Docville was founded in 2005 as a thematical series within the arthouse movie theatre Cinema ZED. In the next edition the festival added competitive sections and became independent of the movie theatre. Docville takes place each year in different locations within the city of Leuven. It is the only annual, competitive documentary-only film festival in Belgium.
In June 2018 the festival announced it is one of 28 film festivals in the world whose jury award-winning film will be placed on the longlist of the documentary feature category for the Academy Awards
The 16th edition was postponed due to the COVID-19 crisis (original dates: March 25 to April 2, 2020) to September 25 - October 3, 2020.
The 17th edition is postponed due to the COVID-19 crisis to June 9-19th 2021.
In 2023 a new section was added to the festival, dedicated to science related documentaries and activities: ScienceVille. The Nationale Loterij Prijs for best science documentary was added as a new award, therefor the old ConScience Award (which also could include science related documentaries) has been renamed to TOPICS.
The 23rd edition will take place March 17th-25th 2027.
Sections
ScienceVille
For the 2023 edition, a new section focused on science was added to the festival: ScienceVille. This now-permanent subsection also includes a part specifically aimed at children (ScienceVille for Kids). This subsection also introduces a new competition (the National Lottery Award for Best Science Documentary); as a result, the former Weten&Geweten Competition (which also included science documentaries) was renamed TOPICS.
Science Pitch Documentaries
A recurring element within ScienceVille is the annual creation of 2 Science Pitch documentaries. These are short auteur documentaries centered on a scientific topic and/or a scientist/researcher. Within regular documentary funding from the Flemish Audiovisual Fund, this type of topic rarely receives support in practice.
The Science Pitch is a collaboration between the 5 Flemish universities (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, KU Leuven, UAntwerpen, UHasselt, UGent), the Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek and VRT/Canvas. The project starts with a call via participating universities to researchers who would like a documentary made about their topics. Following an initial selection, at least 2 candidates per university are shortlisted to receive media training. The 10 remaining researchers then come to the festival to present their research to a broad audience and selected directors. Ultimately, 2 concrete film projects are selected, which must be completed in time for the festival's next edition.
Previously completed films include:
2023–2024 Edition: Testerep (Vincent Langouche, research by Soetkin Vervust - VUB), Coral City (Charlotte De Cort & Camille Ghekiere, research by Marc Kochzius, Kushlani Dissanayake - VUB)
2024–2025 Edition: Het Wonder Daaronder (Nina Landau, research by Sarah Ahannach - UAntwerpen), De dag dat het Zonlicht niet meer scheen (Frederik Stuut, Maria Stuut, research by Cem Berk Senel, Pim Kaskes - VUB)
2025–2026 Edition: Wie ben ik, als ik ontwaak (Lize Cuveele, research by Liselotte Gezels - UAntwerpen), (no) birdbrain (Lode Desmet, research by Frederick Verbruggen - UGent)
2026–2027 Edition: Tree Talk (Kristof Van Den Bergh, research by Kathy Steppe - UGent), Solar Cooker: La recette de l'écoute (Laura Vandewynckel, research by Aslihan Babayigit - UHasselt)
Awards
1st edition Docville (September 28 - October 3, 2005)
No awards
2nd edition Docville (September 27 - October 3, 2006)
Best Belgian documentary: Rwanda, Les Collines Parlent (director: Bernard Bellefroid)
Best international documentary: Last Supper (Sweden, directors Mats Bigert & Lars Bergström)
3rd edition Docville (May 30 - June 5, 2007)
Best Belgian documentary: Het Rijksadministratief Centrum (director: Yves Cantraine)
Best international documentary: The Monastery: Mr. Vig and the Nun (Denemarken, regie: Pernille Rose Grønkjær)
4th edition Docville (May 10–17, 2008)
Best Belgian documentary: Le Flic, La Juge et L'assassin (director: Yves Hinant)
Best international documentary: Stranded (France, director: Gonzalo Arijon)
5th edition Docville (May 2–9, 2009)
Best Belgian documentary: Zondag Gaat Het Gebeuren (director: Joeri Vlekken)
Award for Beste Science documentary: Life and Other Problems (Denmark, director: Max Kestner)
Nationale Loterij Audience Award: My Stolen Planet (Germany, Iran, director: Farahnaz Sharifi)
22nd edition Docville (18-26 March 2026)
Best Belgian documentary: Mariinka (director: Pieter-Jan De Pue)
Best International documentary: A Fox Under a Pink Moon (Iran, director: Mehrdad Oskouei, Soraya Akhalaghi)
TOPICS Award: Surviving the Death Committee (Sweden, director: Nima Sarvestani)
Award for Beste Science documentary: A Life Illuminated (United States, director: Tasha Van Zandt)
Nationale Loterij Audience Award: A Fox Under a Pink Moon (Iran, director: Mehrdad Oskouei, Soraya Akhalaghi)
Special Guests/activities
In 2012 British documentary film maker Louis Theroux held a masterclass at the festival
In 2014 Canadian filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal introduced her newest documentary, Watermark. As well as Freda Kelly, former secretary of The Beatles and the subject of Good Ol' Freda. Austrian documentary film maker Erwin Wagenhofer will be presenting his newest film, Alphabet as well as giving a masterclass during the festival.
In 2016 British documentary film maker Louis Theroux presented his first feature-length documentary My Scientology Movie in European premiere.
In 2024 Nobel prize winner Kip Thorne was one of the guests of the festival.
Scandals
In 2025, the festival organizers excluded two documentaries from the program under public pressure. One film was Russians at War, dedicated to Russia's invasion of Ukraine; it was criticized as propaganda. The second film that was cancelled was Not in My Country, Serbia’s Lithium Dilemma, that examines the controversial development of a lithium mine in Serbia’s Jadar Valley. A group of Serbian intellectuals published an open letter criticizing the film for promoting lithium mining which they described as environmentally harmful, and for portraying peaceful public protests as aggressive.
