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Given the risk-averse economics of the current documentary business, it has become hard for audiences to find a place to see some of the most acclaimed docs out of film festivals, including Sundance, TIFF, and the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. Mainstream streaming services’ lack of interest in not only political documentaries, but practically all independent doc fare, has made regional film festivals, like the annual Margaret Mead Film Festival, vital to the life of a nonfiction film.

This year’s edition of the Margaret Mead festival kicks off on May 2 at Manhattan’s American Museum of Natural History. The three-day event includes the New York debut of 15 documentaries, many of which do not have U.S. distribution. They include Olivier Sarbil’s “Viktor,” which premiered at TIFF in 2024, Meena Nanji, Zippy Kimundu’s “Our Land, Our Freedom,” which made its world premiere at IDFA in 2023, and the 2025 Sundance Grand...

Exclusive: The Margaret Mead Film Festival – the longest-running documentary showcase in the U.S. – has announced its 2025 lineup, a slate that includes Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner Seeds.

Director Brittany Shyne is expected to be on hand as the festival kicks off Friday, May 2 with Seeds, which has earned rave reviews beginning in Park City. “It’s a work of political activism through sheer lyricism,” Rolling Stone’s David Fear wrote, “and exactly the kind of discovery you come to Sundance to see.”

The festival, running May 2 to Sunday, May 4 at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, will present 17 feature documentaries, among them one U.S. premiere and 15 New York premieres. This year’s theme, “We Are the Story,” illuminates “the diverse ways we connect with one another, our environments, and shared histories,” according to a release. Scroll for the full schedule.

Additional highlights from the...

The 27th edition of the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, launching on April 3, will feature a lineup of 34 feature documentaries and 15 short docs. The Durham, N.C.-based, four-day doc film fest will kick off with Lindsay Utz and Michelle Walshe’s “Prime Minister, “about the life of former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

“Prime Minister” debuted at Sundance 2025, where it won the World Cinema Documentary Audience Award. The film is one of 16 Sundance feature docs screening at Full Frame this year. Others include U.S. Grand Jury Prize winner “Seeds,” “The Librarians,” “Preditors, “Nat. Geo’s “Sally” and “The Perfect Neighbor,” which Netflix recently acquired.

Often referred to as “a filmmaker’s festival,” Full Frame is not a premiere or market-focused fest. Instead, it’s known within the doc industry as a well-organized, intimate gathering that gives well-received docs out of Sundance, Camden Intl. Film Festival and the...

Jour2Fête has acquired French distribution rights to Max Keegan’s “The Shepherd and the Bear” out of IDFA and is planning to release the film theatrically in 2025.

“The Shepherd and the Bear” will have its world premiere as the closing night film of the 2024 Camden International Film Festival in Maine. The documentary feature had its international premiere at IDFA, where it was nominated for best first feature.

The deal was negotiated by Elizabeth Woodward for Willa and Etienne Ollagnier and Sarah Chazelle for Jour2Fête. Willa is handling international sales on the film. Submarine Entertainment is handling domestic sales.

Set high in the majestic French Pyrenees, “The Shepherd and The Bear” explores a conflict provoked by the reintroduction of brown bears in the midst of a traditional shepherding community. The film follows an aging shepherd who struggles to find a successor as bears prey on his flock, and a teenage...

Yves Raspaud may be the grumpiest man in Europe.

The shepherd, who tends flocks in a very remote section of the French Pyrénees, mostly communicates in guttural utterances which do not seem to express a favorable view of things. Of late, Raspaud has had a lot to rasp about – namely, a mandate from centers of power far from the Pyrénees who have ordered the re-wilding of bears in the region where the shepherd lives. Not surprisingly, the bears, relocated from Eastern Europe, have demonstrated a robust appetite for his delectable sheep.

The story of Raspaud, and the larger questions raised by the rewilding project, is told in the documentary The Shepherd and the Bear, directed by Max Keegan and produced by Keegan, Elizabeth Woodward, Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine, and co-produced by Eleonore Voisard. The film is holding its international premiere at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), following a...

The distribution agency Indox has recently secured international rights to two new documentary films. The films are “The Shepherd and the Bear” by director Max Keegan and “There Was, There Was Not” by Emily Mkrtichian. Indox will handle festival distribution rights for both films globally. In addition, the agency will distribute “There Was, There Was Not” in the United Kingdom and Ireland markets.

“The Shepherd and the Bear” examines the relationship between local shepherds and wildlife officials in the French Pyrenees. The region introduced brown bears that had been extinct in the area. This caused tensions as the bears threatened the shepherds’ livestock. The film was produced by Elizabeth Woodward and directed by Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss. It screened at major festivals including Camden International Film Festival and IDFA.

Director Max Keegan said of the partnership, “We are excited to work with Luke to screen ‘The Shepherd and The Bear’ at festivals worldwide.

Exclusive: Former Dogwoof exec Luke Brawley’s specialist non-fiction agency Indox has added two new titles, both from debut directors, to its current slate.

Indox will handle the international festival rights to Max Keegan’s feature The Shepherd and the Bear and rep UK & Ireland on There Was, There Was Not by filmmaker Emily Mkrtichian.

Produced by Elizabeth Woodward (Another Body) alongside directorial duo Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss (Girls State), The Shepherd and the Bear closed this year’s Camden International Film Festival and will screen next at IDFA. Set in the majestic French Pyrenees, the film addresses the battle between heritage and modernity as the reintroduction of brown bears collides head first with a traditional shepherding community.

“We are delighted to be working with Luke to bring The Shepherd and The Bear to festival audiences across the world,” Keegan said in a statement this morning. “The production of...

The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam — known globally as IDFA — has revealed its 2024 opening night and competition films coming this November. The 37th edition kicks off with Piotr Winiewicz’s “About a Hero” featuring Vicky Krieps and the filmography of Werner Herzog.

Per the festival, “The film presents a bold exploration into largely uncharted territories of artificial intelligence — reflecting on questions of authenticity and our understanding of what is real. With Werner Herzog’s permission, Winiewicz sets out to challenge Herzog’s assertion that ‘a computer won’t be able to create a film as good as mine for at least another 4,500 years.’ In a tantalizing experiment, Winiewicz trained an AI system on Herzog’s oeuvre and asked it to generate a screenplay. The result is a disturbing search for the soul — of human beings and of creative work.”

That assertion came from Herzog’s 2016 documentary “Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World,...

Exclusive: The prestigious Camden International Film Festival has announced a surprise addition to its 2024 lineup: The Shepherd and The Bear, a documentary described as a “modern folk tale.”

The film directed by Max Keegan and produced by Keegan, Elizabeth Woodward, and Emmy winners Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss, will serve as the closing night film for Ciff’s 20th edition. The festival, a program of the Points North Institute, unfolds in the picturesque Central Maine coast towns of Camden and Rockland. [Scroll for the full list of Ciff documentaries].

“Set high in the majestic French Pyrenees, The Shepherd and The Bear explores a conflict provoked by the reintroduction of brown bears in the midst of a traditional shepherding community,” according to a release from Ciff. “The film follows an aging shepherd who struggles to find a successor as bears prey on his flock, and a teenage boy who becomes obsessed with tracking the bears. Through its breathtaking cinematography and immersive storytelling,...