Even as documentary producers warn of tightening financing and shrinking commissioning budgets, the pipeline of new films shows little sign of slowing. Switzerland’s Visions du Réel has received more than 3,700 submissions for its upcoming 57th edition – up from 3,000 films in 2023, an increase of 23 % in just three years.
The documentary film festival has unveiled a lineup of 164 films, including 128 new titles, among them 83 world premieres and eight international premieres, as well as 36 debut features, reinforcing the festival’s role as a key launchpad for new voices in nonfiction.
The lineup also reflects continued progress toward gender balance: 44% of the films are directed by women, up from 39% in 2025. In addition, the program includes 26 Swiss co-productions, highlighting the strength of the country’s nonfiction sector, with three Swiss films in the international competition after none last year.
At the center of the program is the International Feature Film Competition, where 13 titles, 12 of which are world premieres, compete for the top award.
The selection blends new voices with returning filmmakers. Among those familiar to Nyon audiences is Polish filmmaker Piotr Pawlus, who won a Special Mention at VdR in 2023 for “In Ukraine,” co-directed with Tomasz Wolski. This year he returns with “Death in the Making,” once again turning his camera on the country with a poetic portrait of everyday resilience in wartime Ukraine.
Irish director Ross McClean, whose short “No Mean City” received a Special Mention at Visions du Réel last year, returns with his debut feature “Magilligan,” an intimate portrait of a young man struggling to rebuild his life after prison.
Also in the lineup is “Heat” by Swiss filmmaker Jacqueline Zünd (“Don’t Let the Sun,” “Where We Belong”), exploring the divide between wealthy residents living air-conditioned Gulf cities and migrant workers enduring extreme temperatures outside, and “The Price of the Sun” by Belgian director Jérôme Le Maire (“Burning Out,” “Le Grand Tour”), about a Berber community facing construction of a massive solar power complex on its land.
A key novelty in the 2026 edition is Borderlight, a new non-competitive section devoted to fiction films that blur the boundaries between narrative cinema and documentary observation.
“We have a lot of films that are very hybrid and very close to fiction,” Bujès said. “The idea was to move in the other direction: to bring together fictional films that have a very strong relation to documentary or to reality.”
The six-film program is being presented as a pilot edition and includes titles such as “Bouchra,” the debut animated feature by Israeli director Orian Barki and Moroccan artist and filmmaker Meriem Bennani; “Chronovisor” by Jack Auen and Kevin Walker, a fiction based on the discovery of a mysterious device that allows the past to be photographed; and “Forêt ivre” by Belgian filmmaker Manon Coubia, about three women caretakers living in a mountain refuge.
“My aim is always to push further and wider,” Bujès told Variety. “It’s really a natural evolution, a way for us to embrace more practices and open things up.”
Elsewhere, the festival’s Burning Lights section will continue to spotlight formally adventurous work exploring the boundaries of nonfiction storytelling.
Highlights include “Alea Jacarandas” by Algerian director Hassen Ferhani and “The Case Against Space,” in which British artist-filmmaker Graeme Arnfield revisits a little-known astronaut strike during the 1973 Skylab mission.
Spanning a record 75 countries, this year’s selection underscores the festival’s growing international reach, with particularly strong representation from Asia, notably China and Taiwan. The program also includes titles from regions less frequently represented on the festival circuit, including Vietnam (“Baby Jackfruit Baby Guava” by Nong Nhat Quang, Vietnam/South Korea), Sudan (“Nothing Happens After the Revolution” by Ibrahim Omar), and Syria (“If Only the Year Had 364 Days” by Almourad Aldeeb, Germany/Syria), all screening in the Burning Lights section.
“It’s great to see filmmakers emerging from regions where it’s more difficult to produce films, particularly films that are more adventurous in terms of the cinematic language,” Bujès said.
The festival also highlights emerging filmmakers through Opening Scenes, dedicated to debut and student works, while Grand Angle showcases titles that have already premiered at major festivals such as Sundance, IDFA and CPH:DOX.
Beyond the competition lineup, the festival will welcome four prominent guests reflecting different approaches to contemporary nonfiction, including Laura Poitras, Kelly Reichardt, Sergei Loznitsa, and Meriem Bennani.
Visions du Réel will open on April 17 with Poitras’ latest film “Cover-Up.” The Oscar-winning director of “Citizenfour” will be in Nyon to open the festival’s industry event, VdR-Industry, on April 19.
For Bujès, Poitras embodies the investigative spirit of contemporary documentary filmmaking. “Her work is very much in tune with the world,” Bujès said. “It’s really a matter of persisting and working very hard to investigate and to look for the truth.”
Reichardt, whose contemplative fiction films often blur the boundary between narrative and observation, will receive a retrospective and present a personal selection of documentaries, while Loznitsa will present an extensive retrospective including early short works. Bennani, whose practice spans film, installation and animation, will present “Bouchra” and take part in a conversation with the Nyon audience.
The jury for the International Feature Film Competition includes Rémi Bonhomme, artistic director of the Marrakech Film Festival, alongside filmmaker French filmmaker and journalist Lina Soualem (“Bye Bye Tiberias”) and Canadian director Brett Story (“The Prison in Twelve Landscapes”).
