Verzió DocLab is a 5-day-long documentary development workshop for directors, producers and editors, focusing on story development and editing, with the goal to support emerging European documentary filmmakers. The 11th edition will take place 14-20 November, 2026 at the Budapest Campus of the Central European University. Application deadline: 31 May, 2026 CET Midnight.

This intensive five-day program is tailored for directors of first or second feature-length documentaries, as well as the editors and producers working on their projects. As part of the industry programs of the Verzió International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, project selection also considers their social relevance and human rights focus.

Verzió DocLab is powered by the DOC AROUND EUROPE festival network, which brings together six relevant documentary film festivals throughout the continent. Together with partner festivals – FIPADOC, DOK.fest München, DocsBarcelona, MakeDox and Biografilm – Verzió promotes the circulation of creative European documentary films and supports young film professionals, especially directors of first and second feature documentaries from the regions represented by each festival. In 2026 the network welcomes two guest festivals: Inconvenient Films and Docudays UA, enriching the collaboration with the promotion of talents from Lithuania and Ukraine.

Emerging documentary filmmakers from the countries represented by these festivals are eligible to apply to the Verzió DocLab, the Verzió Young Critics workshops, and to present their films in the festival’s Doc Future Competition. We are looking for projects with directors from the following countries: Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Macedonia, Kosovo, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and Ukraine.

With the guidance of international mentors you will work on your documentary project’s story and edit a selected scene that you will present at the end of the workshop in front of an audience of festival programmers, sales agents and producers.

"Verzio DocLab was an absolute gem of an experience. I really feel my project advanced significantly and I was able to expand my networking opportunities!"

Apply to the Verzió DocLab 2026

Applications are now open to the 11th Verzió DocLab International Documentary Workshop on Story Development and Editing

Dates: 14-20 November, 2026 | Budapest
Deadline: 31 May, 2026 CET Midnight

Verzió DocLab is a 5-day-long documentary development workshop for directors, producers, and editors, focusing on story development and editing, with the goal to support emerging European documentary filmmakers. The 11th edition will take place 14-20 November, 2026 at the Budapest Campus of the Central European University.

This intensive five-day program is designed for directors developing their first or second feature-length documentary film, along with their producing and editing partners. Verzió DocLab is part of the industry programs of the Verzió International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, and thus selection of the projects is also based on their social relevance and human rights aspect.

Verzió DocLab is powered by the DOC AROUND EUROPE festival network, which brings together six relevant documentary film festivals throughout the continent. Together with partner festivals – FIPADOC, DOK.fest München, DocsBarcelona, MakeDox and Biografilm – Verzió promotes the circulation of creative European documentary films and supports young film professionals, especially directors of first and second feature documentaries from the regions represented by each festival.

In 2026 the network welcomes two guest festivals: Inconvenient Films and Docudays UA, enriching the collaboration with the promotion of talents from Lithuania and Ukraine.

Observer team in 2025

Kitti Fődi Director
Kitti Fődi Director

Kitti Fődi studied media and communication in Budapest and documentary filmmaking in Norway. She has been a journalist for eight years and is currently a video reporter for one of Hungary's largest online news portals. She focuses on social issues like health, education, poverty, and disability. Committed to exposing systemic struggles and highlighting solutions, she combines journalism with filmmaking to create impactful stories. Bakpakk is her debut documentary.

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Kata Oláh producer, Makabor Studio
Kata Oláh producer, Makabor Studio

Kata Oláh established Makabor Studio, an award-winning production company, with her cinematographer husband. All their films have been broadcast on various Hungarian TV channels, received numerous international awards. Their feature documentary, The Bar Mitzvah Boys, was nominated for Prix Europa 2018, Conquering Time - Ágnes Keleti received the prestigious international critics' FIPRESCI Prize at CineFest 2022, and Narrow Path to Happiness earned the Jury Special Mention in the international competition at Thessaloniki 2023, as well as the Septimius Award 2024, among many other accolades.

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Gergő Plankó Executive Producer, Magyar Jeti Zrt.
Gergő Plankó Executive Producer, Magyar Jeti Zrt.

444.hu, operated by Magyar Jeti Zrt., has long been committed to producing high-quality videocontent and documentary films. One of its key initiatives is Jeti Mozi, a monthly platform dedicated to showcasing Hungarian documentaries, including original productions by the outlet. Magyar Jeti Zrt. is serving as a co-producer on Kitti Fődi’s upcoming film, with Gergő Plankó overseeing the project. As Deputy Editor-in-Chief and Head of the Video Department, Plankó brings decades of experience in audiovisual journalism, both as an editor and a reporter.

