Visions du Réel, one of Europe’s foremost documentary festivals, returns for a 56th edition with its most diverse lineup to date, featuring some 154 films from a record 57 countries.
Spanning the globe, from Mongolia to Australia, Cameroon to Lebanon, the selection underscores the festival’s rising stature as a truly international platform for documentary cinema and a key meeting point for industry professionals.
It features an impressive 88 world premieres by both newcomers and veterans, highlighting the festival’s commitment to discovery and diversity. First-time filmmakers also hold a strong presence, with 58 debut films.
Nearly half of the films are directed by men, with women helming 39%, and the rest credited to non-binary or collective efforts.
“Little, Big and Far”
Courtesy of Visions du Reel
“We are proud that our selection once again reflects an openness to the world,” said artistic director Emilie Bujès, adding that she was impressed by the record-breaking 3,437 entries.
The International Feature Film Competition will see 14 films, including four debut features, vying for the festival’s top honor. VdR veterans return to competition, including Marie Voignier (who was at the festival in 2020 with “Na China”) with “Anamocot,” an enigmatic journey into a zoologist’s quest for the legendary Mokélé-Mbembé; and Julien Elie (“Dark Suns”) with “Shifting Baselines” (which was a work-in-progress at VdR–Industry in 2024), a dramatic black and white doc set in the village of Boca Chica, home to Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket launch base.
Other influential figures whose works have been selected include U.S. director Jem Cohen (“Museum Hours”) with “Little, Big 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 history of violence against women. Swiss co-production “Nuit obscure – Ain’t I a Child?” by Sylvain George concludes his trilogy on migration, offering a stark, nocturnal portrait of unaccompanied minors in Paris.
Geopolitical themes run through the selection, with films 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 impact of nuclear waste disposal on Indigenous communities. Meanwhile, Julian Vogel and Johannes Büttner’s “Soldiers of Light” turns its lens on the rise of far-right spiritual movements in Germany.
Emilie Bujès
Courtesy of Nikita the Voz
Speaking to Variety, Bujès was keen to point out the rich and diverse selections in the festival’s other categories, notably in the more adventurous Burning Lights competition, featuring an impressive 15 world premieres.
These include works by established filmmakers like exiled Iranian director Bani Khoshnoudi with “The Vanishing Point,” which intertwines her personal history with that of her country’s, Poland’s Tomasz Wolski, who once again delves into archives in this Cold War espionage documentary, and U.S. director Curtis Miller with “A Brief History of Chasing Storms,” which presents a history of the tornado as both a destructive weather event and an American icon.
Asked about the selection, Bujès said, “What makes it also very precious to us is how these films compose another image together. Today, we are so used to swiping away when we don’t like something, so it’s about trying to create — within each section — a spectrum that’s as wide as possible, as inviting as possible, so people stay and even watch some other titles. That’s our job: each section has to compose an image of what cinema can look like in 2025.”
The festival will also welcome an impressive lineup of guests, led by Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck, who will receive the festival’s Honorary Award and present a retrospective of his work, including his latest award-winning film “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found.”
Romanian director Corneliu Porumboiu and Portuguese filmmaker Cláudia Varejão are also set to give masterclasses. Other prominent names include Oscar-winning British director Asif Kapadia (“Amy”), who will open the festival’s industry section, and jury members like Eliza Hittman, the acclaimed director of “Never Rarely Sometimes Always” and “Beach Rats,” and Berlinale programmer Michael Stütz.
Visions du Réel will open with the world premiere of “Blame,” the latest work by Swiss filmmaker Christian Frei (“War Photographer”), which follows the destiny of three scientists during the COVID-19 epidemic — far more than “a film about bats and viruses, it is relevant to today’s world, where opinions are polarizing and feeding into a frenzy without being based on any facts,” said Frei.
The 2025 National Competition showcases 12 world premieres, including eight feature debuts. Open to feature-length and medium-length films produced or co-produced in Switzerland, the selection highlights the vitality of Swiss non-fiction filmmaking.
Beyond its three flagship competitions, VdR offers a diverse mix of formats, from the International Medium Length and Short Film Competition, to the Wide Angle section, featuring films that have already or are expected to make a splash on the festival circuit.
The non-competitive Highlights and Special Screenings sections showcase, respectively, must-see feature films selected by the curation committee, and works in unconventional formats, jury members’ films, series and special tributes.
Visions du Réel runs in Nyon, Switzerland from April 4 to 14, with its industry event taking place April 6 to 9.
Find the International Feature Film, Burning Lights and National Competition titles below:
International Feature Film Competition“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, Big, and Far” by Jem Cohen, Austria/U.S., 2025, 122’, International 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 Night – Ain’t I a Child” by Sylvain George, Switzerland/France, 2025, 164’,World premiere“Shifting Baselines” by Julien Elie, Canada, 2025, 101’, World premiere“Soldiers of Light” 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 Won’t Move” 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“Where Two Oceans Meet” by Lulu Scott, France/Belgium/South Africa, 2025, 75’,World premiere
Burning Lights Competition“A Brief History 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 Sun” 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 images” by Pascal Hamant, France, 2025, 76’, World premiere“The Other 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 Big Chief” by Tomasz Wolski, Poland/Netherlands/France, 2025, 86’, Worldpremiere“The Vanishing Point” 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
National Competition“Colostrum” by Sayaka Mizuno, Switzerland, 2025, 75’, World premiere“Fitting 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“Only Ghosts In the Waves” by Alexander Tank and Tobias Scharnagl, Switzerland,69’, World premiere“Sediments” by Laura Coppens, Switzerland, 81’, World premiere“Song 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
