Hamptons Doc Fest Returns with Exciting Films & Awards

The East End’s premier showcase of documentary films, Hamptons Doc Fest is back with well-deserved fanfare and expanded footprint for its 18th year, for a full week starting Thursday, December 4 through December 11. The festival is presenting 33 films across eight days at three venues, including Sag Harbor Cinema, Bay Street Theater, and, newly added for 2025, the Southampton Playhouse, which will be home to Doc Fest’s first IMAX screening.

Founder and executive director Jacqui Lofaro describes this year’s lineup as “electric with real-life stories,” adding, “Join us for eight days of great documentary filmmaking crafted by talented creators who edit, not censor, who discover, not destroy. It’s testimony to free and frank expression — the voices we need.”

Among the films on offer this year are political thrillers, environmental odysseys, artistic portraits, human-rights exposés and intimate stories of identity and survival.

The festival opens at Bay Street Theater on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. with Steal This Story, Please!, a compelling portrait of veteran journalist Amy Goodman, directed by Oscar-nominated filmmakers Tia Lessin and Carl Deal. Exploring Goodman’s fearless reporting for Democracy Now! The film raises a pressing question: What happens to democracy when the press surrenders its power? Goodman and the directors will join audiences for a Q&A, followed by the festival’s traditional opening-night cocktail reception.

Before the opener, Hamptons Doc Fest will present the Art & Inspiration Award to Cindy Meehl’s Jimmy & The Demons (screening 5 p.m. Thursday at Bay Street) about late artist Jimmy Grashow’s decades-long creative journey creating fascinating cardboard sculptures. Grashow’s widow, Guzzy, and Meehl will be there for a post-screening conversation.

This year brings a slate of awards highlighting the festival’s focus on artistry, social impact and truth.

Doc Fest’s most prestigious honor, The Pennebaker Career Achievement Award, will be presented Saturday, December 6 to acclaimed filmmaker Alan Berliner for his deeply personal documentaries such as The Sweetest Sound and First Cousin Once Removed. Berliner’s films have become essential viewing in film schools worldwide and reside permanently in MoMA’s collection. After a buffet reception, the festival will screen his newest film Benita, which is a moving portrait of filmmaker Benita Raphan that provides surprising revelations about her life and tragic death in January 2021, during the painful loneliness of the pandemic.

Also on Saturday, the Human Rights Award will be presented at Sag Harbor Cinema to Nuns vs. the Vatican. Directed by Lorena Luciano, the documentary follows a former nun’s decision to expose her abuser — Jesuit priest and renowned mosaic artist Marko Rupnik — after 30 years of silence, only to be ignored by the Vatican. But she refused to back down.

That same afternoon at 3:30 p.m., Zeitgeist Films co-founders Emily Russo and Nancy Gerstman will receive the HDF Legacy Award, recognizing them as champions of independent cinema. The New York-based company they founded has acquired and distributed more than 200 of the finest independent films from the United States and abroad, including their movie Monk in Pieces about composer and performer Meredith Monk, which will be shown after the awards are presented.

Renamed for 2025, the Nancy Nagle Kelley Environmental Award will be presented Friday, December 5 to A Life Illuminated, directed by Tasha Van Zandt. The doc, which screens at 5 p.m. at Sag Harbor Cinema, follows marine biologist Dr. Edie Widder and her journey down 3,300 feet into the ocean’s depths to capture glowing, bioluminescent life. Van Zandt will join a Q&A with Carl Safina after the film.

Also on Friday, the festival’s Impact Award goes to American Documentary (AmDoc), the organization behind PBS’s POV series. Executive director Erika Dilday will accept the award, followed by a 7:30 p.m. screening of Between Goodbyes, Jota Mun’s moving story of a queer Korean adoptee reconnecting with her birth mother, at Sag Harbor Cinema.

New this year, the HDF Veritas Award, which celebrates exceptional investigative journalism, will go to Oscar-winning filmmaker Laura Poitras and Emmy-winning director Mark Obenhaus for Cover-Up, a political thriller exploring iconic investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, screening at Sag Harbor Cinema on Sunday, December 7 at 2 p.m. Obenhaus will attend a Q&A with the audience after the film.

The festival concludes Thursday, December 11 with a 7:30 p.m. Southampton Playhouse IMAX screening of Lost Wolves of Yellowstone. Directed by Thomas Winston, the film chronicles Mollie Beattie, the first female director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and her efforts to reintroduce wolves to Yellowstone after a 50-year absence. Winston will attend the Q&A.

Other films in this year’s lineup include She Runs the World, which follows Olympic legend Allyson Felix’s fight for maternity protections in sports; My Underground Mother, Marisa Fox’s decade-long investigation into her mother’s Holocaust history; and Everest Dark, about sherpa Mingma Tsiri’s mission to recover bodies from Everest’s deadly slopes. The festival also features State of Firsts, a film about Sarah McBride’s election as the first transgender member of Congress; The Secret of Me, chronicling a psychological experiment on twins; and Rebel with a Clause, following grammarian Ellen Jovin’s journey across America. Rounding out the offerings are Ask E. Jean, Ivy Meeropol’s portrait of E. Jean Carroll’s life, career and landmark case against Donald Trump; Starman, about NASA engineer and author Gentry Lee exploring cosmic mysteries; and The Tale of Silyan, a Macedonian fable of healing and interspecies connection.

Festivalgoers can also enjoy two mornings of Shorts & Breakfast Bites, as well as the second year of the Hometown Heroes student film contest, whose winning film will screen on Sunday.

Festival passes and individual tickets are only available at hamptonsdocfest.com. No theater box office sales will be offered. A full festival pass, including receptions and special events, is $375; individual film tickets are $17; and special-event tickets range from $30 to $65.