Read on for the latest and greatest from our AlumNest community.
Awards & Fellowships
Oscar Nominations
The award ceremony takes place March 15. ✦ Sara Khaki and Mohammedreza Eyni’s Cutting Through Rocks is nominated for Best Documentary Feature. ✦ Geeta Gandbhir and Christalyn Hampton’s The Devil Is Busy is nominated for Best Documentary Short Film.
FIPRESCI Documentary Grand Prix
The global organization of film critics and journalists has launched a new Documentary Grand Prix award recognizing the best documentary film of the year. The winner will be announced in May at the Millennium Docs Against Gravity festival.
✦ Geeta Gandbhir’s The Perfect Neighbour is nominated.
FIPADOC AWARDS
The 8th edition of the international documentary held in Biarritz took place January 23–31.
✦ Hansen Lin and Siyi Chen’s Queens Ballroom received the Docs Barcelona Award.
SIMA Awards
The Social Impact Media Awards (SIMA) honor films that inspire activism, compassion, and social change. 2026 winners were announced in February.
✦ Sara Khaki and Mohammedreza Eyni’s Cutting Through Rocks received the Best Feature Documentary and Best Director awards.
Prada Foundation Film Fund
The Fondazione Prada Film Fund is an annual initiative that supports independent cinema without any restriction on geography, theme, genre, or language.
2025 Fund recipients include:
✦ Natalia Almada’s Captions Will Be Needed ✦ Tatiana Huezo’s Galerna
Festivals & Screenings
CPH:DOX
The festival takes place in Copenhagen from March 11–22.
Screenings: ✦ Gabriela Pena and Picho García’s Here the Silence is Heard (World Premiere) ✦ Jeanie Finlay’s All Rivers Spill Their Stories to the Sea (World Premiere) ✦ Efraín Mojica and Rebecca Zweig’s Jaripeo ✦ Biljana Tutorov and Petar Glomazić’s To Hold a Mountain ✦ Maite Alberdi’s A Child of My Own.
CPH:Forum CPH:Forum is the festival’s flagship financing and co-production event.
Featured projects include: ✦ Sharon Yeung and Natalie Chao’s We Are Volcanoes ✦ Radu Ciorniciuc’s Director’s Cut ✦ Hansen Lin and Siyi Chen’s Queens Ballroom ✦ Maris Salumets’ War on Women (CPH:ROUGHCUT)
CPH:Conference This program comprises an array of talks featuring visionary thinkers delving into contemporary themes in documentary filmmaking.
✦ Efraín Mojica and Rebecca Zweig will participate in the panel Constructing Your Own Cinematic Language. ✦ Anupama Srinivasan will give the Keynote for the Future: The Artist's Role. ✦ Program Director Kiyoko McCrae will speak on the panel Position, Privilege and the Epistemic Power of the Gaze: Towards Narrative Positionality.
Thessaloniki Film Festival
The 28th edition of the biggest annual event for documentary audiovisual works in Greece takes place March 5–15.
Screenings: ✦ Efraín Mojica and Rebecca Zweig’s Jaripeo ✦ Lorena Luciano’s Nuns vs. The Vatican ✦ Alisa Kovalenko and Marysia Nikitiuk’s Traces
Visions du Réel
The festival is held in Switzerland from April 17–26.
VdR–Industry ✦ Laura Poitras will be a special guest at the opening of the program.
VdR–Work in Progress Project ✦ Milton Guillen & Fiona Guy Hall’s My Skin and I
Latinx Film Showcase
The one-day series celebrating US Latinx filmmakers took place on March 7 in NYC.
Showcased project: ✦ Anayansi Prado’s Uvalde Mom
Big Sky Pitch
This pitch for works-in-progress at Big Sky Festival took place on February 20.
Pitches: ✦ Sara Chishti’s Taxi Driver ✦ Emily Cohen Ibañez’ Orquídea
New Directors/New Films
The 55th edition of this festival, which champions filmmakers with distinctive visions that push the art form into new terrain, takes place in New York from April 8–19.
US premiere: ✦ Viv Li’s Two Mountains Weighing Down My Chest
Streaming
✦ Angela Tucker’s The Inquisitor is available on PBS. ✦ We are proud to co-present this March’s Women’s History Month Collection at POV, which features Twice Colonized, Is There Anybody Out There?, and Sol in the Garden alongside work from filmmakers around the world.
