Best New Documentaries Movies of 2026

Critics Consensus: Director David Greaves finishes what his father started with Once Upon a Time in Harlem, a strikingly immersive glimpse into a unique time and place that feels like getting to bask in a community’s collective heart.

Synopsis: In Harlem 1972, filmmaker William Greaves assembles the living members of the Harlem Renaissance for a cocktail party at Duke Ellington’s townhouse after decades apart…. View Full Synopsis

Directed By: David Greaves

Critics Consensus: American Doctor bears visceral witness to the crisis in Gaza, transforming the grim realities of the operating room into an urgent portrait of humanitarian resolve.

Synopsis: AMERICAN DOCTOR is a vérité non-fiction film following three prominent physicians–Palestinian, Jewish and Zoroastrian–friends who couldn’t be more different but are bound by their shared… View Full Synopsis

Directed By: Poh Si Teng, Simon Kilmurry, Hamza Ali, Poh Si Teng

Critics Consensus: A spirited and uplifting documentary, Everybody to Kenmure Street triumphantly captures a community’s witty, determined stand against injustice through the power of collective action.

Synopsis: Anti-establishment struggles and activism run in the veins of Glasgow inhabitants. So when In May 2021, a U.K. Home Office raid is launched at dawn… View Full Synopsis

Directed By: Felipe Bustos Sierra, Emma Thompson, Mark Thomas, Hugh Bonneville

Critics Consensus: The History of Concrete transforms a seemingly banal subject into a funny, moving, and genuinely revelatory exploration of the overlooked worlds and universal connections hiding in plain sight.

Synopsis: Following the finale of his acclaimed HBO series “How To with John Wilson”, NYC documentarian John Wilson looks to the bedrock of his beloved New… View Full Synopsis

Directed By: John Wilson, Josh Safdie, Eli Bush, Ronald Bronstein

Critics Consensus: Nathan Fielder’s ironclad commitment to the bit is pushed to its limit in You Can See Everything, an inscrutable Rorschach Test of Elizabeth Holmes’ psyche that’s as absorbing as it is haunting.

Synopsis: Thirty-four days before she’s sent to prison, notorious Silicon Valley founder Elizabeth Holmes invites a skeptical film crew to document her every move. What begins… View Full Synopsis

Directed By: Nathan Fielder, Lance Oppenheim

Critics Consensus: Alex Gibney’s Musk offers a sharp, revealing portrait of Elon Musk’s transformation from celebrated innovator to controversial power broker, examining the far-reaching consequences of his influence.

Synopsis: An incisive look behind the legend of Elon Musk, the world’s most heralded “inventor-entrepreneur” who has enormous influence on the world in which we all… View Full Synopsis

Directed By: Alex Gibney

Critics Consensus: Visually astounding and hands-off in its observation of a family and their environment, Time and Water is an intimate documentary with an epic scope.

Synopsis: Renowned Icelandic poet and author Andri Snær Magnason is chasing something elusive. As the glacial ice of his homeland melts, he constructs a cinematic time… View Full Synopsis

Directed By: Sara Dosa

Critics Consensus: Cookie Queens is as much an insightful inquiry into adolescence as it is a tour through a time-honored tradition, making for a documentary that’s chock-full of feel-good crumbs.

Synopsis: A celebration of girlhood and the complexities that come with it, Cookie Queens is a coming-of-age story about the joys, pressures, and tensions woven into… View Full Synopsis

Directed By: Alysa Nahmias, Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, Chanel Pysnik

Critics Consensus: A comprehensive survey of a brave new world, The AI Doc is a balanced inquiry into a transformative technology that weighs the risks with a touching amount of humanity.

Synopsis: From the Academy Award®-winning filmmakers behind Everything Everywhere All at Once and Navalny; a father-to-be tries to figure out what is happening with all this… View Full Synopsis

Directed By: Daniel Roher, Charlie Tyrell

Critics Consensus: Affectionately mirroring its subject’s distinct filmmaking style through rich, experimental aesthetics, Barbara Forever stands as a vibrant portrait of Barbara Hammer’s enduring influence.

Synopsis: An archive-driven exploration of the life, work, and legacy of iconic, pioneering lesbian filmmaker Barbara Hammer.

Directed By: Brydie O'Connor, Maggie Mclean, Dylan Meyer, Kristen Stewart

Synopsis: When Marion, Kansas, is thrust into the international spotlight after a police raid on the Marion County Record and the death of its 98-year-old co-owner,… View Full Synopsis

Directed By: Sharon Liese

Synopsis: Filmed over ten years, ONE IN A MILLION follows Israa from childhood to adulthood on an extraordinary journey from Syria to Germany — and back… View Full Synopsis

Directed By: Itab Azzam, Jack MacInnes, Lucie Kon, Harriet Gugenheim

Synopsis: An environmental nuclear bomb looms in Utah, two intrepid scientists and a political insider race the clock to save their home from an unprecedented catastrophe.

