Full Lineup Announced for the 15th Taiwan International Documentary Festival Over 180 Screenings and Public Programmes Across Taipei
Taipei, Taiwan — The Taiwan International Documentary Festival (TIDF) has announced the full programme for its 15th edition, presenting over 180 screenings alongside a wide range of public events. Taking place from May 1 to May 10, 2026, across venues in Taipei and New Taipei City, the festival brings together a diverse selection of documentary works from Taiwan and around the world, inviting audiences to encounter a broad spectrum of cinematic approaches and perspectives.
The programme’s three major competitions—the Asian Vision Competition, International Competition, and Taiwan Competition—each received record submissions this year and will present 15 selected works. The final slate of films reflects a rigorous curatorial process, offering a wide range of voices engaging with the complexities of contemporary realities. Additional awards will also be given out through the Cross-section Competition.
Beyond the competitions, TIDF will also present nine curated programme sections that foreground key themes in documentary practice today, including formally innovative works as well as retrospectives and tributes to significant filmmakers.
Departing from previous editions that began with films, the festival opens on May 1st with the lecture performance Death Is Certain but Not Final Vol. IV by London-based Palestinian-Egyptian filmmaker Saeed Taji FAROUKY.
Key Programme Highlights
Focus Programme | Palestine and Its Archiveless Archive
Through re-filming, erasure, reassembly, re-editing, and embodied interventions, Palestinian filmmakers reclaim images and visual heritage, transforming absence into a site of resistance while rethinking the notion of “the archive.”
Focus Programme | Sensible but Unsayable — A Retrospective of the Sensory Ethnography Lab
The first retrospective of the Harvard Sensory Ethnography Lab (SEL) in Asia, it brings together key feature-length works and shorts by its members, foregrounding a practice rooted in sensory experience and formal experimentation.
De Humani Corporis Fabrica (2022)
Taiwan Spectrum | War Memories, Shifting Identities
Tracing the lives and fates of Taiwanese soldiers—from the Japanese colonial period to conscription under the Nationalist government—this section examines how changing regimes have shaped identity across generations.
Taiwan Reel | The Late 1980s on Film
Focus to a pivotal transition from celluloid to videotape, presenting the world premieres of four digital restorations of 16mm works by LEE Daw-ming that span subjects from international refugees and Indigenous cultures to environmental movements.
Beyond the Killing Fields: Refugees on the Thai-Cambodian Border (1986)
Encounters | The Living Landscape of Contemporary Canadian Documentary
Presented in collaboration with the Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM), this programme features ten selected works offering a focused view of contemporary Canadian documentary practice.
Stranger Than Documentary
Highlights experimental and cross-disciplinary approaches to nonfiction cinema. This year includes a tribute to filmmaker NISHIKAWA Tomonari (1969–2025), presenting eight of his short works on 16mm.
Their Eyes (2025)
Contemporary Landscapes
Brings together recent works by leading international filmmakers, including Direct Action, My Undesirable Friends: Part I — Last Air in Moscow. Works by Anocha SUWICHAKORNPONG, Travis WILKERSON, and ODA Kaori are also featured.
Direct Action (2024), My Undesirable Friends: Part I — Last Air in Moscow (2024)
Special Presentations
This year’s festival further includes the world premiere of the Public Television Service (PTS) production Water in the Balance by KE Chin-yuan; a tribute to filmmaker Peter WATKINS; and selections from long-standing partner organizations such as Hong Kong’s Videotage and Indonesia’s Forum Lenteng.
Beyond screenings, the festival’s public programme features filmmaker talks, forums, lecture performances, listening sessions, and other events, inviting audiences to “re-encounter reality” through experiences that extend outside the cinema.
2026 Taiwan International Documentary Festival
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), among other venues.
Ticket packages (redeemable for 6 vouchers) will go on sale at 1:00 PM on April 8 via OPENTIX. Individual tickets will go on sale at 1:00 PM on April 15.
Ticket prices: Single ticket NT$120; package of six tickets NT$420.
For more information and ticket bookings, please visit TIDF website, Facebook ,Instagram and Threads.
