2025 The 32nd Sheffield DocFest took place between 18-23 June 2025. The Film programme comprised 116 films (82 features and 34 shorts) selected from over 2753 entries. The lineup featured 51 world premieres, 16 international premieres, eight European premieres, and 39 UK premieres from 68 countries. The latest productions joining the line up include the World Premieres of Live Aid at 40 – When Rock’N’Roll Took on the World and Trade Secret, a gripping expose of the polar bear fur trade.
2023 The 30th Sheffield DocFest took place between 14–19 June 2023. The Film programme comprised 122 films (86 features and 36 shorts), including 38 World Premieres, 19 International Premieres, 10 European Premieres, 47 UK Premieres and 8 retrospective films, from 52 countries of production with 43 languages represented. 15 projects were exhibited in the Alternate Realities programme, and 48 projects were presented in the MeetMarket pitching forum. The Festival expanded its offering to include a theatre production, live podcast events, as well as premieres of new TV series. The World Premiere of Paul Sng's
Tish opened the Festival at Sheffield City Hall, the film had previously pitched at the 2021 MeetMarket. The Festival also celebrated the work of renowned Iranian filmmaker
Rakhshan Banietemad as Guest of Honour, screening a retrospective of her work as well as the World Premiere of her short film
Narratives ad Hominem. To complement the retrospective, the Festival also screened a selection of titles which offered different perspectives on Iran, including films by
Mania Akbari and Mehran Tamadon. The Talks & Sessions programme welcomed guests such as
Munya Chawawa,
David Olusoga,
Rose Ayling-Ellis,
Laura Whitemore and
David Harewood. Following the success of the 2022 talent initiative led by
Asif Kapadia, the Festival welcomed filmmaker
Kevin Macdonald as mentor for the Filmmaker Challenge 2023. The initiative challenged six early-career filmmakers to make a documentary in one day, drawing from the Festival's tagline for the 30th edition '''Sparking Curiosity'.''
2022 The 29th Sheffield DocFest took place between 23–28 June 2022, and was the first predominantly in-person edition since the pandemic, and saw industry delegates taking meetings and participating in pitching sessions in-person for the first time since 2019. The Festival attracted 25,424 in-person admissions and 4,899 online admissions, and welcomed 2,188 delegates from 69 countries. The Festival opened with the UK premiere of
Moonage Daydream by Brett Morgan at
Sheffield's City Hall, where Ziggy Stardust performed 50 years prior. The programme included 135 films from 55 countries, 38 world premieres, 22 international premieres, 11 European premieres and 46 UK premieres. 29 projects were exhibited in the Alternate Realities programme, and 39 projects were pitched at the MeetMarket. The Festival saw the World Premiere of
Werner Herzog's
The Fire Within: A Requiem for Katie and Maurice Krafft; Yorkshire title
A Bunch of Amateurs by Kim Hopkins won the Audience Award,
Sansón and Me by Rodrigo Reyes took the top prize in International Competition, and Rosa Ruth Boesten's
Master of Light which had previously pitched at the MeetMarket in 2019, won the First Feature Competition award. Award-winning filmmaker
Asif Kapadia was welcomed as Guest Curator for 2022, and curated a selection of films for the programme which had had significant impact on his journey as a filmmaker. Kapadia also spearheaded a talent initiative which challenged six filmmakers to make a short documentary in and around Sheffield, during the festival. The initiative was supported by Amazon Studios, Canon and The Kurious. As part of its Special Programmes section, the 2022 Festival celebrated the work of Ukrainian documentary makers and kicked off the
British Council and Ukrainian Institute's UK/Ukraine Season of Culture. The programme ''Ukraine focus: 'Password: Palianytsia''' included a selection of films by Ukrainian filmmakers that were due to screen at
Docudays UA festival, which was postponed due to the Russian invasion on Ukraine, a
Docudays UA curated screening and talk, a delegation of 24 visiting Ukrainian-filmmakers supported by
British Council, amongst film events. Notable guests featured in the Talks & Sessions programme included:
Pratibha Parmar,
Asif Kapadia and editor Chris King,
Nainta Desai,
Charlie Craggs,
Ellie Simmonds,
Will Young and
Clive Myrie. The Community Programme made links across the Film, Alternate Realities, and Industry programmes, and collaborated with local audiences to broaden engagement across the Festival. Amongst its events, the programme included a group walk and discussion on the right to roam and the UK's history of trespass, an art therapy workshop, and also saw the Festival support 12 first-time, local filmmakers with free passes to attend the Festival.
