Our 21 must see documentaries at IDFA 2026
It’s that time of year again ! As the global documentary community converges on Amsterdam for the world’s largest and most important documentary film festival, we thought we’d share some of the films we’re most excited to see.
IDFA is both the chance to see all the year’s best work in the brilliant the Best of fests section, and to catch the opening of a brand new documentary festival season, with countless world and international premieres from both established and rising artists across numerous competitive sections.
This list of 21 films is a blend of both, highlighting some of the best films to have graced the festival circuit in 2026 and those that we think could make their mark in 2027.
Het Documentaire Paviljoen, IDFA’s headquarters
This year’s opener, the world premiere of White Tiger Column by Robert Mentov, Dwight Jantzi and Bryan Dickie, immediately held our attention. It closely follows a group of brave young gen z recruits training with Myanmar’s resistance movement deep in the jungle, preparing to fight for their freedom between Taylor Swift singalongs. An intriguing prospect at a time when the gen z generation is taking to the streets all around the world against injustice.
The whole 13-film selection (12 world premieres) is worth taking a closer look at, but we’d like to mention three further films in particular.
For the first time in his career, Michaël Andrianaly is selected in IDFA’s International competition. Over the past decade, the Malagasy director of Gwetto (2023), Nofinofy (2019) and Njaka Kelly (2015) has shone an invaluable light, with remarkable artistry and elegance, on daily life in Madagascar, one of the poorest countries in the world. In Mangabangabaka we meet Toamasina, looking to turn her life around after 30 years of sex work.
Ruslan Fedotov, on the other hand, returns to the selection having won Best Cinematography and Best First Feature with Where Are We Headed in 2021. He trades Moscow’s subway for the Dnieper in Down The River, documenting the lives of the people he finds on its banks - from which wars: past, present and future, seem inextricable.
In the Brazilian town of Morro Grande, generations of farmers have toiled on land owned by large landowners and multinationals. Morro Grande by Isabel Joffily and Rita Toledo tells the story of the enigmatic Vaguinho, a local who took his life after drinking a cola bottle of pesticides.
Down the River by Ruslan Fedotov
In her film essay My Own Personal Gulag, Lina Gorbaneva confronts the communist dream of reeducation with the cruel reality of the Gulag labor camps. She uses extensive archives to do so, from fiction films to footage of the gargantuan Stalinist construction projects of the time, and by quoting thinkers who supported or criticised the gulag system. A world premiere.
In the Envision Competition, we’re also very excited for the world premiere of Lyrical Vengeance by wendelien van oldenborgh. A queer celebration, on the dancefloor, of the lives and works of Japanese author Fumiko Hayashi, Indonesian author Suwarsih Djojopuspito and Dutch-Indonesian author Beb Vuyk. Three women who challenged patriarchal and nationalist politics from the 1930s to 1950s, writing openly about women’s labour, sex work and resistance to colonial oppression in a turbulent era.
We’re always very excited about what the Luminous section has to offer and this year is no different. We highly we recommend that you take a closer look at all 21 selected films.
First, a tip from Doc Weekly’s lusophone cinema expert Pedro José-Marcellino: the world premiere of The Blood of the Covenant by the soon-to-be “powerhouse in new European documentary” Fábio Silva. The filmmaker’s mother, a Cape Verdean woman in her sixties, finds herself alone after a 40-year relationship. As she enters this new phase of her life, her son helps her rebuild.
In Dreams of the Wild Oaks, Marjan Khosravi films 13-year-old Bakhtiari nomad Samaneh. Locked in the bind of ancient tradition after her father is accused of murder, she must marry into the victim’s tribe as blood money. Her only way out: settle the debt by catching seven rare golden-winged partridges. A race against time begins. IDFA will be hosting the European premiere.
Our last Luminous tip comes from Fernando Souza, and takes us into the extraordinary phenomenon of Japan’s host clubs - in this case, male host clubs. In Tonight is Forever, host Hikaru plays the the perfect man: he keeps female customers company, flirts with them, and makes them fall in love—for a fee. After 15 years of living out women’s fantasies, can he live out his own? A world premiere.
Tonight is Forever by Fernando Souza
The Frontlight competition is specifically dedicated to filmmakers confronting the urgent issues of our time.
Among many missives from a United States in crisis, we’ve picked the international premiere of the striking Wood Street by Caron Creighton, who took a year out of her job as a journalist to shoot the film. When more than 300 unhoused residents of an encampment in Oakland, California were threatened with eviction, they chose ro rise up to defend their home and community.
