Festival Listings
Back to Documentary ResourcesEdinburgh International Film Festival
15 - 21 Aug 2024
Edinburgh, Scotland
Edinburgh International Film Festival is the world's longest continually-running film festival. They hold a strong belief in transforming lives through the watching, making and understanding of film.
Open City Documentary Festival
6 - 11 May 2025
London, UK
Open City Documentary Festival creates an open space in London to nurture and champion the art of non-fiction cinema. They deliver training programmes, an annual film festival, the bi-annual publication Non-Fiction and screening projects throughout the year that aim to challenge and expand the idea of documentary in all its forms.
Montreal International Documentary Festival
21 Nov - 1 Dec 2024
Montreal, Quebec
The Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM) is one of North America’s leading documentary film festivals. Each year, the RIDM presents Canadian and international documentaries. Its industry event, Forum RIDM, is Quebec’s only documentary forum.
Camden International Film Festival
11 - 14 Sept 2025
Camden, Maine, USA
Recognized as one of the top documentary film festivals in the world, the Camden International Film Festival (CIFF) brings the finest non-fiction cinema to the rugged coast of Maine, showcasing documentary features and short films from around the globe.
Chagrin Documentary Film Festival
1 - 6 October 2024
Chagrin Falls, Ohio, USA
Nestled in the village of Chagrin Falls, Northeast Ohio, CDFF is a five day celebration of documentary art, dedicated to educating audiences and empowering talented filmmakers to tell their stories.
BFI London Film Festival
9 - 20 Oct 2024
London, UK
The 'Festival of Festivals'. Experience the world's best new films before they hit the cinema.
Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival
18 - 26 October 2024
Hot Springs, Arkansas, USA
Amidst turn-of-the-century bathhouses and on the doorstep of a national park lies the unforgettable spa city of Hot Springs, Arkansas, host to North America’s oldest all-documentary film festival.
DOK Leipzig
28 Oct - 3 Nov 2024
Leipzig, Germany
DOK Leipzig is an annual festival for documentaries and animations that celebrates film and promotes debate. The festival focuses on the values of peace, tolerance, human dignity and freedom of expression.
Doclisboa
17 - 27 October 2024
Lisbon, Portugal
Doclisboa seeks to imagine reality through new cinematic forms of perception, reflection and action, placing filmmaking into dialogue with its history to question the present of cinema.
Jihlava IDFF
25 Oct - 3 Nov 2024
Jihlava, Czech Republic
The Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival is a significant European festival of artistic and critically reflective documentary work.
AFI Fest
23 - 27 October 2024
Los Angeles, California, USA
AFI Docs Festival, now part of AFI Fest, showcases the best in documentary programming from the US and around the globe. AFI Docs is the nation’s premier documentary film festival.
DOC NYC
13 Nov - 1 Dec 2024
New York, USA
Documentary storytelling is flourishing like never before. DOC NYC is at the centre of celebrating and supporting this cultural movement.
IDFA
14 - 24 Nov 2024
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
IDFA believes in the power of documentaries. In creative documentaries that deepen, reveal and inspire. In documentaries that bring people closer together. And in documentaries that stand for change by inspiring people to act.
Kasseler Dok Fest
12 - 17 Nov 2024
Kassel, Germany
The Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival is a yearly six-day event and includes short and feature documentary films and artistic-experimental productions.
Sundance Film Festival
23 Jan - 2 Feb 2025
Park City, Utah, USA
Indie film lovers everywhere will come together to be the first to discover and celebrate the bold, creative visions and exciting new talent.
International Film Festival Rotterdam
30 Jan - 9 Feb 2025
Rotterdam, The Netherlands
IFFR offers a high quality line-up of carefully selected fiction and documentary feature films, short films and media art. The festival's focus is on recent work by talented new filmmakers.
Big Sky Documentary Festival
14 - 23 Feb 2025
Missoula, Montana, USA
Rooted in the heart of the mountain west, The Big Sky Film Institute nurtures and elevates non- fiction films that have the power to transform our world, our culture, our youth, and ourselves.
True/False
27 Feb - 2 Mar 2025
Columbia, Missouri, USA
True/False is a film festival focuses on cinema constructed from reality. Our goal is to forge a supportive, celebratory refuge for filmmakers and amplify the possibilities of creative nonfiction.
Atlanta Docufest
22 - 23 March 2025
Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Docufest brings you the best independent documentary films from across the globe. The festival spotlights powerful and meaningful life stories which educate and entertain audiences of every demographic.
Tempo Documentary Festival
3 - 9 March 2025
Stockholm, Sweden
Tempo Documentary Festival is the largest festival of its kind in Sweden. Tempo has since the start presented creative documentaries from all over the world, which would otherwise not reach the Swedish audience.
Thessaloniki Documentary Festival
6 - 16 Mar 2025
Thessaloniki, Greece
The most dynamic documentary industry event in Southeast Europe Thessaloniki Documentary Festival promotes and supports the documentary medium from the stage of development.
SXSW Film Festival
7 - 15 Mar 2025
Austin, Texas, USA
Featuring provocative dramas, documentaries, comedies, genre standouts and more, the SXSW Film Festival has become known for the high caliber and diversity of films presented, and for its smart, enthusiastic audiences.
CPH:DOX
19 - 30 Mar 2025
Copenhagen, Denmark
CPH:DOX, Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, is one of the biggest documentary film festivals in the world.
DOCVILLE
26 March - 3 April 2025
Leuven, Belgium
DOCVILLE, the largest documentary film festival in Belgium, has a strong focus on author driven documentary with special emphasis on the cinematic experience in general and cinematography in particular.