2021 The 28th Sheffield DocFest took place between 4–13 June 2021, in a hybrid format online, physically in Sheffield, and in 16 partner cinemas across the UK. In-person film screenings in Sheffield took place in Showroom Cinema and in the historic 1920s cinema
Abbeydale Picture House. Exhibitions took place across
S1 Artspace,
Site Gallery and the Sheffield Hallam University Performance Lab. The Festival opened with the European premiere of
Summer of Soul by
Questlove, and closed with the World Premiere of
The Story of Looking by
Mark Cousins which had previously pitched at the MeetMarket. The programme, led by Gil, included: 191 films from 2431 submissions, 49 world premieres, 20 international premieres, 10 European premieres, and 45 UK premieres across 64 countries with 47 languages represented. The film programme included a guest curated retrospective on Black British Cinema which saw curatorial contributions from
Mark Sealy, We Are Parable, Campbell X (dir. Stud Life), Judah Attille, Karen Alexander and
George Amponsah. The film programme also welcomed a new Northern Focus strand for 2021, curated by the Festival's then Industry Programme Producer Manon Euler, Film Programme Coordinator Owen Jones and Film Programme Producer Mita Suri. The strand spotlighted films and filmmakers from the northern counties of England and included amongst its selection Kim Flitcroft's
Tales from a Hard City, a documentary set in Sheffield which first premiered at the Festival in 1995. Speakers in the Festival's Talks & Sessions programme included
David Olusoga,
Lydia Lunch,
Mark Cousins,
Betsy West and Julie Cohen amongst others. The DocFest Exchange programme, supported by the
Wellcome Trust, explored the world through a non-human centred lens. The programme was curated by Jamie Allan and drew influences from the evolutionary theory that life evolved through symbiosis, organisms coming together to form other organisms. The programme included talks and workshops, as well as film screenings including titles from the
Karrabing Film Collective an indigenous filmmaking group from the
Northern Territory,
GUNDA by Viktor Kossakovsky, as well as a one-off 35mm screening of Claude Nuridsany and Marie Pérennou's 1996 documentary
Microcosmos. The Festival also developed its Community Programme in partnership with people, artists and organisations based-in or from Sheffield. The programme featured 9 dedicated community screenings, 3 live performances, 6 online workshops and 1 in-person workshop. The Festival partnered with Sheffield-based Migration Matters Festival, the UK's largest festival about Sanctuary and refugees, to bring free mobile broadband and online festival passes to refugees and those seeking asylum in Sheffield. The Community Programme offered free or discounted tickets to those who needed support to attend and from low-income background, in an effort to tackle social isolation.
2020 The 27th Sheffield DocFest was due to take place between 4–9 June 2020. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was cancelled in its original form and some of the planned films and activities moved to an online format. The programme included 115 films, from 50 countries, representing 49 spoken languages; 31 world premieres, 15 international premieres, 5 European premieres and 40 UK premieres; 20% of the programme featured first-time filmmakers. Films were available to watch online on the Festival's video-on-demand platform Doc/Player for industry delegates, and a selection of titles were made available to UK audiences via the Sheffield Doc/Fest Selects streaming platform. The Festival's Q&As, panels and industry sessions all moved to a virtual format, and an Artist Spotlights series launched online to highlight makers and projects selected in the Alternate Realities programme. The Festival's pitching forums, the MeetMarket and Alternate Realities Talent Market, also took place online. During the Autumn of 2020, when cinemas temporarily reopened following lockdown, the Festival hosted a number of weekend screenings and Q&As to bring films from the official selection to audiences in Sheffield.
