This Week In Documentary
Theatrical & Streaming Releases - New & Recommended - January 23-29, 2026
As we round out the end of the first month of 2026, we have finally learned what the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences thinks are the best documentaries of last year (see our Picks of the Week below). It’s perfect timing since we’re now headed into the first weekend of the Sundance Film Festival and able to focus on what will be some of this year’s best documentaries (see our 2026 preview).
Now, without further ado, below are this week’s documentary highlights, followed by daily listings for all known releases and broadcasts, along with a brief look at what’s coming soon for doc fans. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to receive more in-depth highlights and reviews in the future, plus full access to special posts like our best of and most anticipated lists, and to give me more time to watch more (if not everything) available. If you have a doc in need of coverage or a mention, you can reach me at christopherbartoncampbell (at) gmail.
Nonfics Picks Of The Week: 2026 Oscar Nominees
The 2026 Oscar nominations were announced last week, including 12 documentaries and one hybrid docudrama among the contenders. The nominees for Best Documentary Feature Film include The Alabama Solution (streaming on HBO Max), Come See Me in the Good Light (Apple TV), Cutting through Rocks (currently unavailable), Mr. Nobody Against Putin (Kino Film Collection), and The Perfect Neighbor (Netflix).
Nominees for Best Short Film include All the Empty Rooms (Netflix), Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud (HBO Max), Children No More: Were and Are Gone (currently unavailable), The Devil is Busy (HBO Max), and Perfectly a Strangeness (currently unavailable). Two documentaries are up for Best Original Song: Diane Warren: Relentless (Kanopy), with “Dear Me”; and Viva Verdi! (currently unavailable), with “Sweet Dreams of Joy.” The hybrid film is The Voice of Hind Rajab (now in theaters), which is nominated for Best International Feature Film.
Winners will be revealed at the Academy Awards on March 15, 2026.
Other Documentary Highlights
Don’t Look Back (1967)
It’s been a little over a year since the last time I highlighted D.A. Pennebaker’s Don’t Look Back, as a supplement to the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown. Since then, I’ve gone more in-depth on the film, which follows Dylan during his 1965 UK tour and is considered among the best documentaries of all time. Here’s an excerpt from our retrospective review of Don’t Look Back from last year:
Dylan’s pompous performative nature in Don’t Look Back makes him one of the most memorable documentary characters ever, up there with anything scripted. According to Andrew Sarris, referring to another journalist’s claim, Pennebaker saw the film as (akin to?) a fictional work starring Bob Dylan as Bob Dylan. When critics attack modern celebrity-focused documentaries for being too contrived for the sake of PR, they ignore what was evident as far back as this film: the most famous subjects typically put on the first line of the facade anyway. Still, Pennebaker has a knack for occasionally capturing his subject in veracious solemnity, as in scenes when Dylan is mostly alone and typing out his wares, or in unpredictable moments such as when a girl is hanging onto his car. It’s not just when he’s unaware. Dylan appears most authentic when performing songs with and for friends off stage, his smiles while playing for a small entourage of trusted associates looking the most casual, candid, and uncalculated of anything here, even though it’s in the clear eye of the camera lens.
Don’t Look Back airs on TCM on Saturday, January 24, as a “Musical Matinee.”
Holocaust Documentaries
Tuesday, January 27, is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, with old and new documentaries programmed for the occasion. As usual, TCM is showing relevant films, both dramatic and documentary, with the latter including Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah: Four Sisters and the 2021 film Filmmakers for the Prosecution. Joining those two, which were also programmed last year on the same date, is Marcel Ophuls’s The Sorrow and the Pity, about France’s Vichy government during World War II. As for new films, PBS will air Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire, about the titular Holocaust survivor and author, via the series American Masters. HBO Max will premiere 33 Photos from the Ghetto, a history of the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, with a focus on the only known photographs taken from inside the Ghetto by one of its Jewish residents.
Jonathan Skurnik Documentaries
The streaming service OVID continues to add documentaries from New Day Films to its library, and this week’s crop spotlights the work of Jonathan Skurnik. He is one of New Day’s many co-op filmmaker-owners and served as Chair of the collective in the late 2010s. Three of his five films debuting on OVID this week are shorts from his Youth and Gender Media Project, which spotlights stories of trans and gender nonconforming children. They are Becoming Joanna, I’m Just Anneke, and The Family Journey: Raising Gender Nonconforming Children. The other two are his earlier, medium-length documentaries Spit It Out, about a stutterer, and A Day’s Work, A Day’s Pay, about three people on welfare in New York City in the Work Experience Program.
These five films begin non-exclusively streaming on OVID on Tuesday, January 27.
