Swiss documentary festival Visions du Réel (VdR) has unveiled 31 projects to be presented at its 2026 VdR-Industry Days section, taking place in Nyon from April 19-22.
Among the filmmakers pitching documentary projects is leading Swiss director Jean-Stéphane Bron, whose Le Chantier played out of competition last year at Locarno. He will present A Season in Europe, an in-depth look at the inner workings of European institutions.
Sofie Benoot, director of 2024 VdR premiere Apple Cider Vinegar and 2014’s Desert Haze will pitch Hello?!, a film about memory keepers and endangered birds.
Ljubomir Stefanov, the co-director of Oscar-nominated film Honeyland will present The Vortex of Extinction, based on scientific research about a singular population of turtles caught up in mysterious and fatal evolutionary patterns.
Myriam El Hajj, whose Diaries from Lebanon world premiered at the Berlinale in 2024, will introduce Letters from a Ceasefire, co-directed with Iranian filmmaker Omid Hashemi. Through a series of correspondences, the two filmmakers reflect on regional conflicts while affirming the need to believe in the possibility of change.
VdR–Industry Days support projects in development through post-production, and takes place across four sections.
15 projects in late-development will be part of VdR–Pitching and six projects in finishing stages will be presented at VdR–Work in Progress. Four projects have been selected for each of the VdR–Rough Cut Lab and the VdR–Development Lab, with the addition of two finalists in the latter.
The 31 selected projects are led by 34 directors representing 28 countries. Among the selected projects, 61% are presented by women directors, 45% by first-time feature directors, and 58% are directed and produced by filmmakers from the majority world. They were selected from more than 600 submissions.
2026 VdR–Industry Days is headed for the first time this year by Sabine Fayoux Cantillo. Oscar-winning filmmaker Laura Poitras will mark the opening of VdR-Industry Days with an in conversation event.
The 2026 VdR–Industry Jury, alongside the Eurimages and visions sud est juries, will award more than CHF 80’000 in prizes.
“What stands out this year is not necessarily a single topic, but rather a shared sensibility across very different geographies and stories,” said head of industry Sabine Fayoux Cantillo. “While there is a strong current of examining historical decisions that continue to reverberate in our present, ranging from colonial expeditions to migration policies, political uprisings, land ownership, and displacement, each project remains singular, with voices and artistic visions that assert themselves with clarity and an attuned awareness of the world we live in.”
VdR–Industry projects 2026
VdR–Pitching
A Season in Europe, dir Jean-Stéphane Bron (Switz)
Prod: Lionel Baier (Bande à part Films)
Firing Line, dir Olga Gibelinda (Ukr)
Prod: Olga Gibelinda (Malanka Studios), Stasys Baltakis (Film Jam), Jonas Kellagher (CommonGround Pictures)
Hello?!, dir Sofie Benoot (Bel)
Prod: Marc Goyens (Quetzalcoatl), Guillaume Malandrin (Altitude100), Steven Rubinstein Malamud (GROM), Matej Sotnik (guča films)
La Linda, dir Francina Carbonell (Arg)
Prod: Maria Paz González (María una vez), Gema Juarez Allen (Gema Films)
