Budapest rolls out the red carpet for the 12th Budapest International Documentary Festival (BIDF) from January 24 to February 1, 2026, with select closing events on February 2. The hub is at 1024, Margit Boulevard (Margit körút) 5/b, with screenings at Cinema City Mammut and across 12 cities nationwide. Sixty films, 33 in competition, fill 250 screenings, and a wave of directors, creators, and protagonists will appear in person to discuss origin stories and tough truths.
Big Names, Big Prizes, Big Presence
Festival-goers get up close with works by top laureates from the Oscars, Karlovy Vary, Locarno, the Toronto International Film Festival, and IDFA, many of whom are traveling to Hungary. The program’s palette is as wild as the world: a Chinese dating guru coaches love; a Pulitzer-winning photojournalist fights on two fronts—home and war. Ukrainian students head to class under bombardment. Witnesses to terror attacks in Israel speak out. A surgeon’s brutal days in Gaza unfold with unblinking intensity.
Power, Memory, Love, and Lines We Cross
One headline-grabber tracks NATO’s outgoing Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, through a grueling final year via exclusive access. Another dives into Kenya’s essay-for-hire economy, where ghostwriters feed elite universities. The lineup grapples with dementia, intergenerational rifts within families, and the stubborn, startling force of late-life love.
Official Competition Highlights
In Your Hands – The Future of Knowledge: In Your Hands – The Future of Knowledge; Connected; Mr. Nobody Against Putin; Writing Hawa; The Shadow Scholars; Agatha’s Almanac; Change My Mind; Timestamp.
In Your Hands – The Future of Justice: Natchez; The Bibi Files; The Town That Drove Away; I, Poppy; Love + War; The Promise; 80 Angry Journalists.
In Your Hands – The Future of Your Family: We, the Inheritors; Child of Dust; Welded Together; To the West, in Zapata; Nansie; I Saw a Suno.
In Your Hands – The Future of Your Relationship: The Dating Game; Better Go Mad in the Wild; Reward for the Rain; North South Man Woman; Orna and Ella; Love Hurts; Double Trouble.
In Your Hands – The Future of the World: The Day Iceland Stood Still; Facing War; Girls & Gods; The Ukrainian; The Road Between Us; The Mission.
Screenings run in Budapest and in Békéscsaba, Debrecen, Eger, Győr, Jászberény, Kecskemét, Pécs, Sopron, Szeged, Székesfehérvár, Szombathely, and Veszprém. Dates: 2026.01.24–2026.02.02.
