Astra Film Festival announces official selection

Astra Film Festival, the international documentary film festival taking place in Sibiu from 17 to 25 October, offers more than 200 film-related events, making the Sibiu festival one of the most attractive cultural events of the autumn in Romania. Competing for the awards in the festival’s four competition sections (Romania, Eastern Europe, Emerging Voices and DocSchool), most of them screening in Sibiu for the first time, will be films by some of the world’s most interesting documentary filmmakers.

All details about the AFF2026 official selection are available on the Astra Film website: https://astrafilm.ro/festival/program/competition.

“This year, too, we have a strong selection of documentaries, many of them premieres, by both established directors and young, highly promising filmmakers. Astra Film Festival 2026 will once again demonstrate that documentary film means a necessary encounter with the authentic that inspires,” said Dumitru Budrala, founder and director of Astra Film Festival.

The four traditional Astra Film Festival competitions will be judged by leading figures from Romanian and international documentary cinema.

Romania Competition

The Romania Competition brings together Romanian productions and co-productions, films from the Republic of Moldova, and international co-productions addressing themes relevant to the Romanian context. Nine films have been selected: Something Familiar (dir. Rachel Taparjan; Romania, United Kingdom; 2026), Lenin’s Pawn (dir. Dragoș Turea; Romania, Republic of Moldova; 2026), A Forest Once Stood Here! (dir. Valentin Anghel; Romania; 2026), A Train Passes Every Day and It Never Stops (dir. Vlad Petri; Romania; 2026), Cabbage, Potatoes and Other Demons. After 10 Years (dir. Șerban Georgescu; Romania; 2025), How to Talk to Lydia (dir. Rusudan Gaprindashvili; Georgia, Germany; 2025), So Long Since I’ve Known a Spring (dir. Alexandra Bidian; Germany, Romania; 2025), The Exported: The Dark Trade of the Cold War (dir. Pierre Goetschel; France; 2025), The Line (dir. Andreea Dumitriu; Romania, the Netherlands; 2025).

Central and Eastern European Competition

The Eastern Europe competition section, which addresses issues specific to the former communist bloc in Central and Eastern Europe, presents ten films: 80 Angry Journalists (dir. András Földes, Anna Kis; Germany, Hungary, Czech Republic, Denmark, Norway; 2026), Closure (dir. Michał Marczak; Poland, France; 2026), Imago (dir. Déni Oumar Pitsaev; France, Belgium; 2025), Last Letters from My Grandma (dir. Olga Lucovnicova; Romania, Republic of Moldova, Belgium, the Netherlands; 2025), The Spies Among Us (dir. Jamie Coughlin Silverman, Gabriel Silverman; United States of America; 2025), To Hold a Mountain (dir. Biljana Tutorov, Petar Glomazić; Serbia, France, Montenegro, Slovenia; 2026), A Fire There (dir. Marlene Edoyan; Canada; 2026), Here, Elsewhere (dir. Comes Chahbazian; Belgium; 2026), Steps in Silence (dir. Fariz Ahmadov; Azerbaijan, Poland; 2026), Traces (dir. Alisa Kovalenko, Marysia Nikitiuk; Ukraine, Poland; 2026).

Emerging Voices of Documentary Film Competition

The nine films selected for the Emerging Voices Competition, which brings together international filmmakers whose first, second or, at most, third documentary feature this is, are: Confessions of a Swedish Man (dir. Hampus Linder; Sweden; 2026), From Dawn to Dawn (dir. Xisi Sofia Ye Chen; Spain, France; 2026), If Pigeons Turned to Gold (dir. Pepa Lubojacki; Czech Republic, Slovakia; 2026), Confessions of a Mole (dir. Mo Tan; China, Poland; 2025), Days of Wonder (dir. Karin Pennanen; Finland, Denmark, Norway; 2025), Silent Flood (dir. Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk; Czech Republic; 2025), Techplomacy (dir. Susanne Kovács; Denmark; 2026), The Golden Swan (dir. Anette Ostrø; Norway, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands; 2026), Where the Silence Is Heard (dir. Gabriela Pena, Picho García; Chile, Spain; 2026).

DocSchool Competition

The DocSchool Competition, dedicated to films produced or co-produced by universities or film institutes, or made as part of postgraduate programmes specialising in cinema, features twelve films: Amma, Do Girls Cry? (dir. Kartikeya Saxena; Czech Republic; 2026), All That We Say to Each Other (dir. Anton Augsten, Lea El Attal; Germany; 2026), An Awesome Flat (dir. Gabriela Isabel Gómez de Arteche Núñez, Alejandra Llorens, Daniel Pérez Valderrama, Camila de Lucas, Jaime Marqués Cordero; Spain; 2025), Blessed (dir. Voicu Mureșanu; Romania; 2026), Box in Berceni (dir. Alexandru Buliga; Romania; 2026), END OF The Line (dir. Maria Stafie; Romania; 2026), Sassy Spartans (dir. Maud Mascre; Germany, New Caledonia; 2026), Signs from Below (dir. Maude Vuillez; France; 2025), Singing in the Grave (dir. Radu Ștefan Lungu; Romania; 2026), The Black Blizzard (dir. Mira Erkenova; Russia; 2025), Total Life Forever (dir. Sebastian Molina Ruiz; Belgium, Mexico, Hungary, Portugal; 2025), Winter in March (dir. Natalia Mirzoyan, Natalya Mirzoyan; Estonia; 2025).

Documentary film for young audiences and viewers across Romania

In addition to the films entered in the competition, there will be screenings as part of thematic programmes, followed by DocTalk and InspirăDoc discussions, as well as concerts, exhibitions and special events. In total, Astra Film Festival audiences will be able to enjoy a substantial programme featuring 70 documentary films and more than 200 film events. Astra Film Junior, the first and largest documentary film education programme in Romania, will also continue this year. Students are invited to discover the world through authentic stories carefully selected for different age groups. This year, too, a large number of the films selected for AFF2026 will be available to watch online across Romania as part of the Astra Film Online programme.

About Astra Film Festival. Founded in 1993, Astra Film Festival is the longest-running film festival in Romania and one of Europe’s most prestigious non-fiction events. It is included on the shortlist of the European Film Academy, with the right to nominate directly for the European Film Awards. Astra Film Festival, a strategic cultural project of the Ministry of Culture, is organised by Astra Film, CNM Astra and the Astra Film Foundation, is held under the High Patronage of the President of Romania, is co-financed by Sibiu City Hall and supported by the Sibiu County Council.