TIDF 2026 Announces International Jury Lineup as Festival Nears Opening Special Presentation Pays Tribute to Peter Watkins

The 2026 Taiwan International Documentary Festival (TIDF) will open this Friday, May 1, kicking off ten days of screenings, discussions, and international exchange. The festival will present nearly 140 outstanding documentaries from Taiwan and around the world, host more than 200 post-screening talks, and welcome close to 100 international filmmakers.

A total of 44 films have been shortlisted across the festival’s three main competitions—the Asian Vision Competition, International Competition, and Taiwan Competition—alongside 18 entries selected for the cross-section TIDF Visionary Award. Winners will be announced at the awards ceremony on the evening of May 7.

This year’s jury brings together leading figures from across the global documentary field—including filmmakers, curators, critics, and scholars—offering diverse perspectives in recognizing the most outstanding works of our time.

In addition, in collaboration with the Fubon Cultural & Educational Foundation, 23 high school students from across Taiwan will serve as the jury for the Next Generation Award. They will select one winning film from a shortlist drawn from the three main competitions.

2026 TIDF Jury Members

Asian Vision Competition

• Philip CHEAH | Veteran film critic and curatorial consultant from Singapore, he was an important early promoter of Southeast Asian cinema; he currently serves as an advisor to multiple international film festivals, including those in Shanghai, Yogyakarta, and Hanoi
• Marlene EDOYAN | Co-Artistic Director and programmer of the Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM) in Canada since 2021
• HUANG Shu-mei | Taiwanese documentary filmmaker who began her practice in 1991, she is known for sustained engagement with environmental and ecological issues over more than three decades

International Competition

• Peter TAYLOR | Director of the Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival (BFMAF) in Scotland, with over a decade of curatorial experience
• SING Sung-jung | Film scholar, professor, and Director of the Graduate Institute of Interdisciplinary Art at Taipei National University of the Arts
• Adjani ARUMPAC | One of the Philippines’ most prominent independent documentary filmmakers, internationally recognized for works such as War Is a Tender Thing

Taiwan Competition

• Abby SUN | US-based film critic, curator, and editor; currently Program Director at the International Documentary Association (IDA) and editor of its magazine, Documentary
• May Adadol INGAWANIJ | Thailand-born scholar, Professor of Cinematic Arts, and Co-Director of the Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media (CREAM) at the University of Westminster.
• CHANG Shih-lun | Art critic and visual culture historian specializing in Taiwanese photography, cinema, and interdisciplinary documentary practices

TIDF Visionary Award

• S. Leo CHIANG | Filmmaker based in San Francisco and Taipei; his short documentary Island in Between was nominated for Best Documentary Short at the 2024 Academy Awards.
• Phoebe WONG | Independent researcher and writer; formerly with the Asia Art Archive and a long-time key member of Hong Kong’s Videotage
• YAMASHITA Koyo | Curator at Tokyo’s legendary Theatre Image Forum and long-time director of the experimental film-focused Image Forum Festival

The Special Presentation Section: Paying Tribute, Showcasing a Premiere, and Fostering Regional Dialogue 

In addition to its three major competitions and eight carefully curated programmes, TIDF also features a “Special Presentation”. This year, the section spotlights two outstanding feature-length films—the classic Punishment Park (1971) and the world premiere of Water in the Balance (2026)—as well as a short film programme curated by TIDF’s long-term partners Videotage (Hong Kong) and Forum Lenteng (Indonesia).

The “Special Presentation” pays tribute to the late filmmaker Peter WATKINS, who passed away in 2025. A pioneer of the “mockumentary” and “docudrama” forms, WATKINS created highly original works that blur the boundaries between fiction and reality, offering sharp critiques of modern warfare, institutional violence, and media culture. This year’s selection features his landmark Punishment Park. His films La Commune (Paris, 1871) (2000) and Edvard Munch (1974) have previously screened at TIDF.

Punishment Park

Also to be presented is the world premiere of Water in the Balance, the latest feature-length work by veteran Taiwanese environmental filmmaker KE Chin-yuan. The film is produced by Taiwan Public Television Service’s (PTS) documentary program Viewpoint, which received the 2026 TIDF Outstanding Contribution Award in recognition of its sustained impact on documentary filmmaking in Taiwan over the past 27 years. Water in the Balance reflects on Taiwan’s complex relationship with water and the urgent challenges it faces today. Moving from high mountain sources to river estuaries, the film explores water’s textures, forms, and sounds, offering an immersive meditation on its presence and significance.

Water in the Balance

The section also includes the short film programme Scales of Passage, co-curated by Hong Kong’s Videotage and Jakarta’s Forum Lenteng, both long-time collaborators of TIDF. Developed since 2024, the project explores diasporic identities across East and Southeast Asia, with TIDF marking the first stop of its international screening tour. Drawing from the curators’ archives and networks, Scales of Passage brings together five short films from Hong Kong, Indonesia, and Singapore, reflecting shared histories of migration shaped by labor, trade, and displacement.

Ketok, Diaspora (Generasi Sekian)

I see พญานาค (Phaya Nāga) elsewhere, O for Opium

As I Imagine My Body Moving

The 15th Taiwan International Documentary Festival (TIDF) will take place from May 1 to May 10 at the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute, Shin Kong Cinemas Taipei Lion’s , SPOT Huashan, and Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab (C-LAB). Tickets can be purchased via OPENTIX, with single tickets NT$120 and six-film packages NT$420. For more information and ticket bookings, please visit TIDF website, Facebook ,Instagram and Threads.