borders. From ancestral rituals to stories of exile and resistance, MDOC 2025 reaffirms its commitment to cinema that confronts the present by listening to the past.

News

MDOC Melgaço brings record premieres and new critics’ prize to Portugal

MDOC Melgaço returns for 11th Edition, spotlighting documentary and community heritage

Films

Ancestral Visions of the Future

Director: Lemohang Mosese

Blending docufiction and philosophy, Lemohang Mosese redefines home, exile, and human interconnectedness through Ubuntu and radical decolonial storytelling.

Cutting Through Rocks

Director: Sara Khaki, Mohammadreza Eyni

In a conservative Iranian village, one divorced woman’s political rise sparks fierce resistance, gendered repression, and bold feminist defiance.

Holding Liat

Director: Brandon Kramer

The horror of the conflict in Gaza for all innocents is underlined.

Mr Nobody Against Putin

Director: David Borenstein, Pavel Talankin

How a small-town teaching assistant became an unlikely whistleblower on the grim reality of wartime propaganda.

My Memory is Full of Ghosts

Director: Anas Zawahri

Life in post-siege Homs is marked by rubble, silence, and voices determined to remember, mourn, and somehow endure.

Now Available

The Documentary Reset

Steve Rickinson — Mon, 23 Jun 2025 13:05:47 GMT

Sunny Side of the Doc 2025, taking place from 23 to 26 June in La Rochelle, marks a decisive turn for the international documentary market. Under the theme «New Routes to Storytelling,» the 36th edition addresses the instability facing the global documentary ecosystem: declining public funding, the fragmentation of traditional distribution, and the urgency to elevate under-represented voices.

News

Ex Oriente Film 2025 launches with 17 documentary projects

Sunny Side of the Doc launches «Sunny Academy» for emerging talent

Sunny Side of the Doc 2025 announces full official selection

Interview

«The priority was to put the dialogue back at Sunny Side»

Managing Director Aurélie Reman about ethical co-productions, the decentralisation of storytelling, and the need for tougher conversations in a changing industry landscape.

Now Available

South Africa’s Stage for Urgent Cinema

Steve Rickinson — Thu, 19 Jun 2025 17:01:45 GMT

The 27th edition of the Encounters South African International Documentary Festival kicks off today in Johannesburg and Cape Town, running through 29 June 2025. With a programme of over 40 films from around the world, this year’s festival arrives under the urgent banner: “the world has never been this desperate to be documented.” Exploring themes at the intersection of activism, technology, memory, and power, Encounters 2025 positions itself as both a cinematic experience and a civic intervention. We’re proud to partner with the festival this year and will be sharing reflections from several emerging Africa-based writers throughout the week, thanks to the support of Durban FilmMart SA. Stay tuned for perspectives on films that confront the most pressing social, political, and environmental questions of our time.

News

Encounters 2025 Documentary Festival announces provocative lineup for a world in crisis

Films

Anselm

Director: Wim Wenders

Experience the captivating world of Anselm Kiefer in 3D and through the eyes of Wim Wenders, where film and painting seamlessly intertwine.

Capturing Water

Director: Rehad Desai

As Cape Town nears disaster, activists fight water cut-offs in a story about governance, climate, and social justice.

How to Build a Library

Director: Maia Lekow, Christopher King

Efforts to renovate Kenya’s historic libraries reveal how fragile democracies manipulate cultural spaces for control, suppression, and neocolonial interests.

Intercepted

Director: Oksana Karpovych

Contrasting quiet Ukrainian life compositions with intercepted phone conversations between Russian soldiers and their families.

Mr Nobody Against Putin

Director: David Borenstein, Pavel Talankin

How a small-town teaching assistant became an unlikely whistleblower on the grim reality of wartime propaganda.

Put Your Soul on Your Hands and Walk

Director: Sepideh Farsi

Another journalist killed… but this time in the spotlight of the Cannes Film Festival.

The Tree of Authenticity

Director: Sammy Baloji

Through evocative imagery and sound, The Tree of Authenticity challenges colonial legacies in the Congo Basin, giving the forest agency beyond human-dominated histories.

Yalla Parkour

Director: Areeb Zouaiter

Creating an identity among the ruins of Gaza.

Now Available

Docudays UA 2025: Mining Meaning

Steve Rickinson — Sat, 07 Jun 2025 09:58:31 GMT

As Ukraine pushes through its third year of war, the 22nd edition of Docudays UA International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, held from 6–13 June 2025, in Kyiv, adopts the theme «Rare Resource.» This concept, inspired by recent geopolitical agreements on rare earth metals, expands beyond material extraction to explore the nation's invaluable human, cultural, and ecological assets. The festival opens with Gar O’Rourke’s documentary Sanatorium, which examines the historic Kuyalnyk resort in the Odesa region, symbolising Ukraine’s unmined, living resources: its medical workers.

News

DOCU/UKRAINE 2025 showcases five groundbreaking films amid a flourishing national cinema

Docudays UA 2025 opens with a focus on Ukraine’s most valuable asset: its people

Interview

«Democracy is impossible if a society lacks resources—especially human resources»

Festival Director Yuliia Kovalenko delves into the motivations behind this year's theme, the challenges of organising a festival amid ongoing conflict, and the resilience of Ukrainian documentary cinema.