Film Programme
Our 2026 Film Programme features 104 films from around the world, exploring individual and collective lives, how we live, the world around us and the ways it is changing.
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Notes from the Underground
A cross-generational oral history of Cape Town, told through the underground hip-hop scene that turned rhythm, resistance and mentorship into a living education system.
  • Adrian Van Wyk, Chris Kets
  • 2026
  • Film Programme
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One In A Million
Filmed over ten years, a Syrian family's journey from a shelled apartment in Aleppo to a new life in Germany reveals the hidden costs of survival.
  • Itab Azzam, Jack MacInnes
  • 2026
  • Film Programme
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Opening Night: We, The Hated - Public Premiere
This year's opening film is an intimate portrait of Just Stop Oil protestors asks what it really costs to take a stand in a supposedly democratic society.
  • Film Programme
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Part Fish
Diagnosed autistic at 31, a Cumbrian filmmaker turns the camera on herself to explore burnout, stimming and the path to self-acceptance.
  • Sophie Broadgate
  • 2026
  • Film Programme
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Past Future Continuous
After years of living in exile from Iran, Maryam installs CCTV cameras in her family’s Tehran home and creates a lifeline to the parents she left behind.
  • Morteza Ahmadvand , Firouzeh Khosrovani
  • 2025
  • Film Programme
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Pelo Lindo
A 90-year-old Guatemalan mother reflects on four decades of waiting for her forcibly disappeared son, and the chapel she built in his name.
  • Josue Garcia Prado
  • 2026
  • Film Programme
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Phenomena
A filmmaker and his physicist father turn energy, magnetism and matter into extraordinary cinema that reveals the universe like never before, all set to a stunning soundtrack.
  • Josef Gatti
  • 2026
  • Film Programme
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RAP BABY
A south London rapper navigates the music industry while confronting what it means to be visible, gay and Black in a world still catching up.
  • Daisy Ifama
  • 2026
  • Film Programme
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Red Elephant
LGBTQ+ asylum seekers in Belgium face an impossible ask: prove their identity by reliving the worst things that have happened to them.
  • Iqran Rasheed
  • 2026
  • Film Programme
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Relic
High above Belfast, an 85-year-old man holds a holy relic linked to Padre Pio. Every 13th night, devoted locals journey up the mountain seeking a sacred cure.
  • Sam Howard
  • 2026
  • Film Programme
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Replica
Three women in China turn to AI lovers to fill the emotional gaps left by loneliness, unfulfilling marriages and the pursuit of independence.
  • Chouwa Liang
  • 2026
  • Film Programme
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The Right to Forget
A filmmaker traces her Swiss grandfather's ties to mining in former Zaire, only to find that the family archives have been deliberately destroyed.
  • Lisa Mazenauer
  • 2026
  • Film Programme
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Rose's House
The story of Martine Rose, who in 1979 bought a rundown terraced house in Sheffield and transformed it into one of Britain's first dedicated safe spaces for trans people.
  • Naomi Abel-Hirsch
  • 2026
  • Film Programme
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Saigon Story: Two Shootings in the Forest Kingdom
Two families, one photograph. Oscar-nominated filmmaker Kim Nguyen unpicks the wartime secrets hidden behind Eddie Adams' infamous Saigon Execution image.
  • Kim Nguyen
  • 2026
  • Film Programme
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The Salisbury Poisonings: A Spy Next Door
When a former Russian spy and his daughter were poisoned in the cathedral city of Salisbury, a quiet corner of England became the frontline of an international crisis.
  • Dan Vernon
  • 2026
  • Film Programme
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Savage Mountain
Kristin Harila risked everything to summit the world’s 14 highest peaks at record speed. When her final ascent sparked backlash, her greatest triumph became a reckoning.
  • Even Sigstad
  • 2026
  • Film Programme
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Savage Mountain + Conversation
Join us for this special screening of this film, followed by a conversation with the director, Evan Sigstad and protagonist Kristin Harila.
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School Screening + Career Panel: Shop Dada: The Cornershop That Built Us
Join us for our educational screening of Shop Dada: The Cornershop That Built Us accompanied by a careers panel.
  • Film Programme
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School Screening + Career Panel: Wild East
Join us for our educational screening of Wild East accompanied by a careers panel.
  • Film Programme
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School Screening + Careers Panel: Maybe Tomorrow
Join us for our educational screening of Maybe Tomorrow accompanied by a careers panel.
  • Film Programme
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Sentient
A journey behind the locked doors of animal research laboratories, where scientists confront a growing unease with the experiments they carry out on monkeys.
  • Tony Jones
  • 2026
  • Film Programme
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Sheffield DocFest Audience Award Winner
The award decided by you, our amazing audiences. Each feature film premiering at Sheffield DocFest is eligible for this award, and every festival-goer is eligible to vote. Find out which film is this year's audience favourite! This is your chance to watch this year's winner.
  • Film Programme
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Shop Dada - The Cornershop That Built Us
A filmmaker revisits his grandfather’s corner shop to uncover migration, racism and sacrifice behind a British South Asian stereotype.
  • Darshan Gajjar
  • 2026
  • Film Programme
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Shorts: Acts of Witness
Three filmmakers confront systems of violence and erasure, revealing how images, resistance and truth-telling become tools for survival, exposure and defiance.
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Shorts Film Programme
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Shorts: Family Business
Across continents and generations, four films uncover the burdens and bonds of inheritance, where memory, myth and survival shape what families choose to remember or forget.
  • Film Programme
Shorts Film Programme

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