The festival revolves around film screenings, interactive and virtual reality exhibitions, talks & sessions, marketplace and talent for the funding and distribution of documentaries and development of filmmakers, live events, and its own awards.

The chairman at the time, Steve Hewlett, visited the Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC) where he met its director Heather Croall, who had a background in filmmaking and had founded the cross-platform storytelling event DigiDocs.

[6] The 1990s rise in international co-productions meant that British producers could no longer rely solely on one big broadcaster for their entire budget, and instead had to look abroad to piece together financing for their films.

Following the 2019 edition, Director of Film Programming Luke Moody resigned, challenging tensions between the board and the programme's internationalism in comments made to BFI's Sight & Sound magazine.

The Festival opened with the UK premiere of Moonage Daydream by Brett Morgan at Sheffield's City Hall, where Ziggy Stardust performed 50 years prior.

The Festival saw the World Premiere of Werner Herzog's The Fire Within: A Requiem for Katie and Maurice Krafft; Yorkshire title A Bunch of Amateurs by Kim Hopkins won the Audience Award, Sansón and Me by Rodrigo Reyes took the top prize in International Competition, and Rosa Ruth Boesten's Master of Light which had previously pitched at the MeetMarket in 2019, won the First Feature Competition award.

[49] Notable guests featured in the Talks & Sessions programme included: Pratibha Parmar, Asif Kapadia and editor Chris King, Nainta Desai, Charlie Craggs, Ellie Simmonds, Will Young and Clive Myrie.

[51] The film programme included a guest curated retrospective on Black British Cinema which saw curatorial contributions from Mark Sealy, We Are Parable, Campbell X (dir.

The strand spotlighted films and filmmakers from the northern counties of England and included amongst its selection Kim Flitcroft's Tales from a Hard City, a documentary set in Sheffield which first premiered at the Festival in 1995.

Speakers in the Festival's Talks & Sessions programme included David Olusoga, Lydia Lunch, Mark Cousins, Betsy West and Julie Cohen amongst others.

The Festival's Q&As, panels and industry sessions all moved to a virtual format, and an Artist Spotlights series launched online to highlight makers and projects selected in the Alternate Realities programme.

During the Autumn of 2020, when cinemas temporarily reopened following lockdown, the Festival hosted a number of weekend screenings and Q&As to bring films from the official selection to audiences in Sheffield.

[55] Programme included "The Rest by Ai Weiwei, Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin by Werner Herzog, Midnight Family by Luke Lorentzen, Earth by Nikolaus Geyrhalter, One Child Nation by Nanfu Wang, About Love by Archana Atul Phadke, and For Sama by Waad Al-Kateab and Edward Watts.

[55] The Talks & Sessions programme included: Werner Herzog, Paul Greengrass, Jenn Nkiru, Asif Kapadia, Chidera Eggerue, Stacey Dooley, Rodney P, Michael Dapaah, Jeremy Deller and Paddy Wivell.

More than 300 Decision Makers from more than 30 countries attended the 2019 Festival,[55] including executives from Netflix, Arte, BBC, Channel 4, Cinereach, Doc Society, Dogwoof, Altitude, Submarine Entertainment, ESPN, National Geographic, POV, RYOT, Artangel, Passion Pictures and Pulse Films.

[57] The Talks & Sessions programme included big-name speakers Lenny Henry, Peter Greenaway, Ian Hislop, Stacey Dooley, Nick Broomfield and Louis Theroux.

[72] In 2016, came the introduction of the DocFest Exchange on Tudor Square developed with Wellcome, which hosted a series of public talks, including an interview with This is England director Shane Meadows.

A record 14 film screening at DocFest were developed and funded through MeetMarket,[109] including Joshua Oppenheimer's The Act of Killing which went on to win the Audience Award.

[6] World premieres included Basically, Johnny Moped, Emptying The Skies, Everybody's Child, A Fragile Trust: Plagiarism, Power & Jayson Blair at the New York Times, Here Was Cuba, Mirage Men, Notes from the Inside with James Rhodes, Particle fever, Plot for Peace, Project Wild Thing, Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic, The Big Melt, Which Way is the Front Line from Here?

[111] Film strands included Behind the Beats, Best of British, Cross-Platform, Euro/Doc, First Cut, Global Encounters, New York Times Op-Docs, Queer Screen, Resistance, Shorts, The Habit of Art, and This Sporting Life.

[9] Notable speakers included Adam Buxton, Melvyn Bragg, Jonathan Franzen, Uri Geller, Ira Glass, Alex Graham, Janice Hadlow, Jay Hunt, Ross Kemp, Mark Kermode, Sir Trevor McDonald, Hardeep Singh Kohli, Walter Murch, Miranda Sawyer interviewing Michael Palin, Sue Perkins, Captain Sensible, and Alan Yentob.

The Festival opened with Morgan Spurlocks' POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold and featured box-office hit Senna, Alma Har'el's debut Bombay Beach, an Albert Maysels retrospective, and Oscar-winning director Barbara Kopple's Gun Fight.

Past high-profile speakers include Sir David Attenborough,[165] Louis Theroux,[166] Nick Broomfield,[166] Stacey Dooley,[167] Joanna Lumley,[168] Reggie Yates,[26] Walter Murch,[169] Michael Moore,[168] Kim Longinotto,[170] Tilda Swinton,[171] D. A. Pennebaker,[171] John Akomfrah,[172] Brett Morgan,[173] Sue Perkins,[174] and Joan Rivers.

[179] In 2016, 64 projects from 27 countries were chosen to participate, including new films from Orlando von Einsiedel, Jennifer Brea, Mike Lerner, Stefan Kloos, Nick Fraser, Christoph Jorg, David Letterman, Al Morrow, Jeanie Finlay, Andre Singer, Amir Amiriani, and Catherine Allen.

313 Decision Makers took part in the MeetMarket, Alternate Realities Market and various other Marketplace initiatives from organisations including Red Bull, Canal+, Al Jazeera, Discovery, National Geographic, Google, and Netflix.

300 executives, distributors, commissioners, funders, advisors and buyers across documentary and digital media took part in the MeetMarket and Marketplace activity including The Guardian, BBC, Arte, Dogwoof and Channel 4.

Filmmakers included Franny Armstrong, Marshall Curry, Jeanie Finlay, Alex Gibney, Phil Grabsky, Brian Hill, Viktor Kossakovsky and Joshua Oppenheimer.

Pitched projects are selected from an open call, cover a range of topics, and offer funding, in-kind support and Festival Pass prizes.

[187] On-Screen Talent Market is a Sheffield DocFest initiative to connect charismatic subject-specialists with producers, commissioners, and other Decision Makers looking for fresh faces for their programmes.

[160] Each Festival sees dozens of networking drinks hosted by partners, sponsors and supporters, such as Image Nation Abu Dhabi, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Shooting People, and many more.