IberoDocs 2026 Preview

IberoDocs, the annual festival dedicated to celebrating non-fiction cinema from Latin America, Spain and Portugal, has a mantra: documentary cinema is for everyone. You can see this play out in myriad ways across this year’s festival, which takes place 16-26 September.

First, the Edinburgh-based festival is expanding in this 12th edition, taking a touring programme titled To the Sea north to three coastal towns: Dundee, Oban and Aberfeldy. Second, IberoDocs is committed to making participation in the festival affordable for all, with as many free screenings and events as there are paid-for ones. Third, the festival has boosted its accessible provisions for people who are deaf and hard of hearing, with more screenings with on-screen descriptive subtitles and BSL interpretation at Q&As. And fourth, they have a dedicated community programme that brings their docs into three libraries across Edinburgh: McDonald Road Library, Morningside Library and Craigmillar Library. To top it off, their programme is pretty great this year too.

The festival kicks off with the Scottish premiere of Landmarks, the first nonfiction feature from the great Argentine filmmaker Lucrecia Martel. The film’s genesis is the 2009 killing of indigenous activist Javier Chocobar by landowners who were trying to evict the Chuschagasta community from their ancestral lands. Despite the murderers recording their execution of Chocobar and uploading it online, it took nine years of protests before court proceedings finally opened in 2018. Using video clips from the trial, interviews with people from the Chuschagasta community, and other pieces of archival material, Martel draws a line between Argentina’s colonisation in the 16th century and the rot of racism within Argentine society today. Unlike Martel’s fiction work (La Ciénaga, Zama), which often unfolds in ambiguous visual and aural fragments, Landmarks is much more lucid and direct, but just as powerful as her earlier films.

We also love the sound of Flamingos: Life After the Meteorite, Lorenzo Hagerman’s documentary about Caribbean flamingos. Word is this is a lyrical and incredibly reflective take on the nature doc, with Hagerman turning the everyday struggles of these extraordinary birds – from finding a mate to raising a brood of rambunctious chicks – into high drama. The First Women, meanwhile, tells the unsung story of the pioneers of Brazilian women’s football. Adriana Yañez‘s documentary details these players’ dominance of the game in the 80s and 90s, despite being legally barred from playing until 1979. What makes the doc so affecting is that Yañez catches up with the women today, and they’re still full of humour, resilience and a passion for the beautiful game.

Landmarks. Image courtesy of : Rei Pictures, Louverture Films.

Another key title this year looks to be Elena Molina’s Remember My Name. The film follows teen refugees who have made their way independently to a child refugee centre in Melilla, a Spanish outpost within Morocco. There, they form a makeshift family as part of a dance troupe, but as some of them approach their 18th birthdays, they know they’ll have to soon leave the safety of the centre. Molina will be around to present the film and give a Q&A following the screening.

Music features prominently in IberoDocs. Flowers for Antonio, the second film in the programme directed by Elena Molina, is a heartfelt tribute to Antonio Flores, a key figure in Spanish music. The doc is fronted by Flores’ daughter, Alba Flores, an actor who’s well known in Spain thanks to her role in the Netflix TV show Money Heist. We're told she 'embarks on an intimate journey to reconnect with her dad’s legacy, alongside family, friends, and artists who knew him through unseen footage, archival images and his iconic songs.' Molina will give a Q&A after the screening alongside the film’s sound mixer, Diana Sagrista.

The closing film, meanwhile, is Ritas, a documentary all about the late Rita Lee, the undisputed queen of Brazilian rock music, who died in 2023. As well as using incredible archive footage from across Lee’s rollercoaster career, Oswaldo Santana’s portrait includes Lee’s final, never-before-seen interview. Lee’s music will reverberate from the screen to the closing party at People Leisure Club, which will feature a live performance by Giulia Drummond celebrating the music of Lee, followed by sets from DJs Mark Quinn & el_pi_b0y.

That’s just a taste of what’s happening at IberoDocs, which will also include a photography exhibition, two shorts programmes and a series of community screenings hosted by the Spanish Film Club, an offshoot of film distribution company Pragda. Clearly, IberoDocs believes that cinema is a force for bringing people and cultures together. Dive into this year’s programme and you’re sure to have your heart filled and your eyes opened.

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16-26 Sep, various venues, including Filmhouse, The Institut Français d'Écosse, and three Edinburgh libraries (McDonald Road, Morningside and Craigmillar)

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To the Sea programme:
24 Sep, The Rockfield Centre, Oban 
25 Sep, The Birks Centre, Aberfeldy 
26 Sep, Dundee Contemporary Arts

Full IberoDocs programme details at iberodocs.org