As the documentary industry navigates economic uncertainty, Bujès said the strength of this year’s selection speaks for itself.
“It’s a good year,” she said. “Together the films create a real energy.”
Visions du Réel runs in Nyon, Switzerland, from April 17 through 26.
Find the main feature length competition titles below:
International Feature Film Competition
“A Fire There” by Marlene Edoyan, Canada, 2026, 94’, world premiere
“Death in the Making by Piotr Pawlus,” Netherlands/Poland, 2026, 84’, world premiere
“Dentro” by Elsa Amiel, France/Switzerland, 2026, 95’, world premiere
“Djeliya, mémoire du Mandé” by Boubacar Sangaré, Burkina Faso/Côte d’Ivoire/Mali/Senegal/France, 2026, 112’, world premiere
“From Dawn to Dawn” by Xisi Sofia Ye Chen, Spain/France, 2026, 94’, world premiere
“Heat” by Jacqueline Zünd, Switzerland, 2026, 87’, world premiere
“Humboldt USA” by G. Anthony Svatek, USA, 2026, 89’, world premiere
“Magilligan” by Ross McClean, United Kingdom/Ireland/U.S., 2026, 74’, world premiere
“Meanwhile in Namibia” by Jonas Spriestersbach, Germany/Namibia, 2026, 120’, world premiere
“Saudades Eternas” by Emma Boccanfuso, Switzerland/France, 2026, 94’, world premiere
“The Night and the Days of Miguel Burnier” by João Dumans, Brazil, 2026, 82’, world premiere
“The Price of the Sun” by Jérôme Le Maire, Belgium/France/Morocco, 2026, 91’, world premiere
“Two Mountains Weighing Down My Chest” by Viv Li, Germany/Netherlands, 2026, 85’, international premiere
Burning Lights Competition
“Above the Waterline” by Elisa Sepulveda Ruddoff, Chile/France, 2026, 72’, world premiere
“Alea Jacarandas” by Hassen Ferhani, France/Algeria, 2026, 78’, world premiere
“Baby Jackfruit Baby Guava” by Nong Nhat Quang, Vietnam/South Korea, 2026, 104’, world premiere
“Club Heaven” by Jona Honer, Netherlands/Belgium, 2026, 78’, world premiere
“Comme un château fort” by Lou Colpé, Belgium, 2026, 83’, world premiere
“Don’t Tidy or Clean My Room, I Like It as It Is” by Ignacio Ceroi, Argentina/Spain, 2026, 81’, world premiere
“Fracture by Keren Kraizer,” Belgium, 2026, 85’, world premiere
“If Only the Year Had 364 Days” by Almourad Aldeeb, Germany/Syria, 2026, 78’, world premiere
“In Between, a Place” by Faezeh Nikoozad, Germany, 2026, 95’, world premiere
“Kukata Miti” by Daniel Kötter, Germany/Indonesia/Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2026, 80’, world premiere
“La Voix du troupeau” by Matthias Joulaud and Lucien Roux, Switzerland/France, 2026, 80’, world premiere
“Nothing Happens After the Revolution” by Ibrahim Omar, Sudan, 2026, 74’, world premiere
“The Case Against Space” by Graeme Arnfield, United Kingdom/France, 2026, 73’, world premiere
“The Illusion of a Quiet Night” by Olga Chernykh and collective work, Ukraine, 2026, 70’, world premiere
“Time and Tide” by Vee Shi, Australia, 2026, 99’, world premiere
Films in the National Competition
“Alma” by Rafael Palacio Illingworth, Switzerland, 2026, 70’, world premiere
“Common Ground” by Jonathan Jäggi, Switzerland, 2026, 89’, world premiere
“Der Runde Tisch: by Benjamin Bucher and Juliette Menthonnex, Switzerland, 2026, 41’, world premiere
“En terrain neutre” by Stéphane Goël and Mehdi Atmani, Switzerland, 2026, 80’, world premiere
“Eternal Snow” by François Kohler, Switzerland, 2026, 90’, world premiere
“First Lap Crash” by Liam Erlach, Switzerland, 2026, 73’, world premiere
“Nicole Nicole” by Lauren Dällenbach, Switzerland/France, 2026, 81’, world premiere
“Safe Spaces” by Sarah Horst, Switzerland, 2026, 104’, world premiere
“The Roots of Madness” by Edgar Hagen, Switzerland, 2026, 107’, world premiere
“To the Moon and Back” by Elisa Gomez Alvarez, Switzerland/France/Philippines/Qatar, 2026, 85’, world premiere
“Tricontinentale, lettre à ouvrir au cas où” by Laura Cazador, Switzerland/Cuba, 2026, 96’, world premiere
“Was das Wasser erzählt” by Maria Iorio and Raphaël Cuomo, Switzerland, 2026, 75’, world premiere
“What Comes From Sitting in Silence” by Sophie Schargo, Switzerland/France/South Korea/U.S., 2026, 77’, international premiere
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