03/11/2025 - The cohort reflects the documentary form’s elasticity, encompassing hybrid works and creative non-fiction across themes of identity, social and political transformation

The 2026 Emerging Producers at Ji.hlava (© Matous Pajk)

The Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival is continuing its long-standing commitment to discovering new producing talent through its Emerging Producers programme. Now in its fourteenth edition, the initiative is once again gathering together eighteen creative professionals from across Europe and beyond, spotlighting their diverse approaches to storytelling and production. The 2026 line-up (read news) reflects the documentary form’s elasticity, encompassing hybrid works, creative non-fiction, and personal stories rooted in wider socio-political realities. This year’s selection marks a particularly strong focus on personal identity, social and political transformation, and the shifting relationship between art, technology, and human connection.

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Austrian producer Dominic Spitaler (ostblock) teased his distinctly playful project - social commentary, My Friend the Pornstar, which a hybrid documentary now in post-production and slated for early 2026. The film follows Timo, an aspiring filmmaker attempting to make a “sex film that isn’t a porno”. Maarten D’Hollander (Krater Films) pitched the hybrid documentary Better Than Gold, homing in on the backstage of art and due to premiere in 2026-2027. Czech producer Pavla Klimešová (Helium Film) is continuing to collaborate on Virtual Girlfriends [+see also:
film review
interview: Barbora Chalupová
film profile] with director Barbora Chalupová (Caught in the Net [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]), whilst also working on Chalupová´s fiction feature debut Electric Wonder and Ondřej Moravec´s VR project Melodies of Resilience. This year’s guest country, Ethiopia, is represented by Nahusenay Dereje (1960), who’s directing and producing I Wanna Be a Magician!, which follows artist Michael Haile’s provocative exhibition in Addis Ababa, and which is hoping to premiere in 2026.

French producer Julie Meigniez (Talweg) showcased her finished project, a documentary about lucid dreaming entitled Dreams, whilst also hard at work on two projects in development: Story of the Painter Who Created a Photographer and Lilyland, whereas Evi Stamou (Maketa Media) is developing CosMOS, a time-lapse chronicle about a decade of crisis in Athens through the lens of a young filmmaker. Representing Hungary, Anna Tóth (ULab) supports deeply personal stories such as Home is a Dollhouse, planned for 2027, which sees a daughter confronting her mother’s absence in an intimate exploration of intergenerational trauma and reconciliation. Angelo Rocco Troiano (Mediterraneo Cinematografica) is underlining the international dimension of co-production with the finished project, La Calle Pura, which is a creative documentary made between Italy and the United States and portraying contemporary Cuba.

From the Baltics, Ringailė Leščinskienė (Zero Copy Reel) is backing DNA of the Nation, slated for 2026-2027, continuing her interest in post-Soviet transformation and irony-tinged observation, and offering up an ironic reflection on Ukrainian identity and national myths. Yann Tonnar (Manufactura Pictures), for his part, served as co-producer on Ali Asgari´s hybrid documentary Higher Than Acidic Clouds, whilst working on two projects in production: Un air de liberté in collaboration with Louvre museum and Service Logement. North Macedonian producer Ivana Shekutkoska (Minimal Collective) presented DJ Ahmet [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Georgi M Unkovski
film profile] whilst also working on five more fiction and documentary projects, including Elena Chemerska´s documentary Fatherland: A Monument to Freedom. Norwegian producer Anita Vedå (Smau Media) is developing the creative feature documentary Hope is a Word, due to premiere in 2026 and set in Nigeria’s Niger Delta where poet and environmental activist Nnimmo Bassey mobilises a new generation of resistance through art and hope.

Maria Krauss (Plesnar & Krauss FILMS Sp. z o.o.) is producing The Artist and Possible Construction, chronicling visionary artist Bożenna Biskupska’s two-decade quest to transform a crumbling neo-Gothic castle into an independent art centre. Portuguese producer Bernardo Lopes (Omaja) is working on Bukra, which is filmed in Jenin Refugee Camp and which captures the Freedom Theatre collective’s struggle to preserve creativity amid war and occupation. Slovak producer Tomáš Gič (Silverart) presented his projects Glorious Utopia (see report), slated for 2027, which is a philosophical documentary on the Elgaland-Vargaland microstate. Caroline Drab (Filmgerberei) from Sweden showcased Meanwhile on Earth [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - which premiered in the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2020 - and is working on another project in development, planned for 2027, entitled Argentina–Sweden–Kurdistan, which paints a generational portrait across three continents. Swiss producer Azra Djurdjevic (Filmgerberei) is in the early phase of developing mAI Body Your Choice, which is a daring investigation into technology, gender politics, and intimacy, set inside the world’s largest sex-doll factory, and which is due for release in 2028. Finally, Eugene Rachkovsky (Tabor) presented his Cannes-premiered movie Militantropos [+see also:
film review
interview: Yelizaveta Smith, Alina Gor…
film profile], while currently working on In Vacuo (read interview) and Cosmomorphosis which are directed by the directors of Militantropos and which are both now in development.

The producers’ projects can be found here.