Programme announced for Open City Documentary Festival 2026

Open City Documentary Festival is excited to announce the full programme for its 16th edition, taking place in person from 14th to 19th April. 

The festival welcomes returning and new audiences to venues Barbican, Bertha DocHouse, BFI, Close-Up Film Centre, Institute of Contemporary Arts, and Rich Mix, where the Festival Hub will be based. 

Open City Documentary Festival 2026 will celebrate the art of non-fiction with 125 films and 16 Expanded Realities projects, from 31 different countries. The selection of new films includes 5 World Premieres, 2 International Premieres, and 21 UK Premieres.  

We are delighted to announce special programmes In Focus: Onyeka Igwe, Ken and Flo Jacobs: Seeing Through Film, Interstitial Cinema: the films of Artavazd Pelechian and Archivistas Salvajes presents Los Subterráneos: Cuban Amateur Cinema .

The festival also includes new works by Abdellah Taïa, Andrea Luka Zimmerman, Ann Carolin Renninger & René Frölke,  Anthea Kennedy & Ian Wiblin, Basma Al-Sharif, Darryl Daley, Edward Lawrenson, Graeme Arnfield, Jennifer Lauren Martin, Jenny Brady, Juliette Le Monnyer, Kevin Jerome Everson, Kim Torres, Laida Lertxundi, Liz Roberts, Lonnie van Brummelen, Siebren de Haan & Tolin Erwin Alexander, Lucas Kane, Lucy Harris, Maria Oblicka & Alexander C. Trigg, María Rojas Arias & Andrés Jurado, Marta Popivoda, Marthe Peters, Maureen Fazendeiro, Miranda Pennell, Onyeka Igwe, Peter Treherne, Sanaz Sohrabi, Shayma' Awawdeh, Sky Hopinka, Sophie Sabet, Stanley Schtinter, Suneil Sanzgiri, Sven Augustijnen and Viktoria Schmid.