Documentary festival Visions du Lille has announced the 31 projects selected for this year’s VdR-Industry platform, marking the first program overseen by Sabine Fayou Cantillo, the newly appointed industry director who succeeded Alice Bergin.
For Fayou Cantillo, the move felt like a natural fit. Prior to joining the festival team, she experienced events from the other side of the industry, serving as Associate Director of Programming at Chicken & Egg Films.
“This nonfiction festival was a festival that I was fortunate and happy to be a part of as an industry representative during my previous role at Chicken and Egg Films,” she told Variety. Having participated in numerous international forums and markets, she said this event stands out for the depth of dialogue between filmmakers and industry experts, and the intimacy it allows.
“There is an authentic space that fosters this kind of deep listening and interaction,” she said, referring to the pitch format and the conversations that unfold through roundtables and one-on-one meetings. “This is a very unique format,” she added. “It feels very refreshing in our rapidly changing industry.”
The industry gathering, which runs from April 19th to 22nd, will bring together filmmakers, producers and investors for projects from development to post-production, selected from more than 600 submissions representing 28 countries.
Across the lineup, 61% of projects are directed by women, 45% are by first-time feature filmmakers, and 58% are directed and produced by filmmakers from the Global South.
Among the 15 titles in the lineup is “The Extinction Vortex” by Macedonian director Lyubomir Stefanov, whose 2019 VdR film “Honeyland”, co-directed with Tamara Kotevska, won the World Film Documentary Award at Sundance and was nominated for two Academy Awards. A new project follows a young ecologist investigating mysterious patterns of violent behavior in turtles that may point to a troubling “extinction vortex” unfolding in the wild.
Other notable projects in the lineup include “A Season in Europe” (“Cleveland vs. Wall Street”) by Swiss filmmaker and VdR regular Jean-Stephane Bron, which provides an inside look at the workings of European institutions. A film by Belgian filmmaker Sophie Benuto (Apple Cider Vinegar, Desert Smoke) that explores the fragile interrelationship between humans and the natural world.
“What stands out this year is not necessarily a single topic, but rather a common sensibility across very different regions and stories,” Fayou Cantillo noted. “Each project remains singular, with a distinct voice and artistic vision, and a synchronized awareness of the world we live in.”
Several projects address geopolitical tensions and conflicts. Lebanese filmmaker Miriam El-Hajj (A Time to Rest, Diary from Lebanon) returns with Letters from a Ceasefire, co-directed with Iranian filmmaker Omid Hashemi. The film is based on letters exchanged between two filmmakers that reflect on conflict and the possibility of change.
“This is a really beautiful epistolary film,” Fayou Cantillo said. “Through their interactions, we hear their thoughts, feelings, and musings on regional conflicts…while also asking where love can exist in all of this.”
This theme also runs through Ukrainian filmmaker Olga Gibelinda’s Firing Lines, which explores the impact of war on everyday life.
Beyond geopolitical tensions, director Fayou Cantillo said two broader ideas emerged throughout the selection. It is the fragile concept of home and the role of ecology as a lens through which filmmakers explore broader social and ethical issues.
“Many of the projects we feature this year examine this concept of home, but at its most vulnerable politically, historically, and ecologically. And of course, you can’t really tell the story of home without a very personal lens.”
Ecology appears throughout the lineup, but rarely in the form of traditional environmental storytelling.
“[Some projects]use ecology not just as a subject matter, but as a metaphor or basis for deeper ethical issues, merging ecology with colonial history, migration, language, or spiritual capitalism,” says Fayou-Cantillo, who is also familiar with The Vortex of Extinction, Stefan Pavlovich’s The Fluidity of Stuttering – How My Father Became a Sea Creature (7 Parts)”, “Bliss Bubble” by Yasmin Van Dorp and “Hello?!” by Venuto
Other films in the lineup include American filmmaker Todd Chandler’s TRADE, which explores labor and consumer culture at American trade shows, and Russian-born director Vladlena Sandu’s personal project Transposition, which examines memory, history, and forced migration.
The VdR-Work in Progress showcase will feature six projects, including the latest from Mexican filmmaker Laura Plancarte, who returns with BOOM! and “Liberal Arts,” by American filmmaker Pacho Velez (“The Searchers”), about an eccentric professor whose experimental classes become the subject of a documentary.
Rough Cut Lab’s projects range from Laura Otalola’s The Captain, an intimate portrait of a father and daughter battling Alzheimer’s disease, to Majaz Pinter’s The Caterpillar, which follows the unlikely journey of a rare Himalayan fungus from Nepal to China.
The industry program will award more than CHF 80,000 ($102,000) in prizes across a variety of categories, including the prestigious Eurimages Co-Production and Development Award with a cash prize of €20,000 ($23,000) and the Visions Sud Est Award for supported projects from the Global South.
The 2026 industry jury includes filmmaker Gabriel Brady, Sundance Institute Documentary Fund manager Dominic Davis, and Venice Days artistic director Gaia Farrar.
Industry Day begins with a conversation with Laura Poitras (Citizenfour, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed), an Oscar-winning filmmaker who helped redefine the boundaries of investigative documentary.
The VdR-Industry program will be held in Nyon, Switzerland from April 19th to 22nd.
Below are VdR-Industry projects for 2026.
