Documentaries are definitely taking centre stage in France, given that the crowning of Mati Diop’s Dahomey [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] as the Berlinale’s winner is set to be followed by the Best of Doc #5 Festival, which is waiting in the starting-blocks and is scheduled to unspool between 6 and 19 March in over 60 cinemas across France.

Boasting Iranian filmmaker Mehran Tamadon as its ambassador, this travelling festival will offer up 10 films chosen from amongst the best documentaries released over the past year. Each participating cinema will show at least three films from the selection, with filmmakers and other speakers set to accompany these screenings. A jury of high school students (in partnership with the film education programme "Cinema, A Hundred Years of Youth) will award a Choice Award, with three feature films showing in premières, two unseen titles, and five short films also rounding off the agenda.

The line-up features La Rivière by Dominique Marchais (awarded the Louis Delluc Prize in 2023 and nominated for this year’s Best Documentary Lumière), Our Body [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] by Claire Simon (unveiled in Berlin, nominated for this year’s Best Documentary César and Lumière trophies), Little Girl Blue [+leggi anche:
recensione
intervista: Mona Achache
scheda film] by Mona Achache (discovered in Cannes and nominated twice, as per the previous title), From Where They Stood [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] by Christophe Cognet (discovered in the Berlinale Forum), The Perpetual Leek by Zoé Chantre, and Zorn I, II and III by Mathieu Amalric.

Also gracing the showcase are In the Rearview [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] by Poland’s Maciek Hamela (presented in Cannes’ ACID selection), Ricardo and Painting [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] by Barbet Schroeder (screened in Locarno), How To Save a Dead Friend [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] by Russia’s Marusya Syroechkovskaya (awarded a Special Mention in the Visions du Réel Festival and also screened in Cannes’ ACID line-up) and Pictures of Ghosts by Brazil’s Kleber Mendonça Filho (likewise unveiled in Cannes).

Show-stealing premières include Averroès & Rosa Parks [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Nicolas Philibert
scheda film] by Nicolas Philibert (very well-received recently in Berlin – hitting cinemas on 20 March), Apolonia, Apolonia [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Lea Glob
scheda film] by Denmark’s Lea Glob (who notably triumphed at the IDFA – due for release in France on 27 March) and My Worst Enemy [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Mehran Tamadon
scheda film] by Mehran Tamadon (presented in the Berlinale’s Encounters line-up – hitting cinemas on 8 May). Standing tall in the Inédits section are Man in Black [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] by China’s Wang Bing (which premiered last year in Cannes) and the medium-length movie Tutto apposto gioia mia by the French director of Spanish and Italian origin Chloé Lecci Lopez, while Yolande Zauberman’s Classified People (1988) will fly the flag for heritage film.