Ljubljana Documentary Film Festival

The film "No Other Land", made by a Palestinian-Israeli collective, in the Competition Programme of the Ljubljana Documentary Film Festival in 2025.

The Ljubljana Documentary Film Festival is a specialised competitive event established in 1998. It focuses on contemporary documentary film production, particularly films addressing social issues and phenomena. The Amnesty International Slovenia Human Rights Film Award is bestowed upon the best film in the competition section, which features human rights films addressing some of the most critical issues worldwide, from the rights of underprivileged women, minorities, labour migrants or political asylum seekers, to environmental concerns and religious fundamentalism. The 8-day festival occurs annually in March at Cankarjev dom, Cultural and Congress Centre, the Slovenian Cinematheque and Kinodvor Cinema.

Poster for the 20th Ljubljana Documentary Film Festival in 2018.

Background

When it became apparent at the Ljubljana International Film Festival (LIFFe) that documentary films had a large and eager audience, the Ljubljana Documentary Film Festival was established as a specialised, non-competitive festival offering a general, quite unselective overview of contemporary documentary film production.

Eventually, it introduced a competitive section for Mountain and Adventure Films, which became the Mountain Film Festival in 2007.

The 25th Ljubljana Documentary Film Festival, Ljubljana 2023.

Sections and awards

The festival has five sections. Films in the Competition section are in the running for the Amnesty International Slovenia Human Rights Film Award. The remaining sections encompass a broad range of documentary films, from Current (Sociocritical) themes and Intimate and Global Portrayals to films that reflect cultural icons and related phenomena in Myths, Icons, Media and overviews of domestic and foreign directors or national documentary film production in the Retrospective section.

The film "Fiume o morte" directed by Igor Bezinović, presented in a Competition Programme at the Ljubljana Documentary Film Festival in 2025.

Some films screened at the festival are later distributed by Cankarjev dom and screened in various theatres, including Cankarjev dom's Kosovel Hall and Kinodvor Cinema.