Skip to main content

Sheffield DocFest · 2026

Sheffield DocFest 2026

Debates

Programme

8 films · 2 reviews

Jump to a film

The AI Doc: Or How I Became An Apocaloptimist

A father-to-be tries to figure out what is happening with the AI insanity, exploring the existential dangers and stunning promise of this technology that humanity has created.

(Country: US; Year: 2026; Director: Daniel Roher, Charlie Tyrell)

UK premiere

Elon Musk Unveiled: The Tesla Experiment

Close confidants, whistleblowers and former Tesla insiders speak out for the first time, exposing hidden data and buried defects in the race for self-driving cars.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2026; Director: Andreas Pichler; Writer: Andreas Pichler, Anne von Petersdorff, Christian Beetz; Stars: Elon Musk, Donald Trump)

UK premiere

Forever Is Now

Review preview for Forever Is Now

Ní Chianáin captures the sense of monumental shift – coming one way or another no matter what we do – with images of giant, ancient trees uprooted in a valley through which the flood waters have passed.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
Set between 2023 and 2025, this documentary follows Irish Green Party leader and Cabinet Minister Eamon Ryan during his final 18 months in government. Once buoyed by Europe’s Green wave, Ryan now faces waning public interest in climate issues as he advocates globally for renewable energy and climate justice for the Global South.

(Country: Ireland; Year: 2026; Director: Neasa Ní Chianáin; Stars: Eamon Ryan)

Full review

International premiere

Manhood

A Dallas businessman sets out to make penis enlargement as commonplace as Botox, pulling back the curtain on shame, sex and masculinity.

(Year: 2026; Director: Daniel Lombroso; Stars: William Moore, Ruben Ramirez, David Smith)

International premiere

Replica

Documentary following Chinese women who are dating chatbots.

(Country: Australia, France; Year: 2026; Director: Chouwa Liang)

UK premiere

Sentient

Review preview for Sentient

It doesn’t posture about whether primates are sentient. It treats that as the baseline fact, then asks what kind of civilisation keeps behaving as if it isn’t?

Edin Custo · 4 out of 5
An investigation into laboratory research on animals exposes a hidden world in which it’s not just the animals getting hurt. The story of Dr. Lisa Jones Engel, a primatologist turned animal welfare advocate, asks whether harming animals and ourselves in science’s name is justified.

(Country: Australia; Year: 2026; Director: Tony Jones; Writer: Rachel Grierson-Johns, Tony Jones)

Full review See: Tony Jones on undercover footage, safeguarding and editorial choices in Sentient , Tony Jones talks to us about opening a debate about lab animals with his documentary Sentient

UK premiere

Synthetic Sincerity

A university research lab is trying to build authentic AI characters, and they've licensed a documentary filmmaker's back catalogue to teach them what's missing.

(Country: UK; Year: 2026; Director: Marc Isaacs; Writer: Adam Ganz)

UK premiere

TikTok Never Dies

Three TikTok creators sue the US government to stop a ban on the app. Their unlikely last hope? The very president who first tried to block it.

(Country: US; Year: 2026; Director: Hao Wu; Writer: Hao Wu; Stars: Steven King, Chloe Joy Sexton, Topher Townsend)

International Premiere