European Award Season

The Documentary Shortlist in Context

Each year, the European Film Academy’s Documentary Award highlights filmmakers who are redefining the language, urgency, and imaginative scope of non-fiction cinema. To celebrate this year’s award season, we present a curated selection of earlier works by the directors shortlisted for the 2026 Documentary Award — a chance to revisit the films that shaped their voices before they entered this year’s spotlight.

At the heart of the program are Igor Bezinović, Kamal Aljafari, and Olha Zhurba, whose bold and expansive approaches earned them official nominations this year. Bezinović’s The Blockade offers a razor-sharp, cinematic observation of civic resistance; Aljafari’s A Fidai Film expands his lifelong project of reclaiming and reimagining Palestinian visual archives; and Zhurba’s Outside brings her intimate, relentless gaze to the fragile labor of growing up amid political rupture.

Around these works, the program maps the wider constellation of shortlisted directors. As the new award season unfolds, these films remind us that every nomination is rooted in years of restless inquiry, and in filmmakers who keep reinventing how we see the world.

In cooperation with

  • European Film Academy

Selected films

DAFilms.com is powered by Doc Alliance, a creative partnership of 7 key European documentary film festivals. Our aim is to advance the documentary genre, support its diversity and promote quality creative documentary films.

Doc Alliance Members

Join to get regular updates on our film program:

By sending the registration for the Newsletter, I consent to receiving commercial communications through electronic means and to related personal data processing required for the purposes of sending the Newsletter of Doc-Air Distribution s.r.o. I confirm having read the Principles of Personal Data Processing, understanding the text and consenting to the same, while I acknowledge the rights specified herein, including, without limitation, the right to submit objections against direct marketing techniques.

Poslat svému Junioru

Zavřít