Close:Up Edinburgh Docufest Returns with Powerful Global Stories
🎨 Arts & Culture

Close:Up Edinburgh Docufest Returns with Powerful Global Stories

The Close:Up Edinburgh Docufest returns for its eighth edition on 25 April. The 2026 festival will take place at Summerhall Arts, featuring a programme of nine short and feature-length documentary films.

Dedicated to showcasing independent documentary filmmaking and sharing compelling stories from around the world, EDDF 2026 presents a carefully curated line-up. Exploring a range of themes, historical moments and current issues, the selection offers insight into different cultures and perspectives through the eyes of filmmakers.

The Festival kicks off with β€˜Comprarsaβ€˜ by Vickie Curtis and Doug Anderson. The multi-awarded documentary immerses the audience in the intense world of Ciudad Peronia, Guatemala and tells the story of a powerful youth movement sparked by Lesli and Lupe.Β 

The second programme combines 8 shorts of different themes, styles, and aesthetics. A story of grief with the Finnish lake landscape as the backdrop in β€˜Memoriam / Islandersβ€˜ (dir. Matleena JΓ€nis), the power of photography as an act of correspondence in Laurence Ly’s β€˜Maybe in the Snow,’ and the notions of colonialism, emigration, identity, and tourism in β€˜Time to Smileβ€˜ by Jonas Almeida Braga Amarante. Diverse and multicultural, this programme takes viewers on a journey through powerful stories and images.Β Β 

The 8th Close:Up Edinburgh Docufest is partnering with the IDA (International Documentary Association), which is sponsoring the winners’ awards.Β 

Share

More from Edinburgh Magazine