Velvet Room

DOC.BERLIN Documentary Film Festival 2025: Award Winners Unveiled!

Over the past few days, the Doc.Berlin once again hosted its annual event at the historic Babylon cinema in Berlin. The festival was happy to welcome a number of artists: Nazanin Hafez, Zora Arose Ritz, Evgenia Chetvertkova, Kayu Yeung, Matias Dumas, Westley Hennigh-Palermo, Piotr Goldstein and many more.

Cherrypicked out of more than 2000 submissions, this year’s official selection included 23 wonderful films hailing from France, Iran, Lebanon, Mexico, United States, Poland, Belgium, Qatar, Canada, Estonia, and Germany.

We are pleased to share with you the 2025 Doc.Berlin award winners, chosen by the jury panel.

Best Feature Documentary Film
Inferior Shadows (Iran) by Ramin Khalighi

Best Short Documentary Film
To the embers (France) by Morgane Ambre

Best German Documentary Film
Spiegelberg - A german village (Germany) by Adrian Sagolla

Best Experimental Documentary Film
Blessed Are Those Who Grieve (Germany) by Zora Arose Ritz, Evgenia Chetvertkova, Kayu Yeung

Best Underground Documentary Film
Tokyo Toy Boy (Belgium) by Esli Balatova

Best Cinéma Vérité Film
Yalla, Baba! (Belgium, Lebanon, Netherlands, Qatar) by Angie Obeid

Best LGBTQ+ Documentary Film
Portraits In Drag – The Faces of Pinay Colada (Germany) by Stephan Schaar

Best Poetic Documentary Film
Voice Notes on Death (Germany) by Romy Persaud Drennan, Harry Crampton

Best Historical Documentary
Ottilie Moore – Heiress in the Resistance (United States) by Dana Plays

Best Super Short Documentary Film
Nathalie, Nathalie (Germany) by Matias Dumas

Congratulations to all!

About Doc.Berlin:
Doc.Berlin is part of Doc.World, a new global network of documentary film festivals, with festivals in London, Berlin, Ghent and Boston. As a celebration of the cinematic and visual arts, these documentary festivals will bring diverse international films to our community and showcase the best regional and international filmmakers.
https://www.docberlin.org

Gratis naar de film tijdens het Brugge Film Festival op 15 & 16 november 2025
De vijfde editie van het Brugge Film Festival (officieel Bruges International Film Festival) vertoont een internationale selectie innovatieve onafhankelijke cinema van opkomend talent. Het filmfestival zal doorgaan op 15 en 16 november in Bieforf Theater Brugge, met vier filmvertoningen + online streaming van in totaal 28 kort- en langspeelfilms (Engels gesproken en/of Engels ondertiteld). Dankzij onze sponsors is toegang tot het festival gratis. Het volledige programma en meer informatie over het festival kan je terugvinden op: https://www.brugesfilmfestival.com

WANNEER?
Zaterdag 15 november 2025 om 18:00
Zaterdag 15 november 2025 om 20:00
Zondag 16 november 2025 van 18:00
Zondag 16 november 2025 van 20:00

WAAR?
Biekorf Theater
Sint-Jakobsstraat 8
8000 Brugge

GRATIS TICKETS
Toegang tot het festival is gratis! Reserveren kan via de website (https://www.brugesfilmfestival.com), maar is niet verplicht, ‘op is op’ natuurlijk.

OVER BRUGGE FILM FESTIVAL
Brugge Film Festival biedt een platform aan films met een unieke stem en boodschap, ongeacht van hun budget. Het doel: inspireren, motiveren en nieuw talent belonen. Het festival streeft ernaar kwaliteitsfilms van lokale en internationale makers buiten het mainstream circuit te introduceren, waarbij het accent ligt op de kunst van het filmmaken, eerder dan op de ‘box office’. Door het erkennen van de belangrijke rol van onafhankelijke films in de geschiedenis van filmmaken, van verhalen vertellen, van cultuur, wil het Brugge Film Festival een springplank zijn voor de volgende generatie kunstenaars.