2019 The 26th Sheffield DocFest was held between 6–11 June 2019, and attracted 28,098 admissions, up 9% from the previous year, with 3,489 industry delegates visiting from 59 countries. The festival opened at Sheffield City Hall with the UK premiere of
Diego Maradona by
Asif Kapadia. The programme featured more than 200 documentaries with 36 world premieres, 19 international, 12 European and 91 UK premieres. The film programme hosted a record 182 films with 35 world premieres, 21 international, 24 European and 73 UK premieres. The film programme boasted premieres including: Daisy Asquith's Queerama, the Opening Night Film, scored by John Grant; Laura Poitras' new Julian Assange documentary
Risk;
Whitney 'Can I Be Me' from
Nick Broomfield; and Winnie from Pascale Lamche, which originated in DocFest's MeetMarket. The Alternate Realities programme featured 26 projects, 12 of which had world premieres, 1 international, 5 European and 8 UK. VR experiences at the festival included:
Chasing Coral: The VR Experience, presented in a 360 dome, which accompanied the feature documentary in the film programme; Unrest VR, which accompanied the feature film
Unrest; and Future Aleppo by Alex Pearson and Marshmallow Laser Feast, a commission by DocFest, in partnership with FACT, and with support from
Arts Council England. Also in 2017 was the use of new venue, The
Light Cinema on
the Moor, offering 3 luxury cinema screens. Following the 2017 Festival, nine virtual reality works from the Alternate Realities exhibition were chosen to tour Latin America as part of DocFest's Realidades Alternativas tour with support from
British Council. The tour visited festivals DocMontevideo in
Uruguay, DocSP in Brazil, and Noviembre Electrónico in
Argentina. Notable screenings and events included: • The world premiere Opening Night Film Queerama from director Daisy Asquith and with a soundtrack from John Grant,
Alison Goldfrapp, and Hercules & Love Affair, chronicling 50 years after the decriminalization of homosexuality in the UK through the
BFI archive. The Opening Night event included a Q&A with Asquith and Grant, hosted by Campbell X, and a performance from Grant • Closing Night honoured MP
Jo Cox with Closing Night Film Jo Cox: Death of an MP by director Toby Paxton, a discussion about her legacy, and a Great Get Together held on Tudor Square to encourage Festival-goers and the public to unite and remember • The world premiere of
Jamaican
Dancehall competition film Bruk Out! from director Cori Wapnowski, including a follow-up dancehall dance class held by the film's protagonist Ale Camara at the DocFest Exchange on
Tudor Square and the
Channel 4 Party at Code featuring a performance from dancers featured in the film • A work-in-progress special preview of 8 Minutes from the Alexander Whitley Dance Company, combining contemporary dance with
NASA visuals from
BAFTA-winning artist Tal Rosner, ahead of the Sadler Wells premiere in July • The European premiere of VR installation Munduruku: The Fight to Defend the Heart of the Amazon by Grace Boyle (The Feelies), James Manisty (Alchemy VR) and Pete Speller (
Greenpeace), which went on to win the Alternate Realities Audience Award at DocFest 2017, and then further tour Latin America with DocFest's international VR tour 'Realidades Alternativas' with support from
British Council • Live VR experience DOOM ROOM hosted in Theatre Delicatessen mixed performance art with virtual reality in a UK premiere from Danish artist Mads Damsbo (source) • The return of DocFest Exchange developed with Wellcome, offering elements of the film, Alternate Realities, and talks programmes for free to the public
2016 The 2016 event took place from 10–15 June. A total of 32,769 audiences attended, including 3,534 industry delegates who travelled from 60 countries, and 29,235 public audiences, both figures a record increase on 2015. The film programme hosted a record 160 films with 27 world premieres, 15 international, 19 European and a whopping 52 UK premieres from 49 different countries. Audiences were attracted to big filmmaking names from the documentary world including US director
Michael Moore – whose film
Where to Invade Next opened the Festival –
Louis Theroux,
Palme d'Or winning director
Ken Loach, and legendary filmmakers
D. A. Pennebaker and
Chris Hegedus. Women and
LGBT+ subjects feature prominently throughout the Festival's selection, making up two of the festival's strands, plus a retrospective honouring
Chantal Akerman. Also, 2016 saw the inaugural Alternate Realities Commission, supported by site Gallery and
Arts Council England. Darren Emerson's Indefinite (previously Invisible) won the £5,000 prize and had its World Premiere at the Festival. Indefinite, about the detention of immigrants in Britain, was later featured by
The New York Times. In 2016, came the introduction of the DocFest Exchange on
Tudor Square developed with Wellcome, which hosted a series of public talks, including an interview with
This is England director
Shane Meadows. Notable screening and events included: • The UK premiere of
Michael Moore's
Where to Invade Next opened the Festival at
Sheffield City Hall, attended by Moore for a post-screening Q&A which was live streamed to more than 120 cinemas nationwide. • The UK premiere of The Seasons in Quincy: Four Portraits of John Berger closed the Festival with a sell-out screening at Showroom Cinema, attended by directors Tilda Swinton and Bartek Dziadosz • Live performances accompanied film screenings including: a performance by protagonist and famous street dancer
Storyboard P following the world premiere of Storyboard P, a stranger in Sweden; a solo set by Princess Shaw following the UK premiere of Presenting Princess Shaw; and Where You're Meant to Be was screened in
Abbeydale Picture House, followed by a set from Arab Strap's