Directed By: Abby Ellis, Anna Barnes, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Davisson Killoran

Synopsis: A rural Iowa schoolteacher becomes a national voice against racism after leading a controversial 1968 lesson in discrimination with her all-white third-grade class. Now nearly… View Full Synopsis

Directed By: Judd Ehrlich

Synopsis: Amir Bar-Lev tells a complex, harrowing and moving story that takes an unflinching look at the industry of extreme mountain climbing and its changing culture…. View Full Synopsis

Directed By: Amir Bar-Lev, James Packer, Taylor Levin, Kerstin Emhoff

Synopsis: Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie is inspired by Rushdie’s memoir “Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder.” The film explores Rushdie’s recovery in the… View Full Synopsis

Directed By: Alex Gibney, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Richard Perello

Synopsis: For thousands of years, polar bears have migrated along the shores of Hudson Bay in northern Canada. Today, that ancient rhythm collides with a human… View Full Synopsis

Directed By: Gabriela Osio Vanden, Jack Weisman, Nicole Stott, Emily Osborne

Critics Consensus: Celebratory by design, American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez finds renewed urgency in its subject’s pioneering fusion of Chicano art, identity, and activism.

Synopsis: Before Hollywood knew his name, Luis Valdez was staging plays from the back of a flatbed truck for striking farmworkers in Delano, California. American Pachuco:… View Full Synopsis

Directed By: David Alvarado

Synopsis: Maria Bamford has built a career on turning radical honesty into radical comedy — often blurring the line between performance and personal crisis. In this… View Full Synopsis

Directed By: Judd Apatow, Neil Berkeley, Joshua Church, Wayne Federman

Synopsis: After his teenage son, Chris, is last seen by a surveillance camera on a bridge over Warsaw’s turbulent Vistula River, Daniel embarks on an all-consuming… View Full Synopsis

Directed By: Michał Marczak

Synopsis: A wealthy heir establishes a communist revolutionary camp in rural Massachusetts to fight the capitalist system he’s grown to hate, launching an extraordinary path ahead.

Directed By: Sinéad O'Shea

Synopsis: From his Saturday Night Live beginnings to a string of classic comedies, Chevy Chase has always had huge comedic range. He is also a complex… View Full Synopsis

Directed By: Marina Zenovich, Marina Zenovich, Ben Silverman, Howard Owens

Synopsis: A decade-long global odyssey chronicles the ever-changing record holders of the title of oldest person alive. What begins as a portrait of longevity becomes a… View Full Synopsis

Directed By: Sam Green, Alex Turtletaub, Jennifer J. Pritzker, Maida Lynn

Synopsis: A found footage documentary from a concert tour in 1995 that features live performances, candid interviews and a behind the scene view of what it’s… View Full Synopsis

Directed By: Tamra Davis

Synopsis: Hungarian chess prodigy Judit Polgár challenges champion Garry Kasparov and her controlling father over 15 years, breaking gender barriers to become the greatest female player… View Full Synopsis

Directed By: Rory Kennedy

Synopsis: Elite ski mountaineers Jim Morrison and Hilaree Nelson fell deeply in love while reaching the pinnacle of their sport. Their drive sharpened into a shared… View Full Synopsis

Directed By: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, Tim Horsburgh, Nina Sing Fialkow

Critics Consensus: Thoughtfully constructed and quietly probing, Louis Theroux: Inside The Manosphere uses Theroux’s signature, gently persistent style to illuminate a disturbing, tech-driven subculture with clarity and impact.

Synopsis: With rare access and no holds barred, the acclaimed documentarian investigates a growing ultra-masculine network and its controversial influencers.

Directed By: Adrian Choa, Louis Theroux, Aloke Devichand, Arron Fellows

Synopsis: Artificial intelligence’s unsung beginnings are found in power rather than computers, illuminating the dreams that underlie the hype that brought us to this point and… View Full Synopsis

Starring: Shazeda Ahmed, Adam Becker, Emily M. Bender

Directed By: Valerie Veatch

Critics Consensus: While the famously tight-lipped Lorne Michaels escapes closer scrutiny yet again in Morgan Neville’s affectionate documentary, this tour through the SNL maestro’s career is packed with plenty of amusing and worthwhile anecdotes.

Synopsis: From Morgan Neville, Academy Award-winning filmmaker of 20 Feet from Stardom and Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, comes Lorne, an unprecedented, behind-the-scenes glimpse at the… View Full Synopsis

Directed By: Morgan Neville, Caitrin Rogers

Critics Consensus: A fly-on-the-wall tour through Marc Jacobs’ day-to-day, Sofia Coppola’s documentary can feel more like third-wheeling a friendship than an informative exposé, but it does offer a chic glimpse into the artistic process.

Synopsis: An intimate, unconventional portrait of Marc Jacobs, crafted by Sofia Coppola to capture the genius and singular universe of the iconic American designer.

Directed By: Sofia Coppola, Mark Blatty

Synopsis: Public Access is the untold story of the most subversive media experiment ever to take over our television sets. ​​​​​​​Public Access takes viewers through the… View Full Synopsis

Directed By: David Shadrack Smith, Wren Arthur, Steve Buscemi, Benny Safdie

Critics Consensus: Presented with great pomp and circumstance but little insight, this documentary purports to be an up-close view of the First Lady while curiously revealing very little about her.

Synopsis: Amazon MGM Studios’ film MELANIA offers unprecedented access to the 20 days leading up to the 2025 Presidential Inauguration — through the eyes of the… View Full Synopsis

Directed By: Brett Ratner