Watch an exclusive clip from Yael Bridge’s sophomore feature, ‘Who Moves America, ’ which chronicles the on-the-ground organizing of the 2023 UPS Teamsters contract fight. An #IDA Direct Access Fund grantee, the film will world premiere at True/False today. www.documentary.org/exclusive-ne...

Congratulations to the 2 IDA fiscal sponsored projects and 4 grantees premiering at CPH:DOX 2026 - A Song Without Home, Kikuyu Land, All Rivers Spill Their Stories to the Sea, The Phantom Pain of Rojava, Aanikoobijigan [ancestor/great-grandparent/great-grandchild], and To Hold a Mountain.

How ‘Melania’ serves its titular subject, its filmmakers, and its financier is by invoking documentary’s authenticity but not its accountability. Read more at #DocumentaryMag. www.documentary.org/feature/some...

We’re looking to hire a new Fiscal Sponsorship Program Manager who will elevate how we serve our filmmaker community. For more information on responsibilities, qualifications, and benefits, visit www.documentary.org/fiscal-spons....

Daily diaries from the French documentary coproduction market in Biarritz. Read more at #DocumentaryMag. www.documentary.org/online-featu...

Kimberlee Bassford looks back on the unexpected developments that continue to shift the structure of her Sia Figiel doc ‘Before the Moon Falls.’ Read more on #DocumentaryMag. www.documentary.org/online-featu...

For our next virtual IDAinsight, Dale Nelson (partner at Donaldson Califf Perez) and Jan Bernd Nordemann (attorney and an honorary professor) will present the most recent and impactful case law on AI. Register today www.documentary.org/event/ai-and...

In this interview, Getty Images execs discuss media trust, licensing fee structures, and generative AI tools at the storied archive. Read more at #DocumentaryMag. www.documentary.org/online-featu...

We are proud to partner with @splc.org for #StudentPressFreedom Day. Join PEN America today in celebrating student journalists’ resilience in action and standing up for their First Amendment rights: studentpressfreedom.org

Seven decades of nuclear documentaries oscillate between state propaganda and radical witness, revealing more about power than atoms. Read more on #DocumentaryMag. www.documentary.org/feature/atom...

On Thursday, February 26, 2026, at 7 PM PT, we will host an in-person Core App workshop at our LA offices. Filmmakers seeking to edit and hone their application language are welcome to attend. Submit an Interest Form with a writing sample to register. documentary.org/event/core-s...

A new Raymond Depardon retrospective presents the full breadth of the French filmmaker and photojournalist’s keen-eyed documentary impulses. Read more #DocumentaryMag. www.documentary.org/online-featu...

‘Documentary’ editor Abby Sun pays tribute to the renowned filmmaker who championed a vision of uncompromising artistic independence. A week ago, Frederick Wiseman passed away. As a filmmaker, his work is indelible. Read more at #DocumentaryMag. documentary.org/online-featu...

Madhusree Dutta discusses ‘Flying Tigers,’ her decades-spanning Berlinale doc about memories and histories reclaimed. Read more on #DocumentaryMag. documentary.org/online-featu...

In this interview, Kevin B. Lee discusses why he expanded the desktop documentary to craft his feature debut, ‘Afterlives.’ Read more at #DocumentaryMag. documentary.org/online-featu...

This year’s When East Meets West market at Trieste framed its program not in terms of scale or prestige, but of precision. Read more at #DocumentaryMag. documentary.org/online-featu...

Articulating the purpose and promise of your documentary is a foundational step in advancing your project. Through a series of short-video presentations, IDA staff break down Core App questions into four distinct sections. Watch on the IDA YouTube channel. www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHUh...

IDAinsight - Dale Nelson (partner at Donaldson Califf Perez, co-writer of “AI Tips for Documentary Filmmakers”) and Jan Bernd Nordemann (attorney) will present the most recent and impactful case law on AI. Join us Tuesday, March 3, 2026, 9 AM PT. Register! www.documentary.org/event/ai-and...

On Thursday, February 26, 2026, IDA will host an in-person Core App evening workshop at the IDA offices. Filmmakers in LA seeking to edit + hone their application language are welcome to attend. Also, look for the Core APP Video Series dropping 2/19. Register now. www.documentary.org/event/core-s...

Congratulations to IDA Fiscal Sponsored Project, ‘River Dreams,’ on its World premiere at this year’s Berlinale. Click here for screening times and tickets! www.berlinale.de/en/2026/prog...

The documentary community mourns the loss of one of its pioneers and most vital chroniclers of society, institutions, and humanity. A past IDA committee chair and recipient of a 1990 IDA Career Achievement Award, Frederick Wiseman, 96, leaves behind a brilliant legacy.

Congratulations to IDA Fiscal Sponsored Project, 'A BETTER WAY: James Lawson, Architect of Nonviolence' on its World premiere at this year's Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles. Click here for screening times and tickets! paff2026.eventive.org/films/69479b...

This essay and interview examine how James Benning’s EIGHT BRIDGES builds on his decades-long approach to extended observation, personal geography, and political engagement. Read more at #DocumentaryMag. www.documentary.org/online-featu...

Newly restored documentaries from the 1950s–1980s reveal how Caribbean filmmakers forged a liberation cinema and why its practices matter now. Read more on #DocumentaryMag. www.documentary.org/feature/orde...

Calling IDA Members in LA - On March 12, 2026, join IDA to celebrate the arrival of Documentary magazine’s latest issue! We will gather at All Season Brewing Company in Los Angeles for a casual mixer. RSVP is required. Learn more www.documentary.org/event/ida-me...