Paradise Lost: The Child Murders At Robin Hood Hills (1996)
The true-crime classic Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills turns 30 years old this week, having premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 27, 1996. The feature went on to win a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Informational Programming, spawned two sequels and a dramatic remake, gave us one of the most memorable documentary characters of all time, and helped to free its three wrongfully convicted subjects from life imprisonment sentences. Here is an excerpt from our Doc Option column recommending the trilogy:
When filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky arrived in West Memphis, Arkansas, in 1994 to cover the murder trials of three teenagers, they had no idea what they were in for. The unforgettable Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley Jr., and Jason Baldwin stood accused of murdering three young boys the prior summer. Police believed the crime was Satanic in nature and that the murders were part of an arcane ritual.
It quickly became apparent to Berlinger and Sinofsky that all the evidence against the WM3 was circumstantial, that the idea that there was anything ritualistic about the killings was a part of the Satanic Panic of the ’80s and ’90s, and that these young men had been singled out because they were weird enough to attract suspicion. The movie they ended up making, Paradises Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, is a verite masterpiece, a modern version of The Crucible in which mass paranoia threatens the innocent and allows the wicked to go unpunished.
Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills is streaming on HBO Max.
Sundance Documentaries
The 2026 Sundance Film Festival has begun its final year in Park City, but you don’t have to travel to Utah to see some of the documentaries screening at the event. Many of the programmed films will be available to watch online starting Thursday, January 29, including a bunch of our most anticipated documentaries of 2026, such as Nuisance Bear, Who Killed Alex Odeh?, American Doctor, Time and Water, and Ghost in the Machine. You can also buy tickets for this year’s award winners, whatever they will be.
In the meantime, or as an alternative way of celebrating the event this week, we have a list of the best Sundance documentaries of all time, including Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky’s Brother’s Keeper (streaming on Kanopy and AMC+), Werner Herzog’s Grizzly Man (Kanopy, Prime Video, The Criterion Channel, and Tubi), Les Blank’s In Heaven There Is No Beer? (The Criterion Channel), James Marsh’s Man on Wire (Kanopy, Prime Video, and Tubi), Jennie Livingston’s Paris is Burning (HBO Max and The Criterion Channel), Ross McElwee’s Sherman’s March (OVID and Kanopy), and Martin Bell’s Streetwise (The Criterion Channel). Also, Barbara Kopple’s hard-to-find masterpiece American Dream, which is screening at Sundance this year for its 35th anniversary.
When We Were Kings (1996)
Another documentary celebrating its 30th anniversary this week is Leon Gast’s When We Were Kings, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 24, 1996. After its theatrical release later in the year, the film went on to win the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature and the Critics Choice Award for Best Documentary. Originally intended to be a concert film covering a three-day music festival in Zaire in 1974, the documentary ended up being more focused on the Muhammad Ali and George Foreman boxing match known as “The Rumble in the Jungle,” held in conjunction with the show. Here’s more info, excerpted from our review of When We Were Kings:
The fight was now the main event. And Ali was the main concentration. Whether he’s the main character is another story. It’s certainly about him, but I might argue that Norman Mailer and George Plimpton are the stars of When We Were Kings as much as Ali is. The two writers are among the five talking heads who were interviewed for the film in the ’90s (Spike Lee is another), and at one point, they provide a rat-a-tat-tat telling and analysis of the bout’s climax that is even more captivating than the boxer’s poetic showboating that makes up much of the earlier-shot material. Meanwhile, the concert acts, including James Brown, B.B. King, and The Spinners, are almost relegated to tertiary status.
When We Were Kings is streaming on HBO Max, The Criterion Channel, The Roku Channel, and Shout! TV.