VdR-Pitching
“European Seasons” Jean-Stephane Bron (Switzerland)
Producer: Lionel Bayer (Bande à part Films)
switzerland, france
“Fireing Line” Olga Gibelinda (Ukraine)
Produced by: Olga Ghibelinda (Malanka Studios), Stasis Bartakis (Film Jam), Jonas Kellerger
(Common Ground Pictures)
Ukraine, Lithuania, Sweden
“Hello?!” Sophie Benuto (Belgium)
Mark Goyens (Quetzalcoatl), Guillaume Malandrin (Altitude100), Steven Rubinstein Malamud (GROM), Matej Sotnik (Gucha Film)
Belgium, Netherlands, Slovakia
“La Linda” Francina Carbonell (Argentina)
Produced by: María Paz González (María Una Ves), Gemma Juárez Allen (Gema Films)
chile, argentina
“Letter from the Ceasefire” by Miriam El Hajj (Lebanon) and Omid Hashemi (Iran)
Produced by: Julie Bergeron, Corentin Sénéchal, Daniel Chavannes (Reality Film/Epicenter Films)
France
“Retrograd” Anders Mielke Gronbeck (Denmark), Esben Persson (Denmark)
Producer: Kaspar Lykke Schulz (Erk Film)
Denmark
“Over the Rainbow” by Koval Bhatia (India)
Produced by: Dominique Barnaud (Bellota Films), Riham Ezzaldeen (What Took You So Long), Koval Bhatia (A Little Anarchy Films)
France, America, India
“The Fluidity of Stuttering – How My Father Became a Sea Creature (Seven Parts)” by Stefan Pavlović (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Netherlands)
Produced by: Eyal Sivan (Serendipity Films), Kostana Banovic (artTrace Foundation)
france, netherlands
“Bliss Bubbles” Yasmin van Dorp (Netherlands)
Produced by: Hester Brunissen & Janeke Dourad (DOXY FIXY)
Netherlands
“The Myth” Che-Chia Hsu (Taiwan)
Producer: Jia Zhao (MUYI FILM), Che-Chia Hsu (MindMine Films)
Taiwan, Netherlands
“The Vortex of Extinction” Lyubomir Stefanov (North Macedonia)
Producer: Maya E. Rudolph (Louverture Film)
North Macedonia, United States
“To My Dearest” by Grace Xia (China)
Produced by: Grace Xia (Wild Angle Films), Wenli Liu
china, usa
“TRADE” Todd Chandler (USA)
Produced by Alisa Nahmias (AJNA Films), Keith Wilson (Breezy Circle)
US
“Transposition” Vladlena Sandu (resident of the Netherlands)
Produced by: Jos de Putter (Dieptescherpte BV)
Netherlands
“Uganda” Daniel Mann (UK)
Produced by: Fabrizio Polpettini (“La Bête”), Christophe Goujon (“Acqua alta”)
France
VdR – Work in progress
“A Road Less Traveled” by Alexander Murphy (France, Ireland)
Produced by Cosme Bongrain (Good Seed Productions), David Collins & Eamon Hughes (Samson Films)
france, ireland
“Boom!” Laura Plancarte (Mexico)
Produced by: Johnny Brewin (Boom Film Project Ltd.), Christila Huillard-Kan (Elda Productions)
UK, France
“Job 1:21” by Samuel Suffran (Haiti)
Producer: Eugénie Michel Villette (Bilbok Films), Samuel Chouffrin (Kit Films)
France, Haiti
“Liberal Arts” by Pacho Velez (USA)
Produced by: Scott Cummings, Pacho Velez (Pacho Works), Milo Borscu
US
“My Skin and I” Milton Gillen (Nicaragua), Fiona Guy Hall (USA)
Produced by: Zorana Musikić & May Odeh (Mayana Films), Milton Gillen, Fiona Guy Hall
Germany, America, Nicaragua
“The Nights” Ana Bovino (Argentina)
Produced by: Natalia de la Vega (Navega Cine), Ana Bovino
Argentina
VdR-Rough Cut Lab
“Captain” Laura Otarola (Colombia)
Produced by: Estephania Bonnett (Playlab Films), Nicolás Herreño (Tomato Content)
colombia, spain
“Holy Human Angel” Angeliki Aristomenopoulou (Greece)
Produced by: Lea Apostolidis & Yuri Averov (Anemon Productions), Heather Millard (Compass Films), Vicky Miha (Asterisk)
greece, iceland
“Summer Grass Winter Worm” by Majaz Pinter (Slovenia)
Producer: Martin Saxer (Entangled Films)
Germany
“The People Outside” by Jewel Maranan (Philippines)
Producer: Jewel Maranan (Cinema is Incomplete)
Philippines
VdR-Development Lab
“The journey to love should be taken by train, and only by train” Elaheh Esmaili (Iran)
Produced by: Elahe Esmaili, Fabian Greenberg (Antipod Films)
iran, norway
“Augury, Dreams, and Soil” by Luciana Decker Orozco (Bolivia)
Produced by: Camila Molina Wiedchter (Omm Cine)
Bolivia
“Identity Curls” Nadège Boutoi (Burundi)
Produced by: Diane Kaneza (Mikadi Productions), Jean-Marie Ndihokubwayo (Clap4Creativity)
Burundi
“This Is Not a Wasteland” Sachin (India)
Produced by: Sachin (rohī Collective), India
VdR-Development Lab Finalist
“Of the Trees Unmoved” Nino Benashvili (Georgia, Germany)
Produced by: Tecla Maciavariani (Nushi Film), Eva Blondiau (Color of May)
Georgia, Germany
“YOUTH” Daria Zhravel (Ukraine)
Produced by: Anastasia Zakirko (Modern Ukrainian Cinema), Victor Thomas (Les 48° Rugissants/Jeudi Soir), Kristof Gerega (Schuldenberg Films)
Ukraine, France, Germany