Gratis film en een drankje, de Ghent International Film Week (aka Obskuur) is terug!
Van 29 september tot 5 oktober 2025 kan je telkens om 20:00 terecht bij de underground cinema Velvet Room (Alpacastraat 29, Gent) voor uitdagende cinema. Er is ook een online streaming selectie beschikbaar van 23 september tot 13 oktober.
Obskuur is gericht op het ontdekken van nieuw filmtalent. Dit jaar brengt het festival een hele week lang innovatieve, experimentele, provocatieve en onafhankelijke films van zowel lokaal als internationaal talent. Ghent International Film Week geeft underground werken van opkomende filmmakers een publiek platform. Op het programma prijken dit keer wel meer dan 30 kort- en langspeelfilms uit alle hoeken van de wereld. Ontdek de volledige selectie: https://www.ghentfilmweek.com
Dankzij onze sponsors is toegang tot het festival gratis en wordt er een drankje voorzien. Reserveren kan: https://www.ghentfilmweek.com
In samenwerking met Ghent Art Week, https://www.ghentartweek.com

The Ardennes International Film Festival – First Edition Wrap-Up

The first edition of the Ardennes International Film Festival has come to a close — and what a beginning it was.

Held in the heart of Namur, in the atmospheric halls of Cinéma Le Caméo, our inaugural screening drew a full house, exceeding expectations. With a lineup of films subtitled or spoken in English, we faced a challenge: how would these stories resonate with a largely French-speaking audience?

The answer was clear in the quiet attention, the spontaneous laughter, the audible gasps — and in the lingering stillness between the credits and the applause. Language, it turns out, is no barrier when cinema speaks from a deeper place.

After the final frame, we traveled deeper into the Ardennes spirit — to a remote bio farm in Wépion, where filmmakers, cinephiles, and curious souls gathered around a bonfire. There, with a glass in hand and smoke rising into the night sky, stories continued to unfold — slowly, freely, and together.

We are honored to announce the award winners of this year’s festival — a diverse group of bold, inventive voices from around the world:

2025 Award Winners – The Ardennes International Film Festival

Best Narrative Film
The Cascade (Mexico) – Pablo Delgado Sanchez
A surreal, poetic vision of grief turned inside out — where tears become waterfalls.

Best Documentary Film
The Other Side of Despair (Switzerland) – Varsy Buchmann
A haunting reflection on exile, art, and identity in the shadow of forced displacement.

Best Experimental Film
A Little Longer (Canada) – Connor Kujawinski
A futuristic meditation on memory, access, and the price of remembering.

Best Underground Film
Spell (Brazil) – Khalil Charif
A sensorial dance-floor incantation that blurs documentary and dream.

Best Animated Film
The Core (Romania) – Robert Obert
A visual metaphor of consciousness and love as a shared act of becoming.

Best Super Short Film
Third Wheel (Switzerland) – Kevin Haefelin
A ghost story turned samurai comedy in under five minutes — pure cinematic mischief.

Best Connecting Cultures Film
Shifting Roots (Lebanon) – Angie Mrad
An intimate portrait of displacement, memory, and olive trees under fire.

Best Belgian Film
Unscarred (Belgium) – Théo Roland
A raw and moving collaboration between a son and his bipolar mother — healing through cinema.

Words from the Festival Team

Kris De Meester, Festival Curator:
“Serving primarily English-subtitled or spoken films to a French-speaking audience seemed like an impossible mission. But the reactions of a full house reminded us that cinema transcends language. It was profoundly moving to witness such pure laughter and silence — shared emotion beyond words.”

Sofie Luyten, Festival Manager:
“Gathering around a fire always has something mystical to me, and I really enjoyed closing our first edition this way. Gazing into the flames, where also silence is allowed, conversations go deeper; and I was touched to hear the profound and vulnerable stories that the movies had stirred. Grateful for this beautiful beginning and my heart goes to everyone who supported it.”

To those who joined us: thank you.
To those who will discover us: the fire is still burning.
The forest awaits.

https://www.ardennesfilmfestival.com