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Every screening at this 11-day Bangkok documentary festival is free

What the Doc Film Festival 2026 brings stories from 113 countries to two cinemas across town, all with Thai and English subtitles

Kaweewat Siwanartwong
Written by
Kaweewat Siwanartwong
Senior Staff Writer, Time Out Thailand
What the Doc Film Festival
Photograph: What the Doc Film Festival | Documentary Club
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Eleven days, films from 113 countries and not a single baht to pay at the door. What the Doc Film Festival (WTD!) 2026 is back, and the promise is a simple one. Every screening is free, start to finish.

Organised by Documentary Club, the festival hands the microphone to people whose stories have often been silenced, forgotten or written out of the record, and puts them back on the big screen.

What the Doc Film Festival
Photograph: What the Doc Film FestivalDocumentary Club

Four of this year's highlight programmes come with an international guest flying in to present in person:

  • Jasper Hokken, a programmer from IDFA in Amsterdam (widely called the Cannes of the documentary world), brings six award-winning films and a talk on how festivals pick their line-ups.
  • Khavn De La Cruz, the godfather of Philippine indie cinema, screens three films, one with live music played alongside the picture.
  • Mania Akbari, a bold voice working out of the UK, presents three documentaries that lay her life and her art bare.
  • 'Are We Monsters?', a Thai short that took Best Short Film in Argentina, gets its first-ever home screening – one night only.

Fancy a prize while you're at it? Watch something, then review or comment on it and post with #wtd!2026 for a shot at a share of B30,000. You can also sit in on live Q&As with filmmakers from all over.

What the Doc Film Festival
Photograph: What the Doc Film FestivalDocumentary Club

Opening night, September 3, brings the world premiere of 'Song Sakan', the latest from Uruphong Raksasad, a Suphannahong winner and holder of the UNESCO Diversity Award. It follows a team of craftsmen from Chiang Rai as they build and carry the ornate 'Lanna Funeral Castles' that local tradition calls for, measuring timber, fixing the gold trim and hauling the finished structure through the streets.

WTD! 2026 runs September 3-13 at Doc Club & Friends in the Cloud 11 building (BTS Punnawithi) and Century Theater Sukhumvit (BTS On Nut).

Admission is free, subtitles are sorted and you collect your ticket at the venue 30 minutes before each screening. 

For the full programme, head to wtd.in.th or What the Doc Thailand.

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