Sheffield DocFest Adds Interviews & Films, Including Panel With Asif Kapadia.
Sheffield DocFest adds to its schedule a few days before the start of the 33rdrd The UK’s leading non-fiction film festival programme.
Announced Friday: Oscar winner Asif Kapadia (Amy, Sena) will participate in what DocFest is calling an epic conversation about At the top series, which began in the 1960s by documenting 10 boys and 4 girls growing up in England. Successive iterations followed the children as they grew into adulthood, into middle age and now as they approached their golden years. Kapadia will be joined on stage by Jo Clinton Davis (Controller of Factual, ITV) and Mike Blair (Creative Director, Multistory Media) founders of 70 UP, the last film in the series.
I At the top The lecture is part of the DocFest industry program. Also added: Munya Chiwawa will discuss his new documentary Fighting Trumpexploring the connection between the American president and wrestling. (On a related note – for those who don’t know – Trump has a huge stage set up on the White House lawn for a “mixed martial arts tournament celebrating” his 80th birthday on June 14).
Sajid Sadpara in ‘The Last First: Winter K2’
Apple TV
DocFest, which runs June 10-15, also added several films to the lineup:
- The world premiere of Obsession: The Beryl Burton Story“an intimate portrait of one of Britain’s greatest cyclists” from director Stuart Pollitt.
- The UK Premiere of Last First: Winter K2 from director Amir Bar-Lev, a horror film that chronicles an ill-fated attempt to summit the world’s second tallest mountain in winter.
Two new films will be screened as part of GEN DocFest, the festival’s new family programming series, DocFest reports: Scary Science: The Stinky Space Special Exclusive by Tim Peakeseeing astronaut Tim Peak join Pipette “to guide us through what life in space is like for astronauts.”
Currently, Toddler Kino x DocFest and CBeebies present: Hamza Loves Animals features wildlife presenter Hamza Yassin looking at “some of the most amazing animals to be found in Africa.”
The festival announced 33 judgesrd DocFest. Judging the International Competition will be producer and broadcaster Mark Edwards; Kiyoko McCraea, filmmaker and program director at Chicken & Egg Films; and Noa Nwande, head of global sales at Watermelon Pictures.
The International Competition “features a compelling lineup of six Premieres, an International Premiere, and one European Premiere, with all eight films also receiving an Academy Award-approved Grand Jury Award honoring films that demonstrate strong artistic vision and bold storytelling.”
These are the judges announced for the other four strands of the competition:
International Feature Competition Judge
Jury members are: award-winning filmmaker Paul Sng, Darren Lawford (producer and former trustee of Sheffield DocFest), and Malikkha Rollins (producer and Director of Industry and Education for DOC NYC)
By highlighting bold new voices in documentary, the International First Feature competition honors the future of non-fiction film, celebrating promising talent. This year’s category consists of eight premieres, seven World Premieres and one International Premiere. The First International Feature Competition is sponsored by Netflix.
International Short Film Competition Jury
The 2026 jury members are: two-time BAFTA award-winning director Olaide Sadiq (Grenfell: Not coveredwinner of the Sheffield DocFest Audience Award 2025), Joe Hunting (Creative Director at Painting Clouds), and filmmaker Laura Warner (Cranes Call, The Last Big Story)
The category includes nine World Premieres and one International Premiere, highlighting acclaimed directors and unique global perspectives in a unique showcase of boundary-pushing storytelling. Ten films in this year’s competition will be awarded the Academy Award, BAFTA and BIFA-approved Grand Jury Award which honors the best artistic approach to making a documentary under 40 minutes.
Tim Hetherington Award Jury
The judges are: Brenda Danker (founder of Malaysia Freedom Film Network), Sam Holland (former director of Migration Matters festival in Sheffield) and Andrii Kotliar (Ukrainian producer/filmmaker who is part of the #babylon 13 collective).
Six documentaries will be considered for this year’s Award, which honors the film and filmmaker that best exemplifies the legacy of photographer and filmmaker Tim Hetherington and celebrates outstanding personal storytelling. The award is presented in partnership with Dogwoof.
Youth Jury Award
The Youth Jury Award is presented by five young documentary filmmakers aged 18-23 – Julianne Gazzingan, Sadie Coll, Jagraj Singh, Clementine Cunningham and Shae Beckford – who have selected six films to be considered for this year’s award. The selected films are a diverse collection that takes the audience on a global journey that addresses pressing issues of our time.
Audience at Sheffield DocFest
Sheffield DocFest
In other Sheffield DocFest news, actors Jason Done, Christine Bottomley, Carla Henry, Eva Scott and Lamin Touray have also been confirmed for a special live reading of the. Queens of the Coal Age written by Guest of Honor Maxine Peake “telling the true story of four miners’ wives—Anne Scargill, Dot Kelly, Elaine Evans, and Lesley Lomas—who stayed at Parkside Colliery in 1993 to protest the pit’s closure.
