Visions du Réel, one in all Europe’s predominant documentary fairs, returns for a 56th version with its maximum various lineup thus far, that includes some 154 movies from a checklist 57 nations.
Spanning the globe, from Mongolia to Australia, Cameroon to Lebanon, the choice underscores the competition’s emerging stature as a in point of fact global platform for documentary cinema and a key assembly level for trade execs.
It options an outstanding 88 global premieres via each beginners and veterans, highlighting the competition’s dedication to discovery and variety. First-time filmmakers additionally hang a robust presence, with 58 debut movies.
Just about part of the movies are directed via males, with girls helming 39%, and the remaining credited to non-binary or collective efforts.
“Little, Large and A long way” Courtesy of Visions du Reel
“We’re proud that our variety as soon as once more displays an openness to the sector,” stated inventive director Emilie Bujès, including that she used to be inspired via the record-breaking 3,437 entries.
The Global Function Movie Festival will see 14 movies, together with 4 debut options, vying for the competition’s most sensible honor. VdR veterans go back to pageant, together with Marie Voignier (who used to be on the competition in 2020 with “Na China”) with “Anamocot,” an enigmatic adventure right into a zoologist’s quest for the mythical Mokélé-Mbembé; and Julien Elie (“Darkish Suns”) with “Moving Baselines” (which used to be a work-in-progress at VdR–Trade in 2024), a dramatic black and white document set within the village of Boca Chica, house to Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket release base.
Different influential figures whose works were decided on come with U.S. director Jem Cohen (“Museum Hours”) with “Little, Large and A long way,” a poetic meditation on astronomy, and Brazil’s João Vieira Torres (“The Birds Are Busy”) with “Aurora,” a surrealist diary with a queer political manifesto that explores the structural historical past of violence in opposition to girls. Swiss co-production “Nuit difficult to understand – Ain’t I a Kid?” via Sylvain George concludes his trilogy on migration, providing a stark, nocturnal portrait of unaccompanied minors in Paris.
Geopolitical topics run in the course of the variety, with movies like Mamadou Khouma Gueye’s “The Attachment,” which scrutinizes the gentrification of a Dakar community, and Casey Carter’s “To Use a Mountain,” a deep dive into the have an effect on of nuclear waste disposal on Indigenous communities. In the meantime, Julian Vogel and Johannes Büttner’s “Infantrymen of Mild” turns its lens on the upward thrust of far-right non secular actions in Germany.
Emilie Bujès Courtesy of Nikita the Voz
Talking to Selection, Bujès used to be prepared to show the wealthy and various picks within the competition’s different classes, significantly within the extra adventurous Burning Lighting pageant, that includes an outstanding 15 global premieres.
Those come with works via established filmmakers like exiled Iranian director Bani Khoshnoudi with “The Vanishing Level,” which intertwines her non-public historical past with that of her nation’s, Poland’s Tomasz Wolski, who as soon as once more delves into archives on this Chilly Battle espionage documentary, and U.S. director Curtis Miller with “A Transient Historical past of Chasing Storms,” which gifts a historical past of the twister as each a harmful climate tournament and an American icon.
Requested concerning the variety, Bujès stated, “What makes it additionally very treasured to us is how those movies compose some other symbol in combination. Nowadays, we’re so used to swiping away after we don’t like one thing, so it’s about looking to create — inside of each and every phase — a spectrum that’s as vast as conceivable, as inviting as conceivable, so folks keep or even watch any other titles. That’s our task: each and every phase has to compose a picture of what cinema can appear to be in 2025.”
The competition can even welcome an outstanding lineup of visitors, led via Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck, who will obtain the competition’s Honorary Award and provide a retrospective of his paintings, together with his newest award-winning movie “Ernest Cole: Misplaced and Discovered.”
Romanian director Corneliu Porumboiu and Portuguese filmmaker Cláudia Varejão also are set to present masterclasses. Different outstanding names come with Oscar-winning British director Asif Kapadia (“Amy”), who will open the competition’s trade phase, and jury participants like Eliza Hittman, the acclaimed director of “By no means Infrequently On occasion All the time” and “Seaside Rats,” and Berlinale programmer Michael Stütz.
Visions du Réel will open with the sector premiere of “Blame,” the newest paintings via Swiss filmmaker Christian Frei (“Battle Photographer”), which follows the future of 3 scientists all the way through the COVID-19 epidemic — way over “a movie about bats and viruses, it’s related to lately’s global, the place critiques are polarizing and feeding right into a frenzy with out being according to any information,” stated Frei.
The 2025 Nationwide Festival showcases 12 global premieres, together with 8 function debuts. Open to feature-length and medium-length movies produced or co-produced in Switzerland, the choice highlights the power of Swiss non-fiction filmmaking.
Past its 3 flagship competitions, VdR gives a various mixture of codecs, from the Global Medium Period and Quick Movie Festival, to the Extensive Attitude phase, that includes movies that experience already or are anticipated to make a touch at the competition circuit.