Aidan Moffat and the Bothy Ballad singers. • Following the UK premieres of
Strike a Pose and
Kiki, the Vogue, Strike a Pose Party invited Madonna backup dancer
Kevin Stea, New York ballroom leader Twiggy Pucci Garcon, and a house of voguers to
O2 Academy •
USC Shoah Foundations' New Dimensions in Testimony had its World pwemiere as part of the Alternate Realities Exhibition, showcasing groundbreaking technology in natural language processing software through a hologram of Holocaust Survivor
Pinchas Gutter. The project was awarded both the Alternate Realities Interactive Award and Audience Award for Interactive Project. It was also featured in the Alternate Realities Summit, with creator Dr Stephen Smith presenting a keynote, joined by Gutter himself on stage •
Sir David Attenborough came to the
Festival for the first time, seeing a sold-out talk at the Crucible Theatre, which was live broadcast to the Outdoor Screen on
Tudor Square •
Ken Loach held a packed Q&A following Versus: The Life and Films of Ken Loach •
D. A. Pennebaker was honoured with a retrospective, and also attended the UK premiere of his film
Unlocking the Cage. The legendary documentary maker was also featured in conversation with collaborator
Chris Hegedus at the Crucible Theatre • Snooker legend
Ronnie O'Sullivan returned to the Crucible Theatre, where he has won five World Championship titles, to discuss his favourite documentaries
2015 The 22nd Festival ran for six days, 5–10 June. More than 20 venues were used to host films, sessions, interactive exhibitions and networking events, with the full programme announced on the morning of the general election on 7 May. A record number of audiences attended the festival, with 3,422 festival delegates and 27,917 members of the public. A total of 148 films was shown, of which a record breaking 31 were world premieres, including
Sean McAllister's hotly anticipated
A Syrian Love Story, Brian Hill's
The Confessions of Thomas Quick, and Jake Witzenfeld's
Oriented, 41 UK premieres, 13 international premieres, and 19 European premieres. Nearly 50% of the film programming was headed up by female filmmakers, with 73 of the films either produced or directed by women filmmakers. Notable screenings and events included: • The UK premiere of
Joshua Oppenheimer's
The Look of Silence at
Showroom Cinema opened the
Festival with sell out screenings in both Screens 3 and 4. • Opening Night continued at
Sheffield City Hall with the world premiere of archive film
The Show of Shows: 100 Years of Vaudeville, Circuses and Carnivals directed by Benedikt Erlingsson and scored by
Georg Hólm and
Orri Páll Dýrason of
Sigur Rós and the Head of the Pagan Church in
Iceland and godfather of Icelandic music,
Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson. The film features never before seen footage from fairgrounds, circuses, variety performances, vaudeville and more, from the very birth of film to the present day, including footage from
The University of Sheffield's National Fairground Archive. • A special screening of Jessica Edward's bio-doc
Mavis! documenting the life of
Mavis Staples was held in the classic
Victorian Sheffield Botanical Gardens. • Sheffield Repertory Orchestra performing
Gustav Holst's
The Planets live to a screening of interplanetary odysseys and commissioned visuals by Sheffield creative design agency Human and commentary from astronomer Paul Crowther. • A 'Women in Docs' strand celebrating films with women on screen and behind the lens. •
War Work: 8 Songs with Film, a master work of poetic and musical archive composed and directed by
Michael Nyman, and performed by Michael Nyman Band and
Hilary Summers to commemorate the First World War. • A retrospective of British activist filmmaker
John Akomfrah. • A closing night event including screening of
Monty Python – The Meaning of Live by
Roger Graef and
James Rogan, with
Michael Palin in attendance for a post-screening Q&A and book signing. •
FINAL DAYS by British artist
Heather Phillipson, a specially commissioned installation at
Castle House, a defunct department store in the heard of
Sheffield. Supported by
Arts Council England, presented in partnership with
University of Sheffield and
Serpentine Galleries. There were 83 sessions, talks and masterclasses, There were 130 films shown, of which 21 were world premieres, 24 UK premieres, and 12 European premieres. World premieres included
Martin Scorsese's documentary about
The New York Review of Books,
The 50 Year Argument; Alex Holmes'
Stop At Nothing: The Lance Armstrong Story;
The Last Man On The Moon, about former astronaut
Eugene Cernan who also attended the Festival;
One Rogue Reporter, written and directed by former '
Daily Star' reporter Rich Peppiatt; Notable screenings and events included: • The European premiere of
Pulp: A Film About Life, Death and Supermarkets directed by
Florian Habicht, telling the story of
Pulp's final concert in
Sheffield in 2012 • The premiere of
Kim Longinotto's
Love Is All at
Chatsworth House with a soundtrack by
Richard Hawley, combining film material from the
BFI National Archive with original music in a similar vein to previous DocFest projects
From the Sea to the Land Beyond and
The Big Melt. •
Saint Etienne performing a live score to
How We Used To Live,
Paul Kelly's documentary about vanishing London. •
Summer Camp performing a live soundtrack to
Guardian writer
Charlie Lyne's film essay
Beyond Clueless, about 90s teen movies. • Nightly screenings in the
Peak Cavern including Thomas Balmes'
Happiness. • A spotlight on
South Africa including
Miners Shot Down about the
Marikana miners' strike. • Immersive documentary
Door into the Dark. Speakers included
Peter Bazalgette,
Jeremy Deller,
Brian Eno,
Sue Perkins,
Grayson Perry,
John Pilger,
Jon Snow, and
Ondi Timoner.