Documentary Release Calendar 1/23/26 - 1/29/26
Friday, January 23, 2026
The Big Johnson (2025) - A documentary feature about LGBTQI pioneer Dean Johnson. (In Theaters)
The BMF Documentary: Blowing Money Fast Season 2, Episode 2 - “With the Streets Comes the Violence” - The latest installment of a docuseries about the Black Mafia Family. (Starz)
George Hall and His Orchestra (1937) - A short music film featuring performances by the titular group. (TCM)
Molly-Mae: Behind It All Season 2, Episode 5 - The latest installment of a nonfiction series about British influencer Molly-Mae Hague. (Prime Video)
Monsterquest Season 5, Episode 4: “Hunted” - The latest episode of a docuseries about strange creatures spotted around the world. (History)
Standout: The Ben Kjar Story (2025) - A biographical documentary about the titular wrestler and professional speaker who has Crouzon syndrome. (In Theaters)
Saturday, January 24, 2026
2DIE4 (2026) - A nonfiction feature that follows Formula 1 driver Felipe Nasr in his attempt to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans race. (IMAX Theaters)
Accident, Suicide, or Murder Season 6, Episode 10: “Mother’s Trigger” - The latest episode of this true-crime series involves a 10-year-old boy shooting his dad. (Oxygen)
Don’t Look Back (1967) - A documentary by D.A. Pennebaker following Bob Dylan’s 1965 tour in England. Read our review of Don’t Look Back. *NONFICS PICK* (TCM)
Iyanla: The Inside Fix Season 1, Episode 2: “Bitterness, Blame, and False Realities” - A nonfiction series that revisits Iyanla Vanzant’s show Fix My Life. (OWN)
Kingdom Season 1, Episode 1: “Four Crowns, One Kingdom” - The first installment of a nature series narrated by Sir David Attenborough following rival families of leopards, hyenas, wild dogs, and lions. (AMC+ and BBC America)
Maxxed Out Season 1, Episode 3: “Faith & Finances” - The latest episode of a docuseries focused on people currently having financial troubles. (OWN)
MGM Parade Show #2 (1955) - The second installment of a documentary series devoted to promoting MGM’s films. This film features Judy Garland and Gene Kelly. (TCM)
Sunday, January 25, 2026
Did’ja Know (1950) - A short film produced by Pete Smith that shares answers to various questions. (TCM)
The Hillside Strangler Episode 2: “The Many Faces of Ken Bianchi” - The latest installment of a true-crime docuseries following two serial killers who terrorized Los Angeles in the 1970s. (MGM+)
Killer Relationship with Faith Jenkins Season 4, Episode 12: “Shattered Vows” - The latest installment of a true-crime docuseries about romances gone tragically wrong. (Oxygen)
Snapped: Women Who Kill Episode 4: “Donna Horwitz” - The latest installment of a true-crime docuseries about mysterious and violent cases. This episode is technically part of Snapped Season 36. (Oxygen)
Where is Jane Doe? (1956) - A short true-crime documentary following a New York City detective investigating a missing persons case. (TCM)
Monday, January 26, 2026
120 Hours Behind Bars Season 1, Episode 2: “Leake County Jail” - The latest installment of a nonfiction series that looks at America’s toughest jails. (Discovery)
Big Blue Goose (1956) - A short documentary in the Sportscope series about hunting a specific species of goose. (TCM)
Contraband: Seized at the Border Season 8, Episode 2: '“Grab Bag” - The latest episode of a nonfiction series focused on smuggling cases handled by Customs and Border Protection officers. (Discovery)
The Curious Case of… Season 2, Episode 3: “The Skincare Queen and the Hitman - Part 1” - The latest installment of a true-crime docuseries involving mind-bending and jaw-dropping cases. This episode is about a celebrity facialist caught in a web of lies. (Investigation Discovery)
Fatal Attraction: I’d Kill to Be You Season 1, Episode 1: “Latasha Brown: Longing for a Baby” - A true-crime series about cases involving jealousy. (TV One)
History’s Deadliest with Ving Rhames Season 1 - A docuseries about history’s most devastating killers, weapons, battles, and disasters. (History)
Mouth of the Wolf: Amanda Knox Returns to Italy (2026) - A documentary following Amanda Knox as she confronts the prosecutor who sent her to jail for a crime she didn’t commit. (Hulu)
Vivien’s Wild Ride (2025) - A documentary memoir directed by Hollywood film editor Vivien Hillgrove about her declining eyesight. Presented as an episode of Independent Lens. (PBS)
Tuesday, January 27, 2026
33 Photos from the Ghetto (2026) - A documentary feature about the only known photographs taken inside the Warsaw Ghetto in April 1943. (HBO Max)
Abled: The Blake Leeper Story (2023) - A documentary about Paralympian Blake Leeper’s attempt to compete in the Olympics. (DVD)
Becoming Johanna (2016) - A short documentary directed by Jonathan Skurnik about a transgender teen. (OVID)
A Day’s Work, A Day’s Pay (2001) - A medium-length documentary directed by Jonathan Skurnik about a controversial welfare-to-work program in New York City. (OVID)
Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire - A biographical documentary about the titular author and Holocaust survivor, who is best known for writing the memoir Night. Presented as an episode of American Masters. (PBS)
The Family Journey: Raising Gender Nonconforming Children (2010) - A short documentary directed by Jonathan Skurnik about gender nonconforming children. (OVID)
