We welcome you to our celebratory 25th edition of DOXA Documentary Festival running from April 30 - May 10, 2026!
DOXA is pleased to present our core programs: paraDOXA, our experimental program highlighting films that push boundaries of documentary form; the acclaimed Rated Y for Youth, a curated selection of films designed to foster media literacy among young audiences; and the Justice Forum, a collection of films that showcase resistance, environmental justice and human rights.
Our Opening Night Gala will feature a dynamic documentary performance that sets an inspiring tone for the festival. Furthermore, we are excited to honour local filmmakers at the Mid-Week Gala for their visual meditation on a landscape in flux, illustrating the gradual erosion of the intertidal zone as ocean warming and acidification threaten to transform memories and livelihoods into history. The Closing Night Gala will present a piece that acts as a time capsule, capturing that which is gradually slipping away: family, memory, time and water.
Throughout the festival, we offer opportunities for networking through mixers, panels and conversations with local, Canadian and international filmmakers through DOXA Industry. We are pleased to continue our partnership with the Vancouver Public Library (Central Library) to host free workshops and screenings with the goal of fostering knowledge, dialogue and community engagement.
A heartfelt thank you to our audience, filmmakers, volunteers, partners, sponsors, donors, board members and committees. Your dedication makes this festival possible. In these times of fascism and austerity, documentary cinema is more vital than ever. Our ongoing work against injustice must involve coming together through collective reflection and action. Thank you for being part of this journey. Enjoy the festival and we look forward to seeing you at the movies!
Unsure where to start?
Here’s our Eventive page with all the films we’ll be screening, including events and galas! This is also where you can get your tickets online.
Or browse our program book online! You can find physical copies of our program book at your local VPL or at JJ Bean.
Which venues will DOXA be screening films at?
Here’s a map of all the venues where we’ll be screening films this year. Make sure to check the Eventive page or the program book to learn further on which film is screening where!
OPENING & CLOSING GALAS
OPENING GALA: Bella Sutra by OK Pedersen
April 30, 2026 @ 7PM PDT
SFU - Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre
Our opening gala will be a live cinematic musical performance, with narration by director OK Pedersen, violin by Eden Glasman and piano by Jakub Tokarczyk.
Filmed on hand-processed 16mm in Bella Coola, OK Pedersen bridges analogue film with a musical ensemble to reflect on life in a remote mountain village. Join us in this live performance of a deeply personal recollection of community and the tensions between rural and urban perspectives.
CLOSING GALA: Time and Water by Sara Dosa
May 10, 2026 @ 6:00PM PDT
The Cinematheque
From Academy Award®-nominated director Sara Dosa’s Time and Water, is a universal reflection on the power of home and what it means to be alive amid profound epochal change.
Sara Dosa recounts a time capsule created by Icelandic poet and author Andri Snær Magnason. Using his own collected archives, his grandparents’ photographs, and films, as well as traditional songs and folktales, Andri interlaces his family’s story with that of the land around him. Time and water come together in Dosa’s cinema to create its own cinematic moment, sending it to the future, before everything he loves slips away. before everything he loves slips away.
INDUSTRY EVENTS
Spotlight on Editing: Mustafa Uzuner
May 2, 2026 @ 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM PDT
SFU - Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre
Join filmmaker and artist-researcher Mustafa Uzuner (Soul of the Foot) for a conversation on editing as a way of shaping memory and time. In this session, he will reflect on how editing guides his process—from assembling long-form recordings of everyday life to constructing layered reflections on place and politics. Focusing on rhythm, duration and accumulation, Uzuner will explore how the edit becomes a space where image, sound and history come together to form new cinematic meaning.
May 2, 2026 @ 1:00 - 2:30 PM PDT
SFU - Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre
In this roundtable, Sarah Ouazzani of DOXA Documentary Film Festival and Hubert Sabino of Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM) pull back the curtain on the programming process. Learn how programmers evaluate films, how festival programs take shape and what filmmakers should understand about the ecosystem their work enters. Expect a candid discussion about taste, context and the many considerations shaping a festival lineup.
In Conversation with Jessica Johnson and Ryan Ermacora
May 2, 2026 @ 3:00 - 4:30 PM PDT
SFU - Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre
Vancouver-based filmmakers Jessica Johnson and Ryan Ermacora have developed a distinctive body of work examining the traces of industry and labour embedded within British Columbia’s remote landscapes. Join them for a conversation about their collaborative and solo practices, as well as their newest film Concrete Turned to Sand, and their interest in the histories and afterlives of industrial landscapes.
In Conversation with Sharon Lockhart
Sunday, May 3, 2026 @ 2:00 PM PDT
SFU - Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre
Film director and artist Sharon Lockhart works across film, photography and installation to reveal the subtle choreography and labor of everyday life. Collaborating closely with communities and performers, her work examines how gestures, routines and spaces shape experience. In her latest film WINDWARD, Lockhart follows children moving across Fogo Island in a meditation on place, rhythm and form. Join us for a conversation about her collaborative process, the ethical and research-driven foundations of her work and how she moves between cinema and installation to shape the poetics of her films.
Inside Experimental Distribution
May 3, 2026 @ 4:00 - 5:30 PM PDT
SFU - Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre
Join representatives from Montréal-based distributor Vidéographe for a conversation about how experimental documentaries circulate today. Together, we will explore how hybrid forms, unconventional narratives and research-driven filmmaking move between festivals, galleries and digital platforms and what possibilities exist for filmmakers working at the edges of documentary form.
DOXA Industry Mixer with DOC Northwest and Knowledge Network
Location TBA
DOC Northwest invites you to this year’s DOXA Industry mixer! Come on out, mingle and relax with fellow filmmakers, colleagues and new friends. Whether you’re looking to make new connections or catch up with old ones, we look forward to seeing you there!
Financing and Producing Documentary: A Roundtable with Canada’s Key Organizations
May 4, 2026 @ 2:00 - 3:30 PM PDT
The Post at 750
Navigating Canada’s documentary funding and producing landscape can be complex. This roundtable brings together leading representatives from Knowledge Network, Telefilm Canada and the National Film Board of Canada for a practical conversation on how projects move from idea to the screen. Panelists will discuss what they look for when supporting new work, how filmmakers can position their projects within the current funding ecosystem and the evolving priorities shaping documentary production today. This session is designed for emerging and established filmmakers alike, offering a rare opportunity to hear directly from key organizations/industry leaders.
In Conversation with Sky Hopinka
May 4, 2026 @ 4:00 - 5:30 PM PDT
The Post at 750
Experience the multidimensional practice of Sky Hopinka (Powwow People), and join us for a discussion on the mediums of experimental film and installation. Hopinka’s work explores relationships between land, language and Indigenous experience, using sound and subtitling to deepen the possibilities of cinematic storytelling. In this conversation, Hopinka will explore not only his approach to filmmaking, but the ideas that shape his work and the creative strategies he uses to honour Indigenous histories.