Letters from a Ceasefire, dir Myriam El Hajj (Leb), Omid Hashemi (Iran)
Prod: Julie Bergeron, Corentin Sénéchal, Daniel Chabannes (Reality Films / Epicentre Films)
Retrograd, dir Anders Mielcke Grønbæk (Den), Esben Persson (Den)
Prod: Kasper Lykke Schultz (Elk Film)
Somewhere Over the Rainbow, dir Koval Bhatia (India)
Prod: Dominique Barneaud (Bellota Films), Riham Ezzaldeen (What Took You So Long), Koval Bhatia (A Little Anarky Films)
Stuttering Fluidity – How My Father Became a Sea Creature, dir Stefan Pavlovic (Bosn & Herz, Neth)
Prod: Eyal Sivan (Serendipity Films), Kostana Banovic (artTrace Foundation)
The Bubble of Bliss, dir Yasmin van Dorp (Neth)
Prod: Hester Breunissen, Janneke Doolaard (DOXY FIXY)
The Myth, dir Che-Chia Hsu (Taiwan)
Prod: Jia Zhao (MUYI FILM), Che-Chia Hsu (MindMine Films)
The Vortex of Extinction, dir Ljubomir Stefanov (N Maced)
Prod: Maya E. Rudolph (Louverture Films)
To My Dearest, dir Grace Hsia (China)
Prod: Grace Hsia (Wild Angle Films), Wenli Liu
Trade, dir Todd Chandler (US)
Prod: Alysa Nahmias (AJNA Films), Keith Wilson (Breezy Circle)
Transposition, dir Vladlena Sandu (based in the Neth)
Prod: Jos de Putter (Dieptescherpte BV)
Uganda, dir Daniel Mann (UK)
Prod: Fabrizio Polpettini (La Bête), Christophe Gougeon (Acqua Alta)
VdR–Work in Progress
A Road Less Travelled, dir Alexander Murphy (Fr, Ireland)
Prod: Cosme Bongrain (Goodseed Productions), David Collins, Eamon Hughes (Samson Films)
Boom!, dir Laura Plancarte (Mexico)
Prod: Johnny Brewin (Boom Film Project Ltd.), Christilla Huillard-Kann (Elda Productions)
Job 1:21, dir Samuel Suffren (Haiti)
Prod: Eugénie Michel Villette (Les Films du Bilboquet), Samuel Suffren (Kit Films)
Liberal Arts, dir Pacho Velez (US)
Prod: Scott Cummings, Pacho Velez (Pachoworks), Milo Borsuk
My Skin and I, dir Milton Guillén (Nicar), Fiona Guy Hall (US)
Prod: Zorana Mušikić, May Odeh (Mayana Films), Milton Guillén, Fiona Guy Hall
The Nights, dir Ana Bovino (Arg)
Prod: Natalia de la Vega (Navega Cine), Ana Bovino
VdR–Rough Cut Lab
Captain, dir Laura Otálora (Col)
Prod: Estephania Bonnett (Playlab Films), Nicolás Herreño (Tomato Content)
Holy Human Angel, dir Angeliki Aristomenopoulou (Greece)
Prod: Rea Apostolidis, Yuri Averof (Anemon Productions), Heather Millard (Compass Films), Vicky Miha (Asterisk)
Summer Grass Winter Worm, dir Matjaz Pinter (Slovn)
Prod: Martin Saxer (Entangled Films)
The People Outside, dir Jewel Maranan (Phil)
Prod: Jewel Maranan (Cinema Is Incomplete)
VdR–Development Lab
A Journey to Love Should Be Taken by Train, and Only Train, dir Elahe Esmaili (Iran)
Prod: Elahe Esmaili, Fabien Greenberg (Antipode Films)
Auguries, Dreams and Soils, dir Luciana Decker Orozco (Bol)
Prod: Camila Molina Wiethuchter (Omm Cine)
Identity Curls, dir Nadège Butoyi (Bur)
Prod: Diane Kaneza (Mikadie Production), Jean Marie Ndihokubwayo (Clap4Creativity)
This Is Not a Wasteland, dir Sachin (India)
Prod: Sachin (rohī collective)
VdR–Development Lab Finalists
Of the Trees Unmoved, dir Nino Benashvili (Georgia, Ger)
Prod: Tekla Machavariani (Nushi Film), Eva Blondiau (Color of May)
Youth, dir Daria Zhuravel (Ukr)
Prod: Anastasiia Zakhilko (Contemporary Ukrainian Cinema), Victor Thomas (Les 48° Rugissants / Jeudi Soir), Kristof Gerega (Schuldenberg Films)
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