Visions du Réel, one in all Europe’s foremost documentary festivals, returns for a 56th version with its most numerous lineup so far, that includes some 154 movies from a document 57 international locations.
Spanning the globe, from Mongolia to Australia, Cameroon to Lebanon, the choice underscores the pageant’s rising stature as a really worldwide platform for documentary cinema and a key assembly level for business professionals.
It options a powerful 88 world premieres by each newcomers and veterans, highlighting the pageant’s dedication to discovery and variety. First-time filmmakers additionally maintain a powerful presence, with 58 debut movies.
Practically half of the movies are directed by males, with ladies helming 39%, and the remaining credited to non-binary or collective efforts.
“Little, Large and Far”
Courtesy of Visions du Reel
“We’re proud that our choice as soon as once more displays an openness to the world,” mentioned creative director Emilie Bujès, including that she was impressed by the record-breaking 3,437 entries.
The Worldwide Function Movie Competitors will see 14 movies, together with 4 debut options, vying for the pageant’s prime honor. VdR veterans return to competitors, together with Marie Voignier (who was on the pageant in 2020 with “Na China”) with “Anamocot,” an enigmatic journey right into a zoologist’s quest for the legendary Mokélé-Mbembé; and Julien Elie (“Darkish Suns”) with “Shifting Baselines” (which was a work-in-progress at VdR–Trade in 2024), a dramatic black and white doc set within the village of Boca Chica, residence to Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket launch base.
Different influential figures whose works have been chosen embody U.S. director Jem Cohen (“Museum Hours”) with “Little, Large and Far,” 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 towards ladies. Swiss co-production “Nuit obscure – Ain’t I a Little one?” by Sylvain George concludes his trilogy on migration, providing a stark, nocturnal portrait of unaccompanied minors in Paris.
Geopolitical themes run by the choice, with movies like Mamadou Khouma Gueye’s “The Attachment,” which scrutinizes the gentrification of a Dakar neighborhood, and Casey Carter’s “To Use a Mountain,” a deep dive into the impression of nuclear waste disposal on Indigenous communities. In the meantime, Julian Vogel and Johannes Büttner’s “Troopers of Gentle” turns its lens on the rise of far-right non secular actions in Germany.
Emilie Bujès
Courtesy of Nikita the Voz
Talking to Selection, Bujès was eager to level out the wealthy and numerous alternatives within the pageant’s different classes, notably within the extra adventurous Burning Lights competitors, that includes a powerful 15 world premieres.
These embody works by established filmmakers like exiled Iranian director Bani Khoshnoudi with “The Vanishing Level,” which intertwines her private historical past with that of her nation’s, Poland’s Tomasz Wolski, who as soon as once more delves into archives on this Chilly Conflict espionage documentary, and U.S. director Curtis Miller with “A Transient Historical past of Chasing Storms,” which presents a historical past of the twister as each a harmful climate occasion and an American icon.
Requested concerning the choice, Bujès mentioned, “What makes it additionally very treasured to us is how these movies compose one other picture collectively. Right this moment, we’re so used to swiping away after we don’t like one thing, so it’s about making an attempt to create — inside every part — a spectrum that’s as large as potential, as inviting as potential, so individuals keep and even watch another titles. That’s our job: every part has to compose a picture of what cinema can appear to be in 2025.”
The pageant may even welcome a powerful lineup of visitors, led by Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck, who will obtain the pageant’s Honorary Award and current a retrospective of his work, together with his newest award-winning movie “Ernest Cole: Misplaced and Discovered.”
Romanian director Corneliu Porumboiu and Portuguese filmmaker Cláudia Varejão are additionally set to provide masterclasses. Different distinguished names embody Oscar-winning British director Asif Kapadia (“Amy”), who will open the pageant’s business part, and jury members like Eliza Hittman, the acclaimed director of “By no means Not often Typically At all times” and “Seaside Rats,” and Berlinale programmer Michael Stütz.
Visions du Réel will open with the world premiere of “Blame,” the most recent work by Swiss filmmaker Christian Frei (“Conflict Photographer”), which follows the future of three scientists throughout the COVID-19 epidemic — way over “a movie about bats and viruses, it’s related to right now’s world, the place opinions are polarizing and feeding right into a frenzy with out being primarily based on any details,” mentioned Frei.
The 2025 Nationwide Competitors showcases 12 world premieres, together with eight characteristic debuts. Open to feature-length and medium-length movies produced or co-produced in Switzerland, the choice highlights the vitality of Swiss non-fiction filmmaking.
Past its three flagship competitions, VdR affords a various mixture of codecs, from the Worldwide Medium Size and Quick Movie Competitors, to the Large Angle part, that includes movies which have already or are anticipated to make a splash on the pageant circuit.
