About the Film Festival
DOC NYC, the festival for documentaries, is an annual in-person and online event based in Manhattan at the IFC Center and other venues, celebrating its 17th edition in 2026. Voted by MovieMaker magazine as one of the "top five coolest documentary film festivals in the world," the nineteen-day event showcases new achievements in documentary film along with panels and conversations with acclaimed filmmakers and industry professionals.
Filmmakers selected for DOC NYC’s main slate have the opportunity to make in-person connections with the wider New York and international documentary industry ecosphere by receiving festival passes providing rush access to Official Selection films as well as DOC NYC PRO panel programming.
“DOC NYC has become America’s most influential documentary festival.” - Variety
"This cinematic bonanza covers everything new and noteworthy in the world of documentary filmmaking.” - The Huffington Post
“DOC NYC has become an essential summit for all kinds of documentary filmmaking.” – Wall Street Journal
Launched in 2010, DOC NYC quickly became America's largest documentary film festival. The festival audience continued to grow through the pandemic years as DOC NYC maintained its impressive size and expanded its dates and capacity to include online screenings. The 2026 edition will continue DOC NYC’s hybrid format, welcoming filmmakers and audiences back into New York theaters from November 11 - 19, and then continuing online through November 29.
DOC NYC annually presents juried awards to Competition titles in the following categories:
US COMPETITION
INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION
METROPOLIS COMPETITION
SHORTS COMPETITION
Additionally, DOC NYC presents an Audience Award that is open to all features screening in the main slate section of the festival, with the exception of films in the Short List, Winner's Circle, or retrospective films.
The DOC NYC Shorts Competition Grand Jury Prize Winner qualifies in the Documentary Short Subject category of the annual Academy Awards® without the standard theatrical run, provided the film otherwise complies with the Academy rules.
Subject ：
Video Format ：HDV MPEG4 DCP
ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS:
• Feature documentaries are forty-one (41) minutes to 150 minutes. Shorts are forty (40) minutes or shorter, including all credits. Episodics or Long-Form Features may be any length, but if Episodic, at least 50% of the series episodes should be submitted for consideration.
• If the documentary is in a language other than English, it must be subtitled or dubbed in English (subtitling is preferred).
• Promotional, instructional, industrial films, or raw documentation of performances are not eligible.
• At this time, DOC NYC does not have a VR or interactive category, so these kinds of projects are not eligible for consideration.
• DOC NYC gives strong programming preference to pre-release new films that have not yet been widely screened. For the 2026 edition, we are ideally seeking films for World or US premieres, or for their potential DOC NYC screenings to be one of the next significant screenings in the film’s journey (for films that have already world premiered elsewhere). Films that have world premiered earlier than September 2025 will not receive programming preference.
• To be eligible for inclusion (other than Short List and Winner’s Circle sections), Features and Shorts must not have screened in-person publicly in NYC prior to the Festival, nor have been broadcast on US television or made available online* before the festival, nor commercially released on DVD/Blu-ray, VOD, or for download to the public.
Categories and fees
Features
Video length ：41 - 150
Contemporary documentaries from around the world – 41 minutes to a maximum of 150 minutes in length – that demonstrate a bold commitment to subject matter, excellence in cinematic craft, and innovation in storytelling. Feature submissions may be considered for inclusion in either competition or non-competition sections, at the discretion of DOC NYC's programming team. Only feature documentary submissions that are NYC premieres, at minimum, will be considered for inclusion in Competition sections.
Shorts
Video length ：0 - 40
Contemporary documentaries from around the world – 40 minutes or shorter – that demonstrate a bold commitment to subject matter, excellence in cinematic craft and innovation in storytelling. DOC NYC requires at least an NYC premiere for a short film to be eligible for festival consideration. The winning short film will qualify for consideration in the Documentary Short Subject category of the Annual Academy Awards® without the standard theatrical run, provided the film otherwise complies with the Academy rules.
Live Event
