SKOPJE: The Swiss film Tristan Forever directed by Tobias Nölle and Laurent Bonardo received the Onion Award for Best Film in the Main Competition at the 17th MakeDox Creative Documentary Film Festival (20 – 27 August 2026).
Latvian minority coproduction From Red Lights to Limelights directed by Bipuljit Basu received the Moral Approach Award, which recognises a film for the way it approaches its subject and the people it portrays.
The festival was held in five locations in Skopje under the slogan “Only Dreams Are Reality”. A total of 71 documentaries were screened in five programmes.
According to festival executive director Darko Nabakov, seven of the festival’s eight evenings were sold out, making this one of the festival’s most successful editions.
The MakeCoProDox Forum, held 25 – 27 August 2026 in Skopje, presented eight selected documentary projects in development and awarded five industry prizes.
FULL LIST OF WINNERS:
Festival Winners:
Onion Award for Best Film in the Main Competition:
Tristan Forever (Switzerland)
Directed by Tobias Nölle, Laurent Bonardo
Young Onion Award for Best Film by First or Second Time Director:
To the West, In Zapata (Cuba, Spain)
Directed by David Bim
Special Mention:
Imago (France, Belgium)
Directed by Déni Oumar Pitsaev
Sliced Onion Award for Best Short Film:
Murmurations (Spain)
Directed by Xavier Maradès
Special Mention:
An Open Field (South Africa, Germany, France)
Directed by Teboho Edkins
Onion Seed Award for Best Student Film:
Hello New Body, How Are You Today? (Germany)
Directed by Laura Cansi
Moral Approach Award for Best Moral Approach in Film:
Red Lights to Limelights (India, Finland, Latvia)
Directed by Bipuljit Basu
Produced by TouchNarrative, Bindubot Communication
Coproduced by JW Documentaries, VFS FILMS
Supported by Sundance Institute, Creative Europe – MEDIA, the National Film Centre of Latvia, IDFA Bertha Fund, Hotdocs Fund, the Finnish Film Foundation, AVEK, Film Independent, YLE
Special Mention:
Kikuyu Land (Kenya)
Directed by Bea Wangondu, Andrew Brown
MakeCoProDox Forum:
DocAround Europe Festival Network Award:
Krunk (Turkey, Armenia)
Directed by Aurora Tuğçe Aydın
EURODOC Award:
My Grandfather, the Communist (Serbia, North Macedonia)
Directed by Ada Rajković
Produced by Another World Productions
Documentary Association of Europe Award:
Areole (Slovenia, Croatia)
Directed by Barbara Kapelj
Produced by December
DocsBarcelona Award:
What the Land Forgot (Greece, USA)
Directed by Lucas Palaiocrassas
DOK.forum München Award:
Dylan Mckay (Romania)
Directed by Ana Lungu
Produced by 4Proof Film