2013 In 2013, there was a record number of films and delegates. Delegate numbers rose by 18% to 3,129. There were a record 18 international delegations including representatives from
Armenia,
Canada,
Jordan,
Morocco, the
Netherlands, the
State of Palestine,
Russia,
South Africa, and
South Sudan, attending the Festival with a special focus on factual filmmaking in their regions. Over 20 countries were presented by 250 buyers and decision makers. Films shown numbered at least 200, of which there were 77
feature length documentaries, 33
shorts, 10 interactive projects and one
art installation. 12 UK premieres, and 5 European premieres. A record 14 film screening at DocFest were developed and funded through
MeetMarket, including
Joshua Oppenheimer's
The Act of Killing which went on to win the Audience Award.
The Act of Killing went on to win a
Bafta and was named best film of 2013 by
The Guardian. Film strands included Behind the Beats, Best of British, Cross-Platform, Euro/Doc, First Cut, Global Encounters, New York Times Op-Docs, Queer Screen, Resistance, Shorts, The Habit of Art, and This Sporting Life. A new strand, Films on Film, screened a notable film with a documentary about it, for example ''
The Exorcist (Director's Cut)
with The Fear of God: 25 Years of The Exorcist'', and
John Waters'
Female Trouble with
I Am Divine. The DocFest Retrospective strand celebrated the work of Japanese filmmaker
Shōhei Imamura. Notable screenings and events included: • Three opening night films: •
The Big Melt, a documentary film about
Sheffield's steel industry by Martin Wallace with a live soundtrack from
Jarvis Cocker and more than 50 musicians. • An in-cave screening of
The Summit, a climbing documentary by Nick Ryan about the quest to reach the peak of
K2. This was screened at
Peak Cavern, a cave known as the 'Devil's Arse', in the
Peak District. • The European premiere of
Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer followed by a
Skype interview with
Katya Samutsevich, one of the members of
Pussy Riot. • A live soundtrack performance of
Songs from the Shipyards by
Mercury Prize-nominees
The Unthanks. • A look behind-the-scenes of the BBC's
Who Do You Think You Are? series. • A day of events centred on the
Ken Loach documentary ''
The Spirit of '45''. • TEDxSheffield, a fringe event which took place the day before the Festival. • The
Howard Street outdoor screen which showed films for free for 12 hours each day during the Festival. •
Blast Theory's interactive online game ''I'd Hide You''. • Doc/Feast, a street food market made up of local foodie businesses, plus a special DocFest ale.
2012 A total of 2,657 delegates from 67 countries attended the Festival, and general admissions were 20,079. Notable screenings and events included: • The debut of
From The Sea To The Land Beyond, a documentary by
Penny Woolcock with a live soundtrack performance by
British Sea Power. • A surprise performance by
Sixto Rodriguez, the star of opening night film
Searching for Sugar Man, which went on to win an
Oscar for
Best Documentary.
2011 In 2011, the Festival moved from November to June, right off the back of the November 2010 Festival. The Festival opened with
Morgan Spurlocks'
POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold and featured box-office hit
Senna, Alma Har'el's debut
Bombay Beach, an Albert Maysels retrospective, and Oscar-winning director
Barbara Kopple's Gun Fight. == Awards ==