Documentary Weekly

“In prison, a lot of people want films to be made about them. Big egos, big personalities… but Ryan just wasn't like that. That’s attractive to me as a filmmaker. If somebody wants a film made about them, that’s suspicious.” A year after premiering his short film No Mean City in Nyon, Ross McClean returns to the 2026 edition of Visions du Réel for the World premiere of his first feature, Magilligan, selected in the International feature film competition.

Created in 2015 by the Cannes Film Festival and LaScam and supported by l’Ina, L’Œil d’or rewards the festival’s best non-fiction feature film, across all sections. This year’s distinguished jury was composed of director and actress Lina Soualem (Bye Bye Tiberias), New York Film Forum director Tabitha Jackson, actress Géraldine Pailhas, journalist Victor Castanet and presided by filmmaker, photo-reporter and writer Mstyslav Chernov (2000 Meters to Andriivka, 20 Days in Mariupol).

Sensual, lyrical and textured, Jaripeo takes us into the heart of an obscure queer subculture of Mexico’s rodeo scene. In this hyper-masculine and macho space, co-director Efraín Mojica acts as our guide: the camera seeks out coded glances and late-night revelry to unveil a vividly shot reckoning with queer desire. Jaripeo takes its name from a Mexican style of rodeo. The film takes place in Penjamillo, in the state of Michoacán in western Mexico, where Moijca grew up.

In 2010, while working on her first feature Figure of Armen, Marlene Edoyan was investigating why the villages of the Armenian and Southern Georgian countryside had been emptying since the fall of the Soviet Union, when she was stopped in her tracks by the breathtaking village of Gandzani, nestled in the windswept plateaus of untouched rural southern Georgia. "I forgot my past, my family back in Canada, I couldn't believe where I was.

With May comes the annual glitz-laden rush of film stars, cinephiles, media teams and film scouts to the French riviera. Amid the sparkle and glamour of Europe’s most important celebration of film, it’s no secret that documentary is a neglected genre, but this year’s Cannes film festival selection has progressed from 2025.

Chinese filmmaker Vee Shi left home at 13 and, in the decades since, has only spent brief stretches of time with his family in Longtian, Fuqing, in southeastern China. His relationship with his father, who moved to Turkey for work when Vee was just three, is particularly strained. When his father suffered a stroke, Vee decided to return to Longtian for a month to make a film about his family.

For a list all the award-winners, see end of article. Xisi Sofia Ye Chen's From Dawn to Dawn and Hassen Ferhani's Alea Jacarandas win the two main prizes in the international competitions of Visions du Réel 2026. Spanish and Chinese director Xisi Sofia Ye Chen took home the Grand Prize in the International Feature Film Competition with From Dawn to Dawn, her first feature-length film.

From the 17th to the 26th of April 2026, Visions du Réel returns to Nyon and the shores of the Lac Léman for its 57th edition with a rich programme of 164 films, with 75 countries represented. 83 films selected will be screened as world premieres and a further 8 will be international premieres. The festival continues to do well in terms of representation, with 44% of films selected directed by women (it was 38% in 2025), 7% by mixed-gender co-directions, 1% by non-binary people and 48% by men.

André is an Idiot is a comedic documentary about André Ricciardi, who’s dying of colon cancer. After putting off a routine colonoscopy for a year, André is diagnosed with cancer which, because of the delay, is terminal. That’s right, I said comedic. What transforms an otherwise depressing subject into a surprisingly funny and profound film is André himself; his infectious charisma and offbeat humour are the driving force of the narrative.

Doc Weekly Contributor Anna Stopford interviewed director Augusto Zegarra at Sheffield DocFest for the World premiere of his film Runa Simi. Runa Simi takes place in Cusco, Peru, and follows a local man, Fernando Valencia, on his quest to dub The Lion King into Quechua, the largest pre-Colombian language in Latin America. As the number of speakers is in decline, Fernando is passionate about bringing the beloved Disney classic to Quechua speakers young and old.