The non-competitive Highlights and Particular Screenings sections showcase, respectively, must-see characteristic movies chosen by the curation committee, and works in unconventional codecs, jury members’ movies, sequence and particular tributes.
Visions du Réel runs in Nyon, Switzerland from April 4 to 14, with its business occasion happening April 6 to 9.
Discover the Worldwide Function Movie, Burning Lights and Nationwide Competitors titles under:
Worldwide Function Movie Competitors“Anamocot” by Marie Voignier, Cameroon/France, 2025, 91’, World premiere“Aurora” by João Vieira Torres, Brazil/Portugal/France, 2025, 129’, World premiere“Iron Winter” by Kasimir Burgess, Australia/Mongolia, 2025, 90’, World premiere“Little, Large, and Far” by Jem Cohen, Austria/U.S., 2025, 122’, Worldwide premiere“La Montagne d’or” by Roland Edzard, Belgium/France, 2025, 85’, World premiere“Niñxs” by Kani Lapuerta, Mexico/Germany, 2025, 86’, World premiere“Obscure Evening – Ain’t I a Little one” by Sylvain George, Switzerland/France, 2025, 164’,World premiere“Shifting Baselines” by Julien Elie, Canada, 2025, 101’, World premiere“Troopers of Gentle” by Julian Vogel and Johannes Büttner, Germany, 2025, 108’, Worldpremiere“The Attachment” by Mamadou Khouma Gueye, Senegal/Belgium/France, 2025, 76’,World premiere“The Mountain Gained’t Transfer” by Petra Seliškar, Slovenia/North Macedonia/France,2025, 94’, World premiere“The Prince of Nanawa” by Clarisa Navas, Argentina/Paraguay/Colombia/Germany,2025, 212’, World premiere“To Use a Mountain” by Casey Carter, U.S., 2025, 99’, World premiere“The place Two Oceans Meet” by Lulu Scott, France/Belgium/South Africa, 2025, 75’,World premiere
Burning Lights Competitors“A Transient Historical past of Chasing Storms” by Curtis Miller, U.S., 2025, 70’, World premiere“And the Fish Fly Above our Heads” by Dima El-Horr, Lebanon/France/Saudi Arabia,2025, 70’, World premiere“Chasing the Solar” by Ruosong Huang, France/China, 2025, 112’, World premiere“Croma” by Manuel Abramovich, Argentina/Germany/Austria, 2025, 70’, Worldpremiere“Fierté nationale: de Jéricho vers Gaza” by Sven Augustijnen, Belgium, 2025, 93’,World premiere“J’ai perdu de vue le paysage” by Sophie Bédard Marcotte, Canada, 2025, 85’, Worldpremiere“Je n’embrasse pas les photographs” by Pascal Hamant, France, 2025, 76’, World premiere“The Different World” by Callisto McNulty, Switzerland/France, 2025, 65’, World premiere“Les Recommencements” by Vivianne Perelmuter and Isabelle Ingold,Belgium/France, 2025, 87’, World premiere“Say Goodbye” by Paloma López Carrillo, Mexico, 2025, 104’, World premiere“The Large Chief” by Tomasz Wolski, Poland/Netherlands/France, 2025, 86’, Worldpremiere“The Vanishing Level” by Bani Khoshnoudi, Iran/U.S./France, 2025, 103’, Worldpremiere“The World Upside Down” by Agostina Di Luciano and Leon Schwitter,Argentina/Switzerland, 2025, 77’, World premiere“To the West, in Zapata” by David Bim, Cuba/Spain, 2025, 75’, World premiere“Yrupé” by Candela Sotos, Spain, 2025, 79’, World premiere
Nationwide Competitors“Colostrum” by Sayaka Mizuno, Switzerland, 2025, 75’, World premiere“Becoming in” by Fabienne Steiner, Switzerland, 2025, 85’, World premiere“Fortune et Kevine” by Sarah Imsand, Switzerland, 62’, World premiere“Les Papas by David Maye,” Switzerland, 73’, World premiere“Les Vies d’Andrès” by Baptiste Janon and Rémi Pons, Belgium/Switzerland, 92’,World premiere“Lettres au Docteur L” by Laurence Favre, Switzerland, 60’, World premiere“Solely Ghosts Within the Waves” by Alexander Tank and Tobias Scharnagl, Switzerland,69’, World premiere“Sediments” by Laura Coppens, Switzerland, 81’, World premiere“Music of Breath” by Simona Canonica, Italy/Switzerland, 110’, World premiere“Sons of Icarus” by Daniel Jonas Kemény, Switzerland, 90’, World premiere“Toute ma vie” by Matias Carlier, Switzerland, 2025, 69’, World premiere“Wider Than the Sky” by Valerio Jalongo, Italy/Switzerland, 83’, World premiere