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Mentors Throughout the Years

Flóra Erdélyi Editor (Hungary)
Michael Seeber Director, Scriptwriter, Dramaturg, Producer (Austria)
Tue Steen Müller Documentary Consultant and Critic (Denmark)
Jesper Jack Producer / Verzió DocLab mentor (Denmark)
Anna Kis Director and Editor, DocLab Mentor (Hungary)
Réka Lemhényi Film Editor (Hungary)
Brigitta Bacskai Film Editor (Hungary)
Diana Toucedo Editor, Director, Producer (Spain)
Christine Camdessus Managing & Artistic director, FIPADOC (France)
Stefano Tealdi Director and producer, Stefilm (Italy)
Leena Pasanen Festival director, Biografilm Festival (Italy)
Jeremy Braverman
Thomas Ernst
Zsuzsanna Gellér-Varga
Moniek Wester Keegstra
Flóra Erdélyi Editor (Hungary)

Flóra Erdélyi is a freelance film editor based in Budapest, Hungary. She has been working on several short and feature fiction - The Flower of the Apple Tree by Dóra Szűcs, Now is Now 2019 by Péter Szajki, Patthelyzet by Dóra Szűcs, animations - North by Bente Lohne, and feature length documentaries - Hi Sári! by Sári Haragonics, Hatchery by Máté Fuchs, Howling Like We Do by Asia Dér, The Missing Tale by Klára Trencsényi.

She received her Motion Picture Editor BA degree at the University of Theatre and Film Arts, Budapest in 2011. Apart from that she also studied at Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design and at ELTE Institute of Art In Film theory and film history.

Her most recent project is Hi Sári by Sári Haragonics. She is also known for the HBO film, Her Mothers by Sári Haragonics and Asia Dér for which she won Best Editing at the Moscow International Documentary Film Festival in 2021. She is a member of MADOKE - the Hungarian Documentary Association, and HSE - Hungarian Society of Film and Video Editors.

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Michael Seeber Director, Scriptwriter, Dramaturg, Producer (Austria)

Since 1990, Michael has produced over 45 documentaries, TV doc series and feature films, among them internationally successful and highly-awarded films, such as Luna Papa (Bakhtiar Khoudojnazarov), Bella Martha (Sandra Nettelbeck), The Venice Syndrome (Andreas Pichler), Everyday Rebellion (The Riahi Brothers) and A Good American (Friedrich Moser, Executive Producer Oliver Stone). He wrote the scripts for several documentaries (i.e. Food Design, Hot Spot, BEER!, ÒRAIN – Beethoven), and directed TV documentaries. From 2009–2020 Michael worked as a tutor and adviser for the European MEDIA training program for script development SOURCES 2. Since 2018 he has concentrated almost exclusively on his work as a director and writer for his own documentaries. His awards include the Theodor Koerner Award for Literature (1987) and the Austrian Film Award for Best Documentary (2013).

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Tue Steen Müller Documentary Consultant and Critic (Denmark)

Tue Steen Müller has worked with documentary films for more than 20 years at the Danish Film Board, as press officer, festival representative and film consultant/commissioner. He is the co-founder of Balticum Film and TV Festival, Filmkontakt Nord, Documentary of the EU, and EDN (European Documentary Network). From 1996 until 2005 he was the first director of EDN (European Documentary Network). Since 2006, he has been a freelance consultant and teacher in workshops like Ex Oriente, DocsBarcelona, Archidoc, Documentary Campus, Storydoc, Baltic Sea Forum, Black Sea DocStories, Caucadoc, CinéDOC Tbilisi, Docudays UA, Dealing With the Past Sarajevo FF, as well as programme consultant for the festivals Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DocsBarcelona, Message2Man in St. Petersburg, and DOKLeipzig. He teaches at the Zelig Documentary School in Bolzano, Italy, and writes reviews at www.filmkommentaren.dk. He received several awards for his contribution to the European documentary culture.

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Jesper Jack Producer / Verzió DocLab mentor (Denmark)

Jesper Jack is an award-winning producer and the co- founder of House of Real, a prominent collective of non-fiction filmmakers in Scandinavia. He also served as the international editor at Op-Docs at The New York Times from 2021 to 2023. Jesper is an alumnus of prestigious programs such as EAVE, Screen Leaders, and Doc Campus. He is a regular guest professor at NYU Tisch, and a lecturer at the National Film School of Denmark. Between 2009 and 2011, he held the position of documentary film consultant at the Danish Film Institute. During his tenure, he commissioned over 30 films, including the Academy Award-nominated The Act of Killing and the Tribeca Film Festival Best Documentary winner, Democrats. Moreover, Jesper is currently pursuing training as a psychotherapist, driven by a vision to enhance mental health in the documentary field.

