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Sheffield DocFest · 2026

Sheffield DocFest 2026

Journeys

Programme

12 films · 3 reviews

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All Rivers Spill Their Stories To The Sea

Review preview for All Rivers Spill Their Stories To The Sea

Full of anger and love in equal measure.

Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
When thousands of dead crabs wash ashore along England's North East coast, fisherman Stan Rennie finds himself leading a grassroots fight for answers and a future.

(Country: UK; Year: 2026; Director: Jeanie Finlay)

Full review

UK premiere

Birds Of War

The love story of a London-based Lebanese journalist and a Syrian activist and cameraman as told through 13 years of personal archives across revolutions, war, and exile.

(Country: United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon; Year: 2026; Director: Janay Boulos, Abd Alkader Habak)

UK premiere

Closure

Review preview for Closure

The Polish director understands that the work of searching is also the work of deciding what not to show.

Edin Custo · 4 out of 5
After his teenage son goes missing, Daniel scours the depths of the Vistula River, torn between the dread of a fatal leap and the hope that his son may still be alive.

(Country: Poland; Year: 2026; Director: Michał Marczak)

Full review

UK premiere

Crocodile

A group of young filmmakers in Nigeria form a homemade collective with smartphones and recycled materials.

(Country: New Zealand, Nigeria; Year: 2026; Director: The Critics, Pietra Brettkelly)

UK premiere

Jesy Nelson: Life Changing

A mother of twins diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy navigates her new reality while fighting to change UK newborn screening laws.

(Year: 2026; Director: Clare Bradbury)

World premiere

The Last First: Winter K2

The race to grab the last great prize in mountaineering, K2 in winter, left five dead. It exposed deep fault lines in alpinism today: pressures from commercialization, toxic effects of social media, and long-brewing tensions between those who’ve been marginalized and those who’ve always basked in the sport’s glory.

(Country: US, United Kingdom; Year: 2026; Director: Amir Bar-Lev)

UK premiere

Obsession: The Beryl Burton Story

Britain's greatest cyclist. A lifetime of victory. One family's cost. An intimate portrait of obsession, sacrifice and the price of sporting success.

(Country: UK; Year: 2026; Director: Stuart Pollitt)

World premiere

One In A Million

Review preview for One In A Million

The most volatile, morally complicated material is treated as turbulence to pass through rather than weather to be reported.

Edin Custo · 3.5 out of 5
Filmed over 10 years, one girl’s epic journey from Syria to Germany and back again. She and her family navigate war, exile, and heartbreak in a foreign land, illuminating the complexities of the refugee experience.

(Country: United Kingdom; Year: 2026; Director: Itab Azzam, Jack Macinnes)

Full review

UK premiere

Phenomena

A psychedelic odyssey into the fabric of the universe, guided by a filmmaker and his immersive practical experiments that blur the lines between art and science to reveal nature’s inner workings.

(Country: Australia; Year: 2026; Director: Josef Gatti)

UK premiere

Savage Mountain

Kristin Harila risked everything to summit the world’s 14 highest peaks at record speed. When her final ascent sparked backlash, her greatest triumph became a reckoning.

(Country: Norway, UK; Year: 2026; Director: Even Sigstad; Stars: Kristin Harila, Tenjen Sherpa)

World premiere

SKYCLIMBER - Scaling the Eiffel Tower

A climber attempts to scale the Eiffel Tower in a documentary that is equal parts high-altitude adventure and intimate personal portrait.

(Country: UK; Year: 2026; Director: Nick Hardie)

World premiere

Time And Water

Facing the death of his country’s glaciers and the loss of his beloved grandparents, Icelandic writer Andri Snær Magnason turns his archives into a time capsule to hold what is slipping away — family, memory, time, and water.

(Country: US, Iceland; Year: 2026; Director: Sara Dosa; Writer: Sara Dosa, Erin Casper, Jocelyne Chaput, Andri Snær Magnason)

UK premiere