Sheffield DocFest has announced the jury members for the festival’s five competition categories: the International Competition, International First Feature Competition, International Short Film Competition, the Tim Hetherington Award, and the International Alternate Realities Competition.
They join the previously announced members of the Youth Jury.
Thirty-seven films are competing this year across the five categories, with the winners announced during the festival’s Awards Ceremony at Crucible Playhouse on Sunday 14 June.
The 33rd edition of the festival takes place in venues throughout Sheffield, 10-15 June 2026.
Also announced are further additions to the Public and Industry Programme, including two additions to the Talks Programme and three new premieres for the Film Programme.
The Jury Members for the International Competition are: producer and broadcaster Mark Edwards; Kiyoko McCrae, filmmaker and programme director at Chicken & Egg Films; and Noa Nwande, head of international sales at Watermelon Pictures.
The International First Feature Competition jury members are: award-winning filmmaker Paul Sng; Darren Lawford (producer and former trustee of Sheffield DocFest); and Malikkha Rollins (producer and director of industry and education for DOC NYC).
The International Short Film Competition Jury members for 2026 are: double BAFTA award-winning director Olaide Sadiq (Grenfell: Uncovered, winner of Sheffield DocFest Audience Award 2025); Joe Hunting (creative director at Painting Clouds); and filmmaker Laura Warner (The Cranes Call, A Last Big Story).
Jurors for the Tim Hetherington Award are: Brenda Danker (Malaysia Freedom Film Network co-founder); Sam Holland (ex-director of Migration Matters Festival in Sheffield); and Andrii Kotliar (Ukrainian producer/filmmaker part of the #babylon 13 collective).
The Youth Jury Award is presented by five of the UK’s most passionate young documentary film enthusiasts aged 18-23 – Julianne Gazzingan, Sadie Coll, Jagraj Singh, Clementine Cunningham and Shae Beckford – who have curated a selection of six films that will be considered for this year’s award.
The selected films are a “diverse collection that take audiences on a global journey engaging with urgent contemporary issues”.
New additions to the Public and Industry Programmes have also been announced, including two new events that complete this year’s Talks Programme.
In a “landmark conversation” with Asif Kapadia (director, Amy, Senna), Jo Clinton Davis (controller of factual, ITV) and Mike Blair (creative director, Multistory Media), the creators of 70 UP, they discuss the final chapter in the Up series, one of the most influential documentaries ever made, that over more than six decades captured the lives of ordinary Britons.
Munya Chawawa will discuss his latest documentary Wrestling with Trump, which explores the link between the American president and wrestling.
Completing the film programme are the UK premiere of The Last First: Winter K2 from director Amir Bar-Lev, which explores how five were left dead after an attempt to be the first to summit K2, and the world premiere of Obsession: The Beryl Burton Story, an intimate portrait of one of Britain’s greatest cyclists from director Stuart Pollitt.
More information is available on the Sheffield DocFest website.
