Festival Listings

For anyone looking to grow their knowledge about documentaries, or just indulge their passion.

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Sundance Film Festival

19 - 29 Jan 2023

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

24 Jan - 4 Feb 2023

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

17 - 26 Feb 2023

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

2 - 5 Mar 2023

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.

Thessaloniki Documentary Festival

2 - 12 Mar 2023

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.

Atlanta Docufest

3 - 5 Mar 2023

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.

RAI Film Festival

3 - 31 Mar 2023

Bristol, UK

The RAI Film Festival celebrates the best in ethnographic, anthropological and archaeological filmmaking from around the globe.

Tempo Documentary Festival

6 - 12 Mar 2023

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.

SXSW Film Festival

10 - 18 Mar 2023

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

15 - 26 Mar 2023

Copenhagen, Denmark

CPH:DOX, Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, is one of the biggest documentary film festivals in the world.

DOCVILLE

22 - 30 Mar 2023

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.

Movies That Matter

24 Mar - 1 Apr 2023

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

24 Mar - 2 Apr 2023

Paris, France

Cinéma du réel is now mobilising to support the diversity of writing, forms and ideas and give them resonance.

Essay Film Festival

25 - 31 Mar 2023

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.

ZagrebDox Festival

26 Mar - 2 Apr 2023

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.

American Documentary Film Festival (AmDocs)

30 Mar - 3 Apr 2023

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.

Visions du Réel

21 - 30 Apr 2023

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.

Hot Docs Film Festival

27 Apr - 7 May 2023

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is North America’s largest documentary festival, conference and market.

Documenta Madrid

3 - 7 May 2023

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.

DOK.fest München

3 - 14 May 2023

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.

DOXA Festival

4 - 14 May 2023

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.

Docaviv - Tel Aviv International Documentary Festival

11 - 20 May 2023

Tel Aviv, Israel

Docaviv NPO acts at the heart of one of the most innovative, vital, and surprising creative arenas – that of documentary filmmaking. Our vision is to provide unique platforms throughout Israel for screening documentaries, exposing new audiences to the genre.

Millennium Docs Against Gravity Film Festival

12 - 21 May 2023

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.

Docs Barcelona Festival

18 - 28 May 2023

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.

Sheffield Doc/Fest

14 - 19 Jun 2023

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

19 - 22 Jun 2023

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.

Encounters - South Africa Documentary Film Festival

22 Jun - 2 Jul 2023

Johannesberg, Cape Town, South Africa

The Encounters Festival promises some of the globe’s most talked-about and award-winning documentaries, a diverse and riveting line-up.

FID Marseilles

4 - 9 Jul 2023

Marseilles, France

Today, the FIDMarseille is recognized as a source of new cinemas, both documentary productions as well as fiction films.

SiciliAmbiente Documentary Film Festival

17 - 22 Jul 2023

Sicily, Italy

SiciliAmbiente is an international festival of documentaries, shorts, animations, and fiction films related to environmental, sustainability, and human rights issues.

Dokufest

4 - 12 Aug 2023

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.

Open City Documentary Festival

6 - 12 Sep 2023

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.

Camden International Film Festival

14 - 17 Sep 2023

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.

Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival

6 - 14 Oct 2023

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

8 - 15 Oct 2023

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

19 - 29 Oct 2023

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

24 - 29 Oct 2023

Jihlava, Czech Republic

The Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival is a significant European festival of artistic and critically reflective documentary work.

IDFA

8 - 19 Nov 2023

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.

DOC NYC

8 - 26 Nov 2023

New York, USA

Documentary storytelling is flourishing like never before. DOC NYC is at the center of celebrating and supporting this cultural movement.

To be announced

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.

Full Frame Documentary Festival

Durham, North Carolina, USA

The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival is an annual international event dedicated to the theatrical exhibition of nonfiction cinema.

Edinburgh International Film Festival

Edinburgh, Scotland

Edinburgh International Film Festival is the world's longest continually-running film festival. We believe in transforming lives through the watching, making and understanding of film.

BFI London Film Festival

London, UK

Experience the world's best new films before they hit the cinema. Dates for 2023 not yet confirmed.

AFI Docs Festival

Los Angeles, California, USA

Showcasing the best in documentary programming from the US and around the globe in the heart of the nation’s capital, AFI DOCS is the nation’s premier documentary film festival.

Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM)

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. Dates for 2022 not yet announced.

Kasseler Dok Fest

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.

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.