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Anna Kis Director and Editor, DocLab Mentor (Hungary)

Anna Kis started her filmmaking career in 2002. After a decade of teaching, translation, and journalism, and a PhD course in Renaissance and Baroque English Literature at ELTE, she graduated at the University of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest, as a director and film editor. She was the student of Péter Gothár and Ildikó Enyedi. Ever since she has been active as an editor and story editor of shorts (eg.: First Love by Ildikó Enyedi), documentaries and concert shows for TV. She has directed shorts and observational documentaries which have won several Best Documentary awards in Hungarian festivals (Home Paradise, Not About Family). Recently she has been active as the story editor of Fairy Garden by Gergő Somogyvári, shooting her own feature-length documentary Practices in Harmony (working title), co-directing and editing 80 Angry Journalists by András Földes. She is a member of MADOKE - the Hungarian Documentary Association.

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Réka Lemhényi Film Editor (Hungary)

Réka is a Budapest-based editor with over two-decade-long experience in film and television. Some of her most important projects include work with famous directors, among them with Oscar winner István Szabó or Jerzy Skolimowski. She has received numerous recognitions for her work such as, among others, the Best Editors Awards of Hungary, Best Critics Award or PO-land Academy Award. She obtained her Master's degree at University of Theatre and Film Arts Hungary, and she also has a degree in Theater Science at the Pannon University Hungary. She has been doing education and mentoring work since 2015 at the University of Theater and Film Arts Budapest, Free SZFE Budapest, Sapientia Film University Cluj and Budapest Metropolitan Film University. She was a juror of international juries and a member of the selector committee for international documentary workshops.

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Brigitta Bacskai Film Editor (Hungary)

Brigitta got her Film and Motion Pictures Editing degree at the University of Theatre and Film Arts in 2014. She continued her master's studies in Norway, at the Norwegian Film School. She has attended several master courses and seminars, such as Norman Hollyn's editing workshop in Prague, Monika Willi's masterclass in Copenhagen, Chris Dickens' masterclass in London, and completed Robert McKee's story seminar in Ireland, in 2016.

She has been working as an editor since 2008. During this time, she has edited numerous works of fiction, animations, and documentaries. Her first feature project won the Gamechanger award at SXSW Film Festival. A short animation, Balcony, won the Jury Prize at the Annecy Festival, and Traub Viktoria's Mermaids and Rhinos received the Hungarian Film Critics Award. Her most recent documentary, Too Close, was screened in the Documentary Competition of the Sarajevo Film Festival. She teaches editing and dramaturgy for animation and motion picture students, and is a member of HSE, the Hungarian Society of Film and Video Editors.

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Diana Toucedo Editor, Director, Producer (Spain)

Diana Toucedo, is a Spanish filmmaker and editor based in Barcelona and Amsterdam. She stands at the intersection of film and research. Her work has been selected for film festivals, such as the Berlinale, IDFA, San Sebastian International Film Festival, Nara International Film Festival, Sao Paulo International Film Festival, FIDBA, Pesaro, DocLisboa, Visions du Réel, and others, and museums, like CCCB and the Centre Pompidou. Diana has edited more than 25 feature films to date, which have premiered and won awards at IDFA, Rotterdam, Cannes Semaine de la Critique, Moscow International FF, etc. She has also edited series for Netflix, HBO and Movistar. Diana currently combines her profession with teaching at Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), and is core-teacher in the Master of Film at the Netherlands Film Academy. She is also pursuing a PhD in Practice-based Communication, exploring how moving images address identities, memories, historical crystallizations and social tensions.

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Christine Camdessus Managing & Artistic director, FIPADOC (France)

In 2001, after working as a lawyer-in-firm and a film finance banker, Christine Camdessus launched her production company, ALEGRIA PRODUCTIONS. They have produced more than 60 creative documentaries, distributed throughout most of the world, including: Pakistan Zindabad, The Vatican's Lost War?, Five Broken Cameras by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi (Sundance Director’s Prize 2012, Oscar Nomination 2013, International Emmy Award 2013), Divided Korea, The Wonderful Kingdom of Papa Alaev, Erdogan, the Making of a Sultan, One Day in Tehran, and Forman versus Forman (selected in Cannes Classics in May 2019). Christine is chairwoman of NIPKOW’s jury (Berlin). She was vice-president of USPA (the leading TV producers union in France) from 2014 to 2018. In June 2018, Christine was appointed Managing & Artistic director of FIPADOC.

