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 (not available in USA) 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
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.