For the seventh consecutive year, four alumni of the CIRCLE Doc Accelerator will present their work at Cannes Docs during the Docs-in-Progress CIRCLE Showcase.
This year's projects include documentaries by international filmmakers: writer, director and creative producer Rand Beiruty (e.g. Tell Them About Us, awarded the German Documentary Film Award 2025 for an Emerging Filmmaker and the ECFA Award for Best European Feature Documentary for Young Audiences); director, writer and film historian Clara López Rubio (e.g. Hacking Justice, documenting nine years of the Assange case and broadcast across European public television); and two feature documentary directorial debuts by Tereza Bernátková, experienced in archival-based TV films, and Julia Maryanska, who has previously contributed to award-winning films including My Reincarnation and Regarding Susan Sontag.
More info about 2026 CIRCLE Showcase at Cannes Docs here.
AMAZONAS
Directed by: Clara López Rubio (Spain)
Produced by: Laura Dauden (Forward Films, Spain), Isabela Parra (Caleidoscopio Cine, Ecuador), Anke Petersen (Jyoti Film, Germany)
Developed through CIRCLE 2024
In Waorani territory in the Ecuadorian Amazon, ancient trees are felled as the first road cuts into the forest. Two grandmothers envision opposing futures: Nancy yearns for the privileges of life beyond the forest, while Huanginkamu strives to protect her ancestral territory. As the filmmaker questions what her presence sets in motion, the three women co-imagine together a world rooted in care rather than power.
INTIMATE REVOLUTIONS
Directed by: Julia Maryanska (Poland/USA)
Produced by: Marc J. Francis, Executive Producer (Speakit Productions, United Kingdom);
Marielle Olentine, Consulting Producer (Tikkun Olam Productions, USA); Julia Marianska
Developed through CIRCLE 2023
Rebelling against the traditions of her Polish family during her American upbringing, Julia forges her own path in countercultures, documenting her queer, polyamorous life over 15 years. The birth of her daughter brings her back to Europe to confront her mother and the inherited scripts of womanhood. Together, they come to see liberation not as a destination, but as a negotiation with time, body, and power.
SISTERS
Directed by: Tereza Bernátková (Czech Republic)
Produced by: Dagmar Sedláčková, Natália Pavlove (MasterFilm, Czech Republic)
Developed through CIRCLE 2024
In a remote institution in former Czechoslovakia in the late 1950s, Catholic nuns care for teenage girls labeled mentally disabled, hidden from society. One nun holds a camera and films their daily lives. Decades later, survivors revisit these images, revealing a powerful story confronting women’s place in society, politics of institutional care, and enduring inequality.
PORTRAIT OF A
Directed by: Rand Beiruty (Jordan/Germany)
Produced by: Rand Beiruty & Jude Kawwa (Shaghab Films, Jordan)
Developed through CIRCLE 2024
Andrea is a young Romani woman in eastern Germany who runs toward love at sixteen, eloping with her boyfriend. He is unfaithful, but leaving him is not simple. Over seven years we follow Andrea through love, betrayal and motherhood, weaving in stop-motion animation into an ongoing dialogue with the filmmaker about compromise and the choices we make.
TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE PROJECTS HEAD OVER TO VARIETY!
CIRCLE@CANNES
The past editions of the showcase were marked by great successes, establishing a track record for identifying breakthrough documentaries. Previous selections include Lin Alluna’s Twice Colonized, which won the top prize at Docs-in-Progress 2022 before premiering at Sundance and opening both CPH:DOX and Hot Docs; Maja Prelog’s Cent’anni, winner of the 2021 Docs-in-Progress award; and Anna Nemet’s Beauty of the Beast, which received the Nordisk Panorama Award in 2020. Other notable alumni include Maka Gogaladze’s Ever Since I Knew Myself, which was awarded at Cannes Docs 2023 and premiered in the Burning Lights Competition at Visions du Réel 2024, Fan Wu's XiXi that premiered in 2024 Hot Docs International Competitionand, Lina Vdovîi and Radu Ciorniciuc’s Tata, which debuted at TIFF in 2024 before screening and winning awards at festivals worldwide, and Rachel Taparjan's Something Familiar granted with the Chicken & Egg Award at Cannes Docs 2025 and premiering at CPH:DOX 2026.