The very short (3-minute) Then I Saw a Beautiful Horse by Altay Erlik just had to make this list. How could you pass on an expertly edited, rapid-fire film-essay that opens with thoughts on bestiality (sex with animals), its legality in Germany until 2013, and consequent legal possibility of “animal consent”. Enjoy the teaser below ahead of the film’s world premiere.
The Signed section gathers recent releases by some of the most original non-fiction filmmakers of our time, out of competition and not world premiering. You’ll find plenty of films that we’ve already mentioned this year on Doc Weekly such as Dao by Alain Gomis, Alea Jacarandas by Hassen Ferhani, or major theatre releases including You Can See Everything by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim as well as Once Upon a Time in Harlem by William and David Greaves.
Beyond those, we’d like to mention three major North American features and one extraordinary Czech one.
They’re Here is a new film from Laura Poitras (Citizenfour, All The Beauty and The Bloodshed, Cover-up…) and Rachel Lauren Mueller. Using collected footage, they reconstruct a chilling (horror-esque) account of the January 2026 ICE raids in Minneapolis and the grassroots resistance that organised to face it.
Ten years after her acclaimed 13th (2016), Ava Duvernay’s much anticipated 14th will be showing at IDFA. The 14th amendment promises equal rights to anyone born in the US, yet Trump has long-promised to do away with birthright citizenship. From Jim Crow to today’s President, Duvernay demonstrates how pervasive racism and inequality remains in the world’s richest country.
They’re Here by Laura Poitras and Rachel Lauren Mueller
Next, an oscar-winning militant filmmaker who no doubt inspired the two previously mentioned, Barbara Kopple, will also be showing her latest film: Union Town. After Harlan County, US (1976) and American Dream (1990), Kopple’s camera is still firmly in the camp of the workers, this time as delivery driver unions fight for better conditions from Amazon, UPS, DoorDash, and Grubhub.
Our last tip from the Signed section is Bára - Diary of a Rockstar by legendary documentarian Helena Třeštíková, a deep observational protrait spanning 50 years of iconic Czech rock singer Bára Basiková. With depth and without judgement, the film follows Bára through her ambitious artistic career, but also her relationship crises, raising children and her development as a woman, showing the toll a life in the spotlight can have on successful women.
Best of Fests is a 58-film section uniting the year’s best films from the festival circuit, a truly scintillating selection that simply never disappoints.
You’ll find many films here that we’ve previously recommended on Doc Weekly, from Cannes: Gabin by Maxence Voiseux, A Secret Heart by Tom Fontenille and Rehearsals for a Revolution by Pegah Ahangarani, the latter winning l’Oeil d’or. There’s also A Fire There for which we interviewed Marlene Edoyan at Visions du Réel.
The section also includes festival favourites and current theatre releases To Hold a Mountain by Biljana Tutorov and Petar Glomazić, Everybody to Kenmure Street by Felipe Bustos Sierra and The History of Concrete by John Wilson.
However, our first tip comes from Doc Weekly’s Latin America expert Ana Navarrete Buttazzoni, who first spotted The Illusion of an Everlasting Summer at Chile’s FIC Valdivia. Over the course of 25 years, photographer and filmmaker Alessandra Sanguinetti films her neighbours in rural Argentina, the inseparable cousins Belinda and Guillermina, as they grow and their lives change. From childhood games to facing the realities of a male-dominated community.
Next, two films that were rewarded at Visions du Réel this year. From Dawn to Dawn is Xisi Sofia Ye Chen’s first film and Visions du Réel Grand Prix winner 2026. A dive into the life of a Chinese restaurant-owner, father and former gangster in Barcelona.
With Baby Jackfruit Baby Guava, Nong Nhat Quang won the Special Jury Award of the Burning Lights competition at Visions du Réel. He chose to start filming his family, who don’t know about his American boyfriend, when his neuro-divergent older sister becomes pregnant.
Winner of the CPH:DOX Award, Whispers in May by Dongnan Chen is also not to be missed. After 14-year-old Qihuo has her first period while her mother is away working in the city, she hatches a plan with her friends to cross the mountain together in search of the ceremonial skirt she must wear to symbolise her transition to adulthood. A docufiction odyssey.
Ukrainian director Olga Chernykh opened IDFA in 2023 with A Picture to Remember, her new film The Illusion of a Quiet Night offers a kaleidoscopic portrait of life in Ukraine during a single night. A summer night of 2025 ravers party, a wounded soldier is rescued, farmers harvest, bombs are dropped - what is normal in a country at war ?
Our last tip is for Hope Is a Word by Maria Galliani Dyrvik. Shell and others continue to heavily pollute the Niger Delta, but 30 years after the execution of poet-activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, his spirit and power lives on. Young poets put their pain, anger, and frustration into words.
