• Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Maite Alberdi will lead the masterclass The Art of Storytelling and present her latest documentary, A Child of My Own.
• Three Chilean-backed projects have been selected for MeetMarket, marking Chile’s largest-ever participation in the festival’s flagship industry platform.
• Chiledoc will host a co-production gathering aimed at fostering new international collaborations within the documentary sector.
>> Check out the Chilean documentary catalogue at Sheffield here.
The 33rd edition of Sheffield DocFest, one of the UK’s leading documentary film festivals and industry events, will take place from June 10 to 15, with a strong Chilean presence across both the festival programme and the market.
This year, Chile will be represented by acclaimed filmmaker Maite Alberdi and three Chilean projects selected for the MeetMarket, the festival’s industry platform for financing, co-production and networking. The selection marks the highest number of Chilean projects ever featured in MeetMarket in a single edition of the festival.
Complementing this milestone, Chiledoc will lead a series of industry activities designed to strengthen international collaboration and promote Chilean documentary filmmaking among global industry professionals.
One of the major highlights of this year’s edition will be the participation of Maite Alberdi, who will lead the masterclass The Art of Storytelling, offering an inside look at the creative methods behind some of the most acclaimed documentaries of recent years. Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Maite Alberdi, known internationally for The Mole Agent and The Eternal Memory, has established herself as one of the most influential voices in contemporary documentary cinema.
The masterclass will take place on Friday, June 12, at 12:15 p.m. at the Montgomery Theatre.
In addition, Alberdi will present A Child of My Own, her latest feature documentary, selected for the festival’s People & Community section. The film follows a Mexican nurse who pretends to be pregnant to satisfy her husband’s family. What begins as a temporary lie ultimately becomes a complex reflection on identity, belonging and motherhood.
MeetMarket
Chile will also be represented in MeetMarket by three selected projects for the festival’s flagship industry platform, which brings together producers, broadcasters, distributors, international funds and key decision-makers from across the documentary sector.
The selected projects are The Weight of Snow, directed by Matías Bolla and produced by Carolina Sorensen and Cristian Valle Celedón, a Chile-Australia co-production that will participate in the Rough Cut Presentation section; Inside the Biggest Case on Earth, directed by Renan Flumian and produced by Giancarlo Nasi, a Brazil-Chile co-production developed by Quijote Films, the company behind The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo, the fiction feature recently awarded at the Cannes Film Festival; and Isabel Allende: The Documentary, directed by River Finlay and produced by Julie Parker Benello, River Finlay, Jeff Zimbalist, Natalia de la Cuesta, José Isla, Felipe Isla and Daniel Castell. The latter project is backed by Gran Montana, a production company that previously participated in MeetMarket with the documentary Millionaire, now available on Netflix.
Inside the Biggest Case on Earth follows a Welsh lawyer who brings together Brazilian victims of a mining disaster in an unprecedented legal battle in the UK. What begins as a long-shot lawsuit evolves into a landmark fight for justice that could become one of the largest environmental victories in history.
Isabel Allende: The Documentary explores the life and legacy of the celebrated author, tracing how exile, loss and resilience shaped a body of work that transformed her into the most widely read Spanish-language writer in the world.
The Weight of Snow portrays the lives of gauchos in the far south of Chilean Patagonia as they confront drought, ageing and an uncertain future, forcing them to decide whether to adapt, leave or hold on to a way of life built on endurance.
“The English-speaking European market remains especially relevant for Chilean projects seeking wider international exposure. This year’s presence at Sheffield DocFest reflects the strength and diversity of Chilean documentary filmmaking, with stories emerging from Chile and Latin America that continue to attract growing international interest. It also reflects the increasing recognition of our documentary sector and the sustained work Chiledoc has carried out at this festival over the past seven years,” says Diego Pino, Chief Executive of Chiledoc.
Chilean Delegation
Chile’s delegation will also include filmmakers and producers selected through the International Market Participation Programme promoted by the Council for the Arts and Audiovisual Industry (CAIA) of the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage. In this edition, four producers and their respective companies were selected to represent Chile at Sheffield DocFest, where they will present a portfolio of projects at different stages of development, production and post-production, to expand their collaboration networks and generate new opportunities for international circulation and co-production.
The selected producers are:
David Guzmán Storey, from Reverberancias Media and Santo Cielo Cine, who will participate with the projects in development The Silence of the Telephones, directed by Christian Sinclair, and Friends of Chile, an animated documentary directed by Guzmán himself.
Isidora Fajardo, from CUBHO Audiovisual, will attend together with director Nicholas Hooper with The Souls of Escazú, an animated documentary series currently in production and co-produced with Brazil and Spain, as well as Gondola, an animated feature documentary in development directed by Pablo Cuturrufo.
Francisco Hervé, representing Juntos Films, will present the feature documentary An Invisible Lady, directed by Valentina McPherson and currently in post-production, along with the project in development Between Heaven and Earth, directed by Valerie Schenkman.
Esteban Sandoval, from Pejeperro Films, will participate with the projects in development The Art of Wasting Time, directed by Camila Toro, and Revealed Image, a documentary directed by Wayra Galland and co-produced by Pejeperro Films, Mimbre Films and La Base.
They will be joined by the representatives of the projects selected for MeetMarket, including Matías Bolla, Daniel Castell, Giancarlo Nasi, Carolina Sorensen and Marisa Toriello, alongside other professionals connected to the Chilean catalogue at Sheffield DocFest 2026.
The national presence will also include Chilean filmmaker Cristian Saavedra, who is based in Scotland and has been selected to participate in Sheffield DocFest’s Filmmaker Challenge programme with a Scottish-produced project, reaffirming the ties that Chilean talent continues to build across different territories of the international audiovisual industry.
International Collaboration
Alongside the festival’s official programme and market activities, Chiledoc will host the Chiledoc Co-production Coffee, a co-production gathering bringing together Chilean and international producers to exchange ideas, present projects and explore future documentary collaborations.
The event, open to accredited industry professionals, will take place on Thursday, June 11, at 4:30 p.m. at Hadfield Hall, Cutler’s Hall.
About Chiledoc
Chiledoc promotes Chilean documentary talents, their films and series worldwide. Our commitment lies in fostering the sector’s expansion through strategic promotion, creating and strengthening networks, and promoting associative practices. We are a collective force.
Chiledoc is a public-private organization supported by ProChile under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Chilean Corporation of Documentaries (CCDoc).
Press Contact
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