Filmmakers for the Prosecution (2021) - A medium-length documentary about the collection of film evidence against Nazis after World War II. (TCM)
Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr. Season 12, Episode 4: “The Road We Took” - The latest installment of a docuseries presenting celebrities with their ancestral history. Actress Lizzy Caplan and comic Hasan Minhaj are the participants in this episode. (PBS)
The Gods of Times Square (1999) - A documentary about the change to New York’s Times Square in the 1990s. (Blu-ray)
The House From... (2024) - A documentary about famous houses from movies and TV and their current owners. (Blu-ray)
Hung Up on a Dream: The Zombies Documentary (2023) - A documentary feature about the British rock band The Zombies. Read our review of Hung Up on a Dream: The Zombies Documentary and find it on our list of the best documentaries of 2025. *NONFICS PICK* (In Theaters)
I’m Just Anneke (2010) - A short documentary directed by Jonathan Skurnik about a gender nonconforming preteen. (OVID)
Killer Confessions: Case Files of a Texas Ranger Season 1, Episode 3: “True Crime Lies” - A true-crime docuseries involving confessions, starring a retired Texas Ranger. (Investigation Discovery)
Let’s Spend the Night Together (1982) - A concert film starring the Rolling Stones. (4KUHD, Blu-ray, and DVD)
Pole to Pole with Will Smith Episodes 5 & 6: “The Pacific Islands” & “The Kalahari Desert” - The latest episodes of a nature docuseries starring Will Smith covering the whole planet. (National Geographic)
Shoah: Four Sisters (2018) - A documentary by Claude Lanzmann (Shoah) focused on interviews with four women who survived the Holocaust. *NONFICS PICK* (TCM)
The Sorrow and the Pity (1969) - An Oscar-nominated documentary by Marcel Ophüls about the Vichy government in France during World War II. *NONFICS PICK* (TCM)
Spit it Out (2004) - A medium-length documentary directed by Jonathan Skurnik about a man coming to terms with his stutter. (OVID)
Take That Season 1 - A three-part docuseries about the titular boy band. (Netflix)
Wednesday, January 28, 2026
Alaska State Troopers Season 9, Episode 4: “Make Yourself Known” - The latest installment of a docuseries about state troopers in Alaska. (A&E)
Decathlon Champion: The Story of Glenn Morris (1937) - A short film in the Pete Smith Specialty franchise about the winner of the 1936 Olympic decathlon event. (TCM)
Expedition X Season 11, Episode 4: “Terror Below Deck” - The latest installment of a paranormal investigation series. (Discovery)
Harlan Coben’s Final Twist Season 1, Episode 4: “Who Killed Joy?” - The latest installment of a true-crime docuseries exposing shocking murders and scandals. This episode involves a mother’s murder covered up by a fire. (CBS and Paramount+)
My Strange Addiction Season 7, Episode 4 - The latest installment of a docuseries about individuals with obsessive behaviors. (TLC)
People on Paper (1945) - A short documentary about comic strips and cartoonists. (TCM)
Scholastic England (1948) - A short documentary installment of James A. FitzPatrick’s TravelTalks travelogue franchise that explores the British schools Cambridge, Oxford, and Eton. (TCM)
Seattle: Gateway to the Northwest (1940) - A short documentary installment of James A. FitzPatrick’s TravelTalks travelogue franchise that showcases the titular Washington city. (TCM)
Sportsmen at Work (1957) - A short documentary showcasing a New York State Conservation camp. (TCM)
Thursday, January 29, 2026
Chicago, the Beautiful (1948) - A short documentary installment of James A. FitzPatrick’s TravelTalks travelogue franchise that explores Chicago. (TCM)
The Land of the Whale (2024) - A documentary directed by Armando Capó in which he returns to his hometown to make a film about a whale. (OVID)
The Song Remains the Same (1976) - A concert film starring Led Zeppelin. (TCM)
Sneak Peek At What’s Coming Soon
1/30 - Natchez - A documentary feature about the historical legacy of the titular town in Mississippi. *NONFICS PICK* (In Theaters)
2/4 - The Investigation of Lucy Letby - A true-crime documentary about a neonatal nurse convicted of fatally harming infants. Watch the new trailer for the film below. (Netflix)
2/6 - Queen of Chess - A biographical documentary directed by Rory Kennedy about chess prodigy Judit Polgár. Read more in our 2026 documentary preview. (Netflix)
2/14 - The Rose: Come Back to Me - A documentary feature about the titular South Korean indie band. Watch the trailer for the film below. (In Theaters)
2/18 - Being Gordon Ramsey - A docuseries about the titular chef and TV personality. (Netflix)
2/20 - Billy Preston: That’s the Way God Planned It - A biographical documentary about the titular keyboardist. Watch the new trailer for the film below. (In Theaters)
2/23 - The Inquisitor - A documentary feature about Texas congresswoman Barbara Jordan. (PBS)
3/4 - AURORA: What Happened to the Earth? - A concert film starring the Norwegian singer. Watch the new trailer for the film below. (In Theaters)
3/6 - André Is An Idiot - A documentary feature following a man after his cancer diagnosis. Read our review of André Is An Idiot. *NONFICS PICK* (In Theaters)
5/12 - Marty, Life is Short - A biographical documentary directed by Lawrence Kasdan about actor and comedian Martin Short. (Netflix)