Doclisboa 25

Doclisboa 2025 will take place from October 16 to 26, in the usual venues – Culturgest, Cinema São Jorge, Cinemateca Portuguesa, and Cinema Ideal. The 23rd edition of Doclisboa presents a total of 211 films from 54 countries, that offer a comprehensive portrait of contemporary times, of humanity, and its multiple realities and challenges.

The opening film pays homage to the resistance in Gaza: Kamal Aljafari’s With Hasan in Gaza, depicts a reality of Palestine that is already distant and different from what we know today. The festival closes this edition with Eugène Green’s The Tree of Knowledge, a Portuguese-French co-production.

Cinemateca Portuguesa will screen a retrospective dedicated to William Greaves (1926–2014), a pioneer of African-American documentary and experimental cinema, whose work reflects a deep commitment to social justice, historical memory and freedom.

The New Visions section, focused on the contemporary nature of cinema, brings together films produced between 1896 and 2025. The programme bridges the gap between early cinematic experiences and more contemporary practices, from the luminous shots and camera movements of Gabriel Veyre, cinematographer for the Lumière brothers, to the new films of Hassen Ferhani, Javier Rebollo, Marko Grba Singh, and Margarita Ledo Andión. Egyptian-born Hala Elkoussy is a guest director, a visual artist turned filmmaker whose work combines an inventive, political, and poetic approach.

Also noteworthy is Nebulae, the industry space dedicated to the development of independent cinema and the promotion of new collaborations. Through seminars, roundtables, development labs, project presentations, producer meetings, and networking events, Nebulae brings together industry professionals from around the world. ABCDoc also returns, in partnership with the Apordoc pedagogical project, committed to promoting education through cinema, with activities for children and young people, focusing mainly on school audiences.

Full schedule here.

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