The non-competitive Highlights and Particular Screenings sections show off, respectively, must-see function movies decided on via the curation committee, and works in unconventional codecs, jury participants’ movies, sequence and particular tributes.
Visions du Réel runs in Nyon, Switzerland from April 4 to fourteen, with its trade tournament going down April 6 to 9.
To find the Global Function Movie, Burning Lighting and Nationwide Festival titles beneath:
Global Function Movie Festival
“Anamocot” via Marie Voignier, Cameroon/France, 2025, 91’, International premiere
“Aurora” via João Vieira Torres, Brazil/Portugal/France, 2025, 129’, International premiere
“Iron Iciness” via Kasimir Burgess, Australia/Mongolia, 2025, 90’, International premiere
“Little, Large, and A long way” via Jem Cohen, Austria/U.S., 2025, 122’, Global premiere
“L. a. Montagne d’or” via Roland Edzard, Belgium/France, 2025, 85’, International premiere
“Niñxs” via Kani Lapuerta, Mexico/Germany, 2025, 86’, International premiere
“Difficult to understand Evening – Ain’t I a Kid” via Sylvain George, Switzerland/France, 2025, 164’,
International premiere
“Moving Baselines” via Julien Elie, Canada, 2025, 101’, International premiere
“Infantrymen of Mild” via Julian Vogel and Johannes Büttner, Germany, 2025, 108’, International
premiere
“The Attachment” via Mamadou Khouma Gueye, Senegal/Belgium/France, 2025, 76’,
International premiere
“The Mountain Gained’t Transfer” via Petra Seliškar, Slovenia/North Macedonia/France,
2025, 94’, International premiere
“The Prince of Nanawa” via Clarisa Navas, Argentina/Paraguay/Colombia/Germany,
2025, 212’, International premiere
“To Use a Mountain” via Casey Carter, U.S., 2025, 99’, International premiere
“The place Two Oceans Meet” via Lulu Scott, France/Belgium/South Africa, 2025, 75’,
International premiere
Burning Lighting Festival
“A Transient Historical past of Chasing Storms” via Curtis Miller, U.S., 2025, 70’, International premiere
“And the Fish Fly Above our Heads” via Dima El-Horr, Lebanon/France/Saudi Arabia,
2025, 70’, International premiere
“Chasing the Solar” via Ruosong Huang, France/China, 2025, 112’, International premiere
“Croma” via Manuel Abramovich, Argentina/Germany/Austria, 2025, 70’, International
premiere
“Fierté nationale: de Jéricho vers Gaza” via Sven Augustijnen, Belgium, 2025, 93’,
International premiere
“J’ai perdu de vue le paysage” via Sophie Bédard Marcotte, Canada, 2025, 85’, International
premiere
“Je n’embrasse pas les photographs” via Pascal Hamant, France, 2025, 76’, International premiere
“The Different International” via Callisto McNulty, Switzerland/France, 2025, 65’, International premiere
“Les Recommencements” via Vivianne Perelmuter and Isabelle Ingold,
Belgium/France, 2025, 87’, International premiere
“Say Good-bye” via Paloma López Carrillo, Mexico, 2025, 104’, International premiere
“The Large Leader” via Tomasz Wolski, Poland/Netherlands/France, 2025, 86’, International
premiere
“The Vanishing Level” via Bani Khoshnoudi, Iran/U.S./France, 2025, 103’, International
premiere
“The International Upside Down” via Agostina Di Luciano and Leon Schwitter,
Argentina/Switzerland, 2025, 77’, International premiere
“To the West, in Zapata” via David Bim, Cuba/Spain, 2025, 75’, International premiere
“Yrupé” via Candela Sotos, Spain, 2025, 79’, International premiere
Nationwide Festival
“Colostrum” via Sayaka Mizuno, Switzerland, 2025, 75’, International premiere
“Becoming in” via Fabienne Steiner, Switzerland, 2025, 85’, International premiere
“Fortune et Kevine” via Sarah Imsand, Switzerland, 62’, International premiere
“Les Papas via David Maye,” Switzerland, 73’, International premiere
“Les Vies d’Andrès” via Baptiste Janon and Rémi Pons, Belgium/Switzerland, 92’,
International premiere
“Lettres au Docteur L” via Laurence Favre, Switzerland, 60’, International premiere
“Best Ghosts Within the Waves” via Alexander Tank and Tobias Scharnagl, Switzerland,
69’, International premiere
“Sediments” via Laura Coppens, Switzerland, 81’, International premiere
“Music of Breath” via Simona Canonica, Italy/Switzerland, 110’, International premiere
“Sons of Icarus” via Daniel Jonas Kemény, Switzerland, 90’, International premiere
“Toute ma vie” via Matias Carlier, Switzerland, 2025, 69’, International premiere
“Wider Than the Sky” via Valerio Jalongo, Italy/Switzerland, 83’, International premiere
