Awards & Fellowships

Cinema Eye Honors

This year Cinema Eye Honors celebrates its 20th year of recognizing excellence in nonfiction filmmaking and will take place January 11, 2027, in New York City.

✦ Carl Deal and Tia Lessin’s Steal This Story, Please! made the Audience Choice Prize Longlist ✦ Penny Lane’s Wild Inside made the Audience Choice Prize Longlist ✦ Contessa Gayles’s Songs from the Hole was nominated for Broadcast Film and Broadcast Cinematography ✦ Geeta Gandbhir, Samantha Knowles and Spike Lee’s Katrina: Come Hell and High Water was nominated for Nonfiction Series ✦ Margaret Brown’s The Yogurt Shop Murders was nominated for Nonfiction Series ✦ Yoruba Richen’s Free Joan Little made the Shorts List ✦ Laura Poitras and Rachel Lauren Mueller’s They’re Here made the Shorts List

IDA Documentary Awards

The International Documentary Association’s annual awards honor the year’s outstanding nonfiction work and the people who make it and will take place December 4, 2026.

✦ Maia Lekow and Christopher King will receive the Emerging Filmmaker Award, which goes to filmmakers whose early work shows extraordinary promise in exploring the possibilities of the nonfiction art form.

Critics Choice Documentary Awards

The Critics Choice Association honors the year’s best nonfiction film and television and will take place November 8, 2026.

✦ Jessica Earnshaw’s Baby Doe was nominated for Best True Crime Documentary

European Film Awards

The European Film Academy has announced its documentary shortlist and will award winners January 16, 2027.

✦ Biljana Tutorov and Petar Glomazić’s To Hold a Mountain was shortlisted ✦ Alisa Kovalenko’s Traces was shortlisted

Woodstock Film Festival

This festival supporting emerging and established filmmakers took place in the Hudson Valley October 14–18, 2026.

✦ They’re Here, dir. Laura Poitras and Rachel Lauren Mueller, won Best Short Documentary ✦ To Hold a Mountain won Best Editing, Documentary

San Sebastián International Film Festival

This international festival held its 74th edition September 18–26.

✦ Tatiana Huezo’s Galerna won the EGEDA Platino Industria Award for Best WIP LATAM

Biarritz Amérique Latine Festival

This annual international film festival in Biarritz, France, celebrating Latin American cinema and culture, ran September 26–October 2, 2026.

✦ Indira Cato’s Llamarse Olimpia won Best Documentary

British Independent Film Awards (BIFA)

BIFA supports independent filmmaking and filmmakers in the UK and will take place December 6, 2026.

✦ Jeanie Finlay’s All Rivers Spill Their Stories to the Sea is on the Feature Documentary Longlist

The Louie Awards

DOC NYC unveils the three short film winners of The Louies, a new $100,000 fund sponsored by the Lynn & Louis Wolfson II Family Foundation.

✦ Hilla Medalia’s Outposts: Nothing Here Is Yours is a finalist ✦ Laura Poitras and Rachel Lauren Mueller’s They’re Here is a finalist

William Greaves Research & Development Fund

Firelight Media announced the 11 recipients of the 2026 edition of this fund, established to support documentary filmmakers of color with a specific focus on artists of Indigenous and/or African descent.

✦ Michèle Stephenson was named a 2026 William Greaves Research & Development Fund recipient

Doc Society Love & Rockets Fund

This international fund is dedicated to cinematic non-fiction features it says are “in service of better futures.”

✦ Julia Bacha’s Untitled New York Project was selected ✦ Noah Schamus and Brit Fryer’s With Time was selected

Sundance Institute Documentary Fund

The fund supports nonfiction storytellers from across the globe in the creation of feature-length documentaries that drive cultural and social impact. This year, 19 projects were selected to receive over $1 million in unrestricted funding.

✦ Hao Zhou’s All Fixed Up ✦ Ilinca Calugareanu’s Anatomy of Indifference ✦ Alyse Shorland’s The People’s Network ✦ Rachael DeCruz, Jeremy S. Levine’s Nine ✦ Chelsi Bullard’s Unfiltered (w/t)

Princess Grace Awards

The Princess Grace Foundation-USA is dedicated to upholding the legacy of Princess Grace of Monaco, (née Grace Kelly) and elevating extraordinary emerging artists in theater, dance and film through career-advancing grants.

✦ Chelsi Bullard is a recipient

Obama Foundation Leaders Program

This eight-month values-based leadership program is open to 24 to 45-year-old changemakers across the public, civil, and private sectors.

✦ Volia Chajkouskaya was selected

Festivals & Screenings

IDFA

IDFA is the world’s largest documentary film festival and will run November 12–22, 2026, in Amsterdam.

✦ Tatiana Huezo is this year’s Guest of Honor ✦ Daniela Muñoz Barroso’s Silent Diaries will be featured in the IDFA Forum Pitch and Roundtable Presentations ✦ Elwira Niewiera’s Women and War will have its World Premiere in the International Competition ✦ Emma Davie and Salomé Jashi will speak at the Industry Session: “The Identity – What does it mean to be a documentary film director?” ✦ Laura Poitras will join Sofía Bordenave and Mohanad Yaqubi for the Industry Talk: “Fighting back – Cinema as an act of resistance?”

DOC NYC

DOC NYC is America’s largest documentary festival and will run November 11–29, 2026, in New York City.

✦ Leah Galant’s Landscapes of Memory will screen in the Main Slate ✦ Shalini Kantayya’s Love Apptually will screen in the Main Slate ✦ Rebeca Huntt’s Rapinoe will screen in the Main Slate ✦ Alisa Kovalenko’s Traces will screen in the Main Slate ✦ Mohammadreza Eyni, Sara Khaki, Elizabeth Woodward, Laura Nix and Violet du Feng will serve as jurors

Streaming

✦ Jessica Earnshaw’s Baby Doe is now available on Apple TV and Prime Video ✦ Brittany Shyne’s Seeds premiered October 26 on PBS’s Independent Lens ✦ Kat Dolce Sorrentino’s Storming: Seasons of Care premieres on PBS in November ✦ Aurora Brachman and LaTajh Simmons-Weaver’s Hold Me Close and Brit Fryer and Lydia Cornett’s Tessitura are part of POV Shorts Season 9 ✦ Loira Limbal’s Through the Night is now streaming on the Criterion Channel

Job well done

✦ Viv Li and Brittany Shyne are serving as mentors for the Circle Doc Accelerator program with Biljana Tutorov as Programme director and co-head of studies ✦ Katy Lena Ndiaye is on the Visions du Réel Selection Committee ✦ Tereza Šimíková is on the Visions du Réel Industry Selection Committee