For its 30th edition, the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival will highlight documentaries that have had a significant impact on the world. The festival will run from 23 October to 1 November and will feature several competitions, including international and Czech sections, a retrospective dedicated to Vietnamese-US filmmaker Trinh T. Minh-ha, an anniversary essay film, and a focus on Montenegro's film industry. The festival’s special anniversary strand, Films That Changed the World, includes 13 films that have influenced public opinion, contributed to legal reforms, and helped overturn wrongful convictions. These include The Thin Blue Line by Errol Morris, Titicut Follies by Frederick Wiseman, and S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine by Rithy Panh. Festival director Marek Hovorka noted that over the past 30 years, the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival has seen documentary film evolve into one of the most important ways to understand today’s complex and interconnected world. The festival will also include a retrospective of Trinh T. Minh-ha, a filmmaker and theorist known for her work on identity and culture, and a celebration of Prague’s film school FAMU on its 80th anniversary. An archival essay film, Ji.hlava 30: Thinking Through Film, by Andrea Slováková and Janka Vlčková, will premiere, drawing on three decades of festival recordings. Other international highlights include Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie by Alex Gibney, Trillion by Viktor Kossakovsky, and We Are the Fruits of the Forest by Rithy Panh. The main international competition, Opus Bonum, features 14 films, including ten world premieres, three international premieres, and one European premiere. These films will compete for a $10,000 (approximately €8,907) prize. Among the entries in the Opus Bonum competition are Love Exposed by Filip Remunda, which explores the relationship between photographer Vlastimil Kula and his daughter, and Land of Fire by Nikola Klinger, which observes a Canadian region affected by wildfires and the disappearances of Indigenous women. Other world premieres include I See No Death by Yevhen Titarenko, which follows Ukrainian drone operators, and Good Girls by Ania Winiarska, which looks at life inside a Catholic reformatory for teenage girls in Łódź. Baltic UXO by Agnė Dovydaitytė and Alexander Belinski will have its international premiere, examining the environmental impact of wartime ordnance dumped at sea. For the Moon by Éric Baudelaire, co-created with blind students in Paris, will screen as a European premiere. Both Love Exposed and Land of Fire also feature in the competition for domestic films, Czech Joy, which includes 27 movies. Other world premieres in the festival include Jaroslav Seifert: A Rhythm Outside Time by Pavel Štingl, Birdie by Mariana Macháňová, an intimate bereavement diary, and Up Again by Eliška Cílková Andršová, which follows teenage figure-skating champion Barbora Vránková. Beyond the film screenings, the Inspiration Forum will feature discussions with David Wengrow, co-author of The Dawn of Everything, and Samaneh Moafi from Forensic Architecture. The industry programme, scheduled from 27 to 30 October, will focus on Montenegro, with a panel and pitching sessions. The New Visions Forum will present projects from Europe, the USA, and East and Southeast Asia, while Emerging Producers 2027 will introduce 18 producers. Other events include matchmaking sessions, project round-tables, discussions on Czech documentary financing, and a session on Creative Europe - MEDIA funding.