American Documentary Film Festival (AmDocs)
27 - 31 Mar 2025
Palm Springs, California, USA
The American Documentary and Animation Film Festival (AmDocs) is a non-profit entity, creating a forum to celebrate and promote documentary film - and the independent filmmakers around the world who bring knowledge and awareness through their stories about real people and issues.
Movies That Matter
21 - 29 March 2025
The Hague, The Netherlands
Movies that Matter wants to open eyes for human rights. Our core tasks are the screening of human rights related films and the stimulation of screenings of human-rights films.
Cinéma du Réel
22 - 30 March 2025
Paris, France
Cinéma du réel is now mobilising to support the diversity of writing, forms and ideas and give them resonance.
Visions du Réel
4 - 13 April 2025
Nyon, Switzerland
Visions du Réel is one of the only Swiss film festivals to present a majority of its films as world or international premieres.
ZagrebDox Festival
30 March - 6 April 2025
Zagreb, Croatia
ZagrebDox is an international documentary film festival taking place in Zagreb every year. The festival is intended to provide audiences and experts insight into recent documentary films, stimulate national documentary production and boost international and regional cooperation.
DOK.fest München
7 - 18 May 2025
Munich, Germany
We see documentary film as an art form that uses the means of cinematic aesthetics to negotiate relevant values and invites dialogue on a social, personal and artistic level. Documentary film is the art of the hour.
Docs Barcelona Festival
8 - 18 May 2025
Barcelona, Spain
DocsBarcelona is a global project based on the documentary. It includes a festival, professional market, distribution brand, exhibition network and courses for documentary filmmakers.
SF DocFest
29 May – 8 Jun 2024
San Francisco, USA
An offshoot of SF IndieFest, SF DocFest takes over the Roxie Cinema, supposedly the oldest art house theater west of the Mississippi
Sheffield Doc/Fest
18 - 23 Jun 2025
Sheffield, UK
Sheffield Doc/Fest is an international film and arts festival and marketplace, with a mission to spark imaginations and empower our capacity for change by celebrating, championing and debating documentary film and art as a collective form of engagement.
Sunny Side of the Doc
23 - 26 Jun 2025
La Rochelle, France
Each year, the 4-day event brings together broadcasters, decision makers, financing bodies, distributors, content creators and producers from around the world to sell or buy projects and programmes, and to find coproduction partners.
Documenta Madrid
28 May - 2 June 2024
Madrid, Spain
Documenta Madrid is an international film festival organised by the Madrid City Council. Documenta is a continuously evolving festival and aspires to improve year after year as a showcase for the best in international documentary film, one which brings us closer to both the classics as well as the latest offerings in the genre.
SiciliAmbiente Documentary Film Festival
15 - 20 July 2024
Sicily, Italy
SiciliAmbiente is an international festival of documentaries, shorts, animations, and fiction films related to environmental, sustainability, and human rights issues.
FID Marseille
25 - 30 June 2024
Marseilles, France
An international film festival that retains a local and national identity. The FIDMarseille is known as a source of new cinema, both documentary productions as well as fiction films.
RAI Film Festival
27 - 30 March 2025
Bristol, England
The RAI Film Festival celebrates the best in ethnographic, anthropological and archaeological filmmaking from around the globe.
Encounters - South Africa Documentary Film Festival
20 - 30 June 2024
Johannesburg, South Africa
The Encounters Festival promises some of the globe’s most talked-about and award-winning documentaries, a diverse and riveting line-up.
Dokufest
1 - 9 Aug 2025
Prizren, Kosovo
DokuFest, International Documentary and Short Film Festival, is the largest film festival in Kosovo. Recognized as one of the top film and music event in SouthEast Europe, DokuFest is an EFA nominating festival for short films, as well as a BAFTA qualifying festival for shorts.
Full Frame Documentary Festival
3 - 6 April 2025
Durham, North Carolina
The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival is an annual international event dedicated to the theatrical exhibition of nonfiction cinema.
Academia Film Olomouc
22 - 27 April 2025
Olomouc, Czech Republic
An international science documentary film festival. Running since 1966, Academia Film Olomouc frequently hosts world leading scientific researchers.
Millennium Docs Against Gravity Film Festival
9 - 18 May 2025
Warsaw, Gdynia, Wrocław, Bydgoszcz, Lublin, Katowice, Poznan, Poland
Millennium Docs Against Gravity Film Festival is the largest film festival in Poland. It is the only film festival in Europe which takes place in seven different cities at the same time.
Melbourne Documentary Film Festival
1 - 31 July 2024
Melbourne, Australia
With an affinity for independent, creative thinkers and mavericks, Melbourne Documentary Film Festival is dedicated to pushing the genre to its limits whilst remaining accessible, aiming to spark critical conversation and debate rather than to lecture.
To be announced
Essay Film Festival
London, UK
The Essay Film Festival presents a global range of contemporary and restored essayistic works, each exploring the critical and creative zone of possibilities that lies between experimental and documentary modes of filmmaking.
Hot Docs Film Festival
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is North America’s largest documentary festival, conference and market.
DOXA Festival
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
DOXA is an international documentary festival featuring new work selected by a jury, as well as thematic programming presented by independent curators.
Document Human Rights Film Festival
Glasgow, Scotland
Document Festival is Scotland’s international human rights documentary film festival, it provides a unique platform that attracts Scottish, British and international documentary filmmakers and promotes local and international discussion, cultural exchange and education.
Frames of Representation
ICA, London, UK
The ICA’s annual film festival FRAMES of REPRESENTATION focusses on the role of spectatorship. The festival continues to be an international showcase for the cinema of the real, exploring in depth the aesthetic and political implications of filmmaking as both a collective practice and an art form.