Projects in categories: Documentary

Synopsis

Defined for much of his life by other people's perceptions of his visible difference, actor Adam Pearson finds a new sense of possibility when he meets Ellie, a teenage girl living with the same genetic condition. As their unlikely friendship inspires Adam to confront the rules he's built to protect himself, he returns to the big screen and discovers that the hero he's been searching for may be himself. Official Selection Telluride Film Festival 2026 Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2026

Synopsis

Spring 1991: queer life is under renewed attack in Britain, and filmmaker Derek Jarman is adapting Christopher Marlowe’s Edward II into a radical protest film. Drawing on extraordinary never-before-seen footage shot by Seamus McGarvey on Jarman’s set, QUEER EDWARD 11 is about the refusal to separate art from life, politics from pleasure. Official Selection Venice Film Festival 2026 Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2026

Synopsis

A cinematic documentary filmed inside active war zones in Ukraine that reframes how conflict is witnessed and remembered. The film removes traditional narration, allowing only children's voices to shape its emotional and narrative architecture. Their testimonies unfold as a chorus of memory, loss, and fragile hope, transforming lived experience into a meditation on childhood under siege. Only Children's voices - no adults, no outside commentary, no mediation. The film's sonic landscape is shaped through an original symphonic score by Academy Award-winning composer A.R. Rahman and an original Ukrainian-language piece created with a Grammy-winning Ukrainian composer, extending the children's voices beyond image into sound. Through this union of image and music, the film resists commentary and invites the audience into an intimate, human encounter with a generation growing up inside conflict.

Synopsis

In 1976, there was a call to boycott the Shiraz Arts Festival. Some well-known international artists joined immediately, others reluctantly. “The giants aren’t coming this year,” wrote the Iranian newspaper Kayhan. Official Selection Toronto International Film Festival 2026 Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2026

Synopsis

JOY OF JOYS is a short documentary about the recording sessions for War Child Records' HELP(2) at Abbey Road Studios, directed by Jonathan Glazer and devised by Mica Levi and Glazer. Children in London film themselves and the musicians, including Olivia Rodrigo, Arctic Monkeys, Damon Albarn, Cameron Winter, Fontaines DC and Pulp. While children in Gaza Ukraine, Sudan and Yemen film themselves and their surroundings. The documentary interweaves these layers across continents and backgrounds to show a universal innocence and the joy of childhood itself. Glazer and Levi describe the film as being “by children, for children”. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2026

Synopsis

This archival documentary traces the rise and fall of Richard Nixon and the death of the American dream, from the presidential primaries of 1968 through the Watergate break-in of June 1972 and Nixon’s resignation two years later, killing trust in the political process and the American presidency in the wake of the Vietnam War. Narrated by Harry Shearer (THIS IS SPINAL TAP), the film tells the untold story of the Watergate burglars, based on director Shane O’Sullivan’s book on the subject, and explores representations of the Nixon years in popular culture, using the music, commercials, and cinema of the era to evoke the fevered political landscape and the culture wars between Nixon’s silent majority and the radical anti-war left. How MEDIUM COOL, LION’S LOVE and SHAMPOO reflect on the political events of 1968; and how paranoid thrillers like THE CONVERSATION, TAXI DRIVER and ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN can be read in the context of the Watergate break-in and investigation which followed.

Synopsis

Bel was a Kenyan-Scottish woman who dreamt of singing to the whole world. A gifted musician, singer, and writer, she performed under the stage name Heir of the Cursed and in 2021 was on the absolute cusp of wider fame. But just as the world was finally about to discover her name, Bel took her own life, leaving behind poignant video diaries and a mobile phone full of amazing, unreleased songs. She was a brilliant artist fighting to be heard, yet she remains largely unknown today. Her untimely death and a small but beautiful body of work form her legacy now. Much like the legendary musician Nick Drake who also died young, the power and mystery of Bel’s music lies within the heavy pathos of her life's sudden end. Whatever deep internal struggles led to her tragic death were also at the very heart of what powered her mesmerising art. This documentary tells the story of an artist on the edge of stardom, and her sister Leah’s fierce determination to fulfil Bel's dream: releasing her final record and sharing her with the world. Official Selection Edinburgh International Film Festival 2026 - Closing Night Film - World premiere

Synopsis

Extremism is one of the most pressing issues of our time, yet the public's understanding of what causes it and so too how it can be prevented is often far, far away from many of the debates within academic circles. With examples ranging from Sudan, Israel, the US and the UK, to activists from Amnesty International, a pseudonymous journalist and an anonymous expert sits down to discuss 6 metaphorical vignettes from a range of formers, scholars and activists to explore what we've been getting wrong about extremism.

Synopsis

In 1988, Afghanistan sent its only astronaut into space, a journey that proved home can be farther than the stars. Official Selection, Locarno Film Festival 2026 Official Selection, Dokufest 2026

Synopsis

Rob Beaton has been weaving tartan and tweed in the Scottish Borders since he was 14. Now 84, he is Scotland's oldest and longest-serving mill worker, operating 100-year-old traditional shuttle looms. With no apprentice to carry on his craft, the mill where he has worked for over four decades may soon be forced to close. But elsewhere in Scotland, a different story is unfolding. At another mill in Highland Perthshire, a young apprentice is learning the trade, and the ancient rhythms of the looms are being passed to a new generation. Once, Scotland's textile industry employed nearly 75% of the population. Today, that figure stands at just 0.2%. Against the backdrop of that decline, the stories of these two mills paint a portrait of an industry at a crossroads. Through his film, Callum McCulloch-Nowlan celebrates the workers, machines, and spaces of Scotland's weaving tradition, while exploring the urgency of preserving a disappearing craft.

Synopsis

Explores the secret life of the filmmaker's father, a former academic and English tutor, and the mystery of why he gambled eye-watering sums of cash, unbeknown to his family.

Synopsis

For the first time in 30 years, a film crew gains rare access to Pennsylvania’s maximum-security women’s prisons. Inside, The Lady Lifers – a band led by former soul singer Naomi Blount – turn grief into music and defiance. Though Naomi never took a life, she is serving life without parole. To have any hope of freedom, she must express guilt she does not feel – a cruel paradox of the justice system. As her music echoes beyond the prison walls and reaches the public, lawmakers and activists, the question remains: Will her voice be enough to finally set her free - and to free those she left behind? Official Selection Durban International Film Festival 2026