Watch the theatrical trailer for Angelo Madsen’s feature documentary ‘A Body to Live In,’ an exploration of body modification and the life of performance artist Fakir Musafar. #DocumentaryMag www.documentary.org/exclusive-ne...

Post house Sugar Studios offers filmmakers with mid-tier budgets a lifeline in an era of contraction, enabling projects that might otherwise collapse in the expensive patchwork of L.A. post. Read more at #DocumentaryMag. www.documentary.org/feature/maki...

Articulating the purpose and promise of your documentary is a foundational step in advancing your project. Writing the Nonfiction Core Application is a process that extends beyond grants. Check out these upcoming events to help edit and hone your Core App language. documentary.org/event/core-s...

The documentary industry looks for upsides amid decimation at Sundance 2026. Read more at #DocumentaryMag. www.documentary.org/online-featu...

For our next virtual IDAinsight, Dale Nelson and Jan Bernd Nordemann will present the latest and most impactful case law on AI. Mark your calendars and join us on Tuesday, March 3, 2026, at 9 AM PT. Learn more and register. www.documentary.org/event/ai-and...

IDA Member Exclusive - Protecting Your Vision: Film Insurance Presentation with HUB International - join us February 18, 2026, at 9 AM PT with HUB International for a virtual 30-min presentation on insurance for documentaries. Become a member and register today. www.documentary.org/event/protec...

Filmmakers Lance and Brandon Kramer provide an accounting of what achieving #2 at the U.S. box office actually requires for self-distributed films, and the political danger in the industrial preference for high-budget celeb projects. #DocumentaryMag #OpEd documentary.org/online-featu...

After stepping down from running DocuBox, founder Judy Kibinge reflects back on her 13-year tenure at the Kenya-based East Africa documentary fund. Read more at #DocumentaryMag. documentary.org/online-featu...

Don’t miss our upcoming event on February 5, 2026! Meet leading film bookers working in the U.S. and hear about the strategies and opportunities for placing independent films in theaters. Register at documentary.org. documentary.org/event/beyond...

Don’t miss our upcoming event on February 5, 2026! Meet leading film bookers working in the U.S. and hear about the strategies and opportunities for placing independent films in theaters. Register today! documentary.org/event/beyond...

An IDA Exclusive: Catapult Film Fund announces the launch of Project Accelerator: Technology & Society, a new funding initiative debuting to celebrate the organization’s 15th anniversary and its first round of 18 grantees. Read more at #DocumentaryMag. documentary.org/exclusive-ne...

Sinéad O’Shea talks about the challenges of capturing Fergie Chambers’s many contradictions in ‘All About the Money.’ Read more at #DocumentaryMag. documentary.org/online-featu...

Abby Ellis talks about ringing the alarm on the “environmental nuclear bomb” in Utah with her Sundance doc ‘The Lake.’ Read more at #DocumentaryMag. documentary.org/online-featu...

Bea Wangondu and Andrew H. Brown on what to translate and what to keep sacred in their Sundance-premiering ‘Kikuyu Land.’ Read more on #DocumentaryMag. documentary.org/online-featu...

Valerie Veatch traces the links between AI and eugenics in Sundance-premiering ‘Ghost in the Machine,’ a self-funded documentary treatise made with Zoom calls and conviction. Read more on #DocumentaryMag. documentary.org/column/synth...

Biljana Tutorov and Petar Glomazić discuss avoiding rural clichés in their Montenegro-set documentary ‘To Hold a Mountain.’ Read more on #DocumentaryMag. documentary.org/online-featu...

David Shadrack Smith talks about assembling a wild, unwieldy archive in his Sundance doc, 'Public Access.' Read more at #DocumentaryMag. documentary.org/online-featu...

In this interview, ‘TheyDream’ director William David Caballero talks about his Sundance-premiering doc and his decade-long project of documenting his family with animation and miniatures. Read more at #DocumentaryMag. www.documentary.org/online-featu...

Michał Marczak discusses the custom rig, life changes, and moral complexity that shape his Sundance-premiering’ Closure.’ Read more on #DocumentaryMag. www.documentary.org/online-featu...

Guillaume Ribot discusses transforming outtakes from ‘Shoah’ and Claude Lanzmann’s writing into ‘All I Had Was Nothingness.’ Read the full interview on #DocumentaryMag. documentary.org/online-featu...

From #DocumentaryMag - This exclusive clip from Alexandra Kern’s #Sundance premiering short features its two Orleanian protagonists reflecting on their lives on Mississippi’s battures. Watch here. www.documentary.org/exclusive-ne...

‘Documentary’s editors select seven documentaries to catch at Sundance 2026. Another year, another Sundance—but this is the last one slated in Utah. Read more on #DocumentaryMag. documentary.org/column/previ...

For filmmakers, the much-heralded warning of the “end of cinemas” and the supposed impossibility of distribution deals might make theatrical roadshows and self-releases seem out of reach. Learn more in this virtual panel. Register today! documentary.org/event/beyond...

Congratulations to the four IDA grantees premiering at 2026 @sundance.org - ‘Aanikoobijigan [ancestor/great-grandparent/great-grandchild],’ ‘To Hold A Mountain,’ ‘Birds of War,’ and ‘Who Killed Alex Odeh?.’ Check the screening times and get your tickets. festival.sundance.org/program/films/

In this interview, Martina Radwan talks about how she let curiosity drive the filmmaking of ‘One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5.’ Read more at #DocumentaryMag. documentary.org/online-featu...