American documentary filmmakers can get into Sundance. They can win awards. They can sell around the world.
And still not find a buyer in the United States.
That was the mood at this week’s Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival (CPH:DOX), where filmmakers and producers compared notes on a U.S. market that feels less like a slowdown than a disappearance.
Last year, veteran producer Christian Beetz left CPH:Forum feeling confident. After pitching his documentary “Elon Musk Unveiled – The Tesla Experiment,” several American distributors told him they would support the film in 2026.
Directed by Andreas Pichler, the film argues that Tesla drivers using Autopilot are effectively unpaid test subjects, helping refine self-driving technology on public roads. Since premiering last November at IDFA, the documentary has secured distribution in 20 territories worldwide.
Beetz believes interest evaporated after President Trump launched a campaign in March 2025 targeting major American law firms tied to his political opponents.
“That completely changed everything,” Beetz told IndieWire.
The project itself originated with a streamer, which initially flagged the story as too big to handle internally.
“They told me, ‘Listen, Christian, we have a story on our table, which might be too big for us, so could you take care of it?” Beetz said.
The reporting came from German business newspaper Handelsblatt, which in 2023 revealed 100GB of internal Tesla files leaked by whistleblower Lukasz Krupski—material detailing buried defects, internal data, and the risks of challenging one of tech’s most powerful figures.
Beetz understood the project might be “too big, too political” to commission. He didn’t expect it to be too political to buy.
He also didn’t expect it to be shut out of American festivals.
After early conversations with Sundance programmers, Beetz assumed the film would land in the 2026 lineup.
“I really thought they would take it,” he said. “But that didn’t happen.”
Festivals, including Sundance and SXSW, still program political docs. The Sundance 2026 lineup included “American Doctor” and “Silenced,” while “First They Came for My College” and “The Dads” screened earlier this month at SXSW.
However, after speaking with filmmakers, producers, and documentary funders at CPH, the consensus is U.S. festivals program fewer political documentaries. Often, those spots are reserved for political fare focused on foreign countries like Ukraine, Russia, or Gaza. That could be because documentaries about topical American political issues aren’t being made.
“The most important stories are being done journalistically at the moment,” investigative journalist Carole Cadwalladr said during a CPH panel. “I’m not seeing the documentaries about them.”
Cadwalladr pointed to the speed at which the U.S. press freedom and press ownership have collapsed. She warned the crowd of documentary filmmakers that, “There is less time than you think. If we do not act now, we are not going to be in a position to tell some of these stories.”
At this point, it’s possible American audiences may never see Beetz’s film at all. Across the market, streamers appear increasingly reluctant to touch documentaries that risk offending political power centers or their allies.
At CPH:DOX, multiple politically engaged documentaries — including Poh Si Teng’s “American Doctor,” Selina Miles’ “Silenced,” and Marc Silver’s “Molly Vs The Machines” — have generated strong critical and audience response. None have been acquired by major U.S. streamers.
“It’s never been great for political docs,” said TIFF documentary programmer Thom Powers. “But the difference is that there usually have been some openings. As long as I can remember, political docs actually did better during Republican administrations than under Democratic administrations. Think of ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’ in 2004. Or ‘I’m Not Your Negro’ or ‘RBG’ which came out during the first Trump administration.”
The pullback isn’t limited to political films.
Independently produced documentaries without major IP — even high-profile festival titles — are also struggling to find U.S. buyers.
Andreas Dalsgaard’s “The Oligarch and the Art Dealer,” a three-part series about a Russian oligarch and a billion-dollar art-world betrayal, premiered at Sundance and screened at CPH:DOX. A few years ago, that combination might have triggered a bidding war.
“The reviews are really strong, so it’s puzzling as to why we are still looking for U.S. distribution,” Dalsgaard said. “For documentaries that are produced independently, but also that don’t have big IP, meaning it’s not about a big Hollywood celebrity, it’s very hard for these documentaries to get distribution in the U.S. To have Sundance and CPH:DOCS (accept the doc) and still be looking for distribution in the U.S. is frustrating because it really deserves an audience.”
So far, the series has sold in 10 European territories.
Orlando von Einsiedel’s “The Cycle of Love,” a sweeping 6,000-mile love story set across Iran and Afghanistan, is facing a similar path. The film premiered at Telluride and screened at CPH:DOX, but U.S. distribution remains unresolved.
“We have had to work a lot harder than we all anticipated to piece together the right distribution strategy,” said Einsiedel, who won Netflix’s first Oscar in 2017 for “The White Helmets.”
Dogwoof will release the film in the UK and Ireland later this year. In the U.S., Einsiedel and his team are still “in the process of locking a plan with a number of partners.”
The disconnect is striking because there is evidence that audiences are there.
“If you are in the business of trying to serve audiences, you need to consider what those audiences want,” Powers said. “We have witnessed incredible grassroots political movements like Black Lives Matter, the Anti-Ice movement, and women’s movements, that show that the (American) public and especially young people, who historically have been an audience that distributors want to reach, are deeply craving to be engaged with the politics of our times. So, fail them at your peril.”
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Source: indiewire.com