Doc.Sydney Documentary Film Festival 2026 Award Winners Announced

The 2026 edition of the Doc.Sydney Documentary Film Festival took place earlier this week in wonderful company at Palace Central in Chippendale, home to new releases, international and local art-house cinema. We'd like to thank all of our guests for coming out and enjoying our evenings of independent documentary cinema, hosted by film industry veteran John Samaha.

The official selection included 21 wonderful films hailing from Australia, France, Poland, Spain, Canada, Armenia, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States, Mexico, and Belgium. 

We are pleased to share with you today the 2026 Doc.Sydney award winners, chosen by the jury panel.

Best Feature Documentary Film 

Beyond The Break (Australia) by Caleb Joshua Graham

Best Short Documentary Film 

Mom Dances (Switzerland) by Mégane Brügger

Best Australian Documentary Film 

Darlinghurst Eats Its Young (Australia) by Madeleine Preston

Best Underground Documentary Film

Tokyo Toy Boy (Belgium) by Esli Balatova

Best Experimental Documentary Film 

Tainted by the Visual (United Kingdom) by Laura Calzada

Best Super Short Documentary Film

Scarred (Canada) by Zeddy Chevron

Audience Choice Award

Lucky (Australia) by Anna McGahan

Congratulations to all!

We'd like to thank Palace Cinemas and The Bigger Screen for their amazing continued support.

A new Call for Entries for Doc.Sydney 2027 has been launched on FilmFreeway, submit your film now: https://filmfreeway.com/DocSydney.

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Official Selection / winners of The Tarkovski Grant

Tainted by the Visual (United Kingdom) by Laura Calzada

Together alone (Armenia) by Artur Sahakyan

Babcia (Australia) by Jeremy Hammer

Tokyo Toy Boy (Belgium) by Esli Balatova

Scarred (Canada) by Zeddy Chevron

The Ogre (United States) by Justin Boswick

Unscarred (Belgium) by Théo Roland

Haagua (Mexico, United States) by Marc Antony Chavez, Octavio Aceves Coutiño

Mom Dances (Switzerland) by Mégane Brügger

To the embers (France) by Morgane Ambre

Darlinghurst Eats Its Young (Australia) by Madeleine Preston

Beyond The Break (Australia) by Caleb Joshua Graham

The Shade of the Walnut Tree (Spain) by Manuel García Gil

Prophet Town (United States) by Dan Howlett

Let it Dance (Australia) by Carolyn Corkindale

Are you there? (Poland) by Xawery Deskur

Baq'a The Open Valley (Canada) by Youssef Mutawe

Lucky (Australia) by Anna McGahan

I've Been Told I Saved A Life (Australia) by Jonathon Shannon, Bodhi Watts

Holding On (United Kingdom) by Emma Croft

KIN - Dudi & Jojo (Australia) by Tumeli Tuqota

Four Wide (Australia) by Jeremy Hammer

https://www.doc.sydney