As with every edition of Cinéma du Réel, we’ve been blown away by the profusion of forms, subjects and artistic experimentation at play in this year's bold programming choices. To help you make sense of this year’s vast selection, here’s our list of films to look out for…
The Paris-based Decolonial Film Festival will be opening its 2025 edition with an avant-premiere of the Oscar-nominated Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat by Johan Grimonprez. Doc Weekly is excited to be the Decolonial Film Festival’s official media partner, boasting a programming committee made up of fifteen anti-racist, diasporic, queer and feminist organisations.
Israel has blocked the entry of all humanitarian aid into Gaza as it demands Hamas agree to a US plan for a ceasefire extension. Just hours later, ‘No Other Land’ by Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Rachel Szor and Hamdan Ballal won the Oscar for Best Feature Documentary at the 97th edition of the Academy Awards. The filmmakers criticised US foreign policy and asked that the international community act.
The possibilities within a virtual world are endless. With a vast wealth of experiences, characters and stories available to the player, games such as Grand Theft Auto can be pure escapism. But can they be more than that? Shot entirely in GTA, Grand Theft Hamlet explores the sense of community that such virtual worlds can create and the art that can be born from violence.
You've seen documentaries about video games, their creation, their rise to prominence, perhaps their ever growing impact on the public psyche. But have you ever seen one shot entirely in GTA's Los Santos ? Or one who's script is composed of World of Warcraft gamelogs ? The “machinima” genre is currently having a moment, particularly when it comes to documentary.
Doc Weekly was in Biarritz to interview director Lee Shulman for the premiere of I Am Martin Parr at Fipadoc 2025, a rare portrait of the unassuming photographer who, under cover of an irresistible sense of humour has impacted his art form beyond recognition.
This year Doc Weekly was in Biarritz attending Fipadoc, boasting nearly 180 films from around the world across 5 major competitions including two Oscar nominees for Best Documentary Feature ! Here’s a complete list of this year’s award-winners.
‘They want our ideas, they just don’t want us’. Follow sociologist Patricia Kingori, the youngest black and female professor at the University of Oxford, as she takes us through the bought essay industry, which involves an estimated 40,000 Kenyans writing academic papers for students in the global north.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have announced the nominees for the 97th Academy Awards including Documentary Feature Film and Documentary Short Film. The films nominated are Black Box Diaries by Shiori Ito, No Other Land by Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal, Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat by Johan Grimonprez, Porcelain War by Slava Leontyev, Brendan Bellomo and Sugarcane by Emily Kassie, Julian Brave NoiseCat
Doc Weekly is kicking off 2025 with a visit to Fipadoc ! In anticipation of the festival, we’ve been poring through the programme in order to give you our hot tips from this year’s premiering films in the competitions…
The BAFTAs have announced their final nominations in all categories ahead of the February 16th awards ceremony. Five films have been nominated for Best Documentary : Black Box Diaries by Shiori Ito ; Daughters by Natalie Rae and Angela Patton ; No Other Land by Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal ; Will & Harper by Josh Greenbaum ; Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story by Ian Bonhôte, Peter Ettedgu
The liberal democratic model is at a crossroads. Elections and political unrest around the world have exposed the cracks in our individualist, utilitarian path towards progress. As democracy recedes, people are turning towards authoritarian and theocratic leaders. It is sometimes hard to see this tide turning, but thankfully, documentaries are here to help. Doc Weekly was in attendance at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) to pick out five of the of the most urgent films on the subject, including new 2024 and 2025 releases from Petra Costa and Asif Kapadia.
We inherit much from our families. Some things, like Chloe Abraham’s sweet memories of her ancestral land’s ripe Sri Lankan mangoes, bring joy. Others are as hard and unyielding as the stone at the fruit's core. In her debut feature film, The Taste of Mango, Abraham offers a raw yet warm self-documentation of shared trauma spanning three generations.
Doc Weekly was in attendance at the 2024 edition of International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) where Trains by Maciej J. Drygas picked up the Best Film and Best Editing in the International Competition. A bitter sweet archival portrait of the people of 20th century Europe, Trains captures their hopes, desires, dramas, and tragedies.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have announced shortlists in 10 categories for the 97th Academy Awards including Documentary Feature Film and Documentary Short Film. Among the films nominated, there are The Bibi Files by Alexis Bloom, Black Box Diaries by Shiori Ito, Dahomey by Mati Diop, No Other Land by Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal, Queendom by Agniia Galdanova, Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat by Johan Grimonprez and many more. Read the full lists here.
Doc Weekly was in attendance at the 2024 edition of International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) where our writer Laoise Murray caught the world premiere of A Want in Her by Myrid Carten, a raw, gut-punching and surprisingly funny examination of the meaning of unconditional love.
In Cape Town, a city as breathtakingly beautiful as it is brutal, a young man leads a daring urban revolution at the intersection of political and property power. Doc Weekly writer Pheladi Sethusa had the chance to see the documentary Mother City by Miki Redelinghuys and Pearlie Joubert in Johannesburg during a screening hosted by the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation.
Doc Weekly is attending IDFA 2024 ! Here are our hottest tips from the films premiering in the competition sections of tof the world’s largest documentary film festival of the year…
Doc Weekly is covering this year’s BFI London Film Festival with reviews and interviews from some of our favourite documentaries. Our writer Ellie Malpas interviewed Shiori Itō , director of Black Box Diaries, which comes out in UK cinemas today, the 25th of October 2024. Shiori Ito is known as a leader of Japan’s #metoo movement, after she chose to pursue the man who raped her, an influential journalist.
As part of Doc Weekly’s coverage of the BFI London Film Festival we spoke with Juliet Klottrup, about her film Travelling Home and the five years that she spent meeting and photographing the travellers that pass by her road as they make their annual pilgrimage to Appleby Fair.