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Stefano Tealdi Director and producer, Stefilm (Italy)

Stefano Tealdi established Stefilm in Torino, Italy, in 1985. He develops, produces and/or directs drama and documentary film features and series. Stefilm’s recent productions include: Exemplary Behaviour (winner of Dok Leipzig Golden Dove, Fipresci and Interreligious Award, 2019), My Home, in Libya (Locarno FF 2018); The Strange Sound of Happiness (Special Mention Next Masters DOKLeipzig 2017); Char, No Man’s Island (Berlinale Forum 2013). He tutors for Biennale Cinema & VR College Venice, Cannes Film Market, Documentary Campus, La Fabrique - Les Cinemas du Monde, Films de 3 Continents – Produire au Sud, New Chinese Film Talents, Ouaga Film Lab, Scuola Holden, TFL-Torino Film Lab, ZagrebDox Pro, and ZELIG Film School/ESoDoc.

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Leena Pasanen Festival director, Biografilm Festival (Italy)

Leena Pasanen started her career as a journalist in print media. In 1993, she joined the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE, where she worked as a reporter, political commentator, TV presenter and the head of documentaries for YLE TV1. In 2000 she was appointed the Head of Programs responsible for cultural, factual and fiction programs in YLE Teema. She stayed with the channel until November 2005, when she started working as the Director of the European Documentary Network (EDN) in Copenhagen, Denmark. From 2011 to 2014, she led the Finnish Institute in Budapest, Hungary and served as cultural attaché at the Finnish Embassy in Budapest. From 2015 to 2019, she was based in Leipzig, Germany, working as Managing and Festival Director of DOK Leipzig. In January 2020, she took over the direction of Biografilm Festival in Bologna, Italy. She has been a regular expert, tutor and lecturer at several training programs, for example: EDN, Discovery Campus, EURODOC and Television Business School. She has been a board member of IDFA Forum and served as a jury member at several international festivals, such as Sundance and IDFA.

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Jeremy Braverman

Jeremy Braverman is the Media and Visual Education Specialist at Central European University. He teaches courses in documentary filmmaking in various departments at CEU, and oversees the library’s Mirabaud Media Lab. As a filmmaker, his short films have played in festivals across the US, and he is currently collaborating on documentary films with faculty from CEU and ELTE. Prior to joining CEU, Jeremy spent 15 years teaching filmmaking in the US, and worked in the independent film industries in Chicago and Pittsburgh. He earned his MFA in Film & Video from Columbia College Chicago. In the 1990s, he worked as a freelance translator and television personality in Budapest, Hungary.

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Thomas Ernst

Thomas Ernst is a freelance film editor and author. Through joining each project at a very early stage he co-creates the workflow and concept of the production together with the director and d.o.p - from the development of the story to the screening of the finished film. HBO Europe documentaries like Invisible Strings, Overdose, Stream Of Love and ULTRA are on his long credit list. The film Drifter won the “First Appearance Award” at IDFA 2014. For The Queen of Silence Tom won the German Kamerapreis for Best Editing 2015. He is consulting and lecturing for international workshops as Docu Rough Cut Boutique, ESoDoc, and EDN.

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Zsuzsanna Gellér-Varga

Zsuzsanna Gellér-Varga studied filmmaking at UC Berkeley (USA) as a Fulbright scholar. Her Screw Your Courage won awards at several US film festivals and was broadcast on public TV. She worked for the New York Times Television as a video-journalist and later directed documentaries Once They Were Neighbours, Synagogue for Sale, and Mr. Mom, which were screened internationally and broadcast on public TV. She taught documentary ethics at the international masters program, DocNomads. Currently she is D.L.A. candidate at the University of Theater and Film Arts in Budapest.

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Moniek Wester Keegstra

Moniek Wester Keegstra is an independent documentary (web)filmmaker, editor, interview trainer and film coach. She worked with NGOs Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam Novib and Amnesty International. Her Gaza, Gabbers, Graffity co-produced by Amnesty International was nominated for the Prix d’Europe. Moniek was involved as filmmaker and creator of the online platform 26,000 Faces with short film portraits about asylum seekers in the Netherlands. She is co-creator of the online Lifeboat Project.

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