Business Doc Europe reports results of The Cost of Docs 2025 / 2026

Business Doc Europe news article published Wednesday 28th January 2026

‘Jane Ray, Artistic Director of The Whickers, presented January 28 findings of her organisation’s eighth Cost of Docs survey to the professional audience at FIPADOC in Biarritz. The report includes revelations and insights about the use of technology and AI within the doc industry, positive and negative experiences in co-production, and the ever-present concern around funding.

According to Ray, this is The Whickers’ most international survey to date, with 73% of respondents from outside the UK, which, they claim, gives them a far better perspective of the documentary industry globally.

The survey found that one of the biggest shifts from last year is the cost of kit hire. In the 2024/25 survey, this was cited as an expense for 42% of documentaries, but this figure has now leapt to 73%. Dig under the surface, and it becomes clear that filmmakers are now using a wider variety of cameras, with DSLRs, cinema cameras, HD Camcorders and drones, all being used in at least 39% of productions.

For the first time, respondents were asked about the use of AI, which threw up some unexpected results.

“In terms of surprises, the biggest is probably that AI is already being relied upon for the doc creation process by half of respondents,” says Ray. Understandably, AI is most often being employed for translation and, consequently, professional translator costs are the only tracked budgetary item which shows as a reduced cost (according to 12% of respondents). “It [AI] is also being widely used for writing funding applications. A few said they are composing with AI and creating scenes that they can no longer afford to film in real life,” Ray revealed to BDE.

It seems the increased use of AI in funding applications isn’t actually saving any time, however. The survey shows how docmakers are spending significantly more time on funding applications, with the vast majority now taking weeks or months, rather than days.

Few filmmakers will be surprised to learn that lack of funding represents the greatest anxiety within the industry. Only 21% of documentary makers felt they were adequately paid for their work though, on average, respondents felt they had been properly paid for 42% of their time – a slight improvement from last year’ s figure of 35%.

Sadly, 4% of respondents say that the cost of living has forced them to quit the industry, while a further 56% say it has had a major impact on their ability to make documentaries, with just 16% able to pay themselves a wage from their production fund. Other freelance work makes up the shortfall for 55% of respondents.

Since the last Cost of Docs Survey, several much relied upon, gold-standard funds have been paused or folded,” says Ray. These include Hot Docs Crosscurrents, Hot Docs Blue Ice Fund, IDA Enterprise Fund, Ida Logan Elevate Grant, Visions Sud-est, and Circle Doc Accelerator.

“The Whickers have been fortunate. Our board of trustees have responded generously to this survey’s evidence of escalating costs by raising our top Film and TV award from £100,000 to £120,000 and the Development award from £20,000 to £25,000, but we are in a rare position.”

There’s light and shade in many of the findings, as Ray further elucidates.

“In terms of the biggest disparity of experience, this comes in relation to co-production. For around most of our respondents, their experience of teaming up with another production company in return for a profit share has opened up wondrous access to other talents, markets and funders, and yet others report frankly sordid tales of deceit and exploitation.”

“There is also a worrying creep in the number of sales and distribution agents demanding money upfront from the docmaker,” says Ray. Filmmakers reporting being asked for upfront, non-returnable deposits has risen from 3% to 7% since last year. Often, Ray tells us, this deposit is kept if the distributor fails to find a home for the project, with no comeback available to the filmmakers. On top of this, grant funding is being taken from some filmmakers, for instance in the MENA region, Latin America or Asia, and ending up in the coffers of European co-production companies who assign their own crews, leaving the original filmmakers with a fraction of the grant they originally secured.

Ray explains: “What’s coming through more strongly than ever before, is that there are pockets of co-producers who seem to be building ignorance of the way that co-production should work into their business models. They’re promising to elevate the film, to provide extraordinary access and distribution in order to get paid from funds and grants that they could not have secured without these original stories. So, the filmmaker who is grant-aided, who has taken all the risk and has got their film to the point where a co-producer is interested in coming on board, gets a pittance.”

Once this has happened, filmmakers and funders alike are often powerless, as this practice is taking place outside of their legal jurisdiction. Even if there was the chance of legal redress, in many cases the already cash-strapped filmmakers don’t have money for lawyers, or are reluctant to jeopardise future professional relationships.

Perhaps one solution would be that if there were an industry standard protocol of how to structure a deal with co-producers laid out by an organisation such as the IMS (International Media Support), then there would be somewhere to turn to for filmmakers who fall foul of these deals, Ray posits.

“We are dependent on these talented filmmakers from parts of the world that we could never gain access to, to go after stories that tell us the truth about the world. We need to be a bit more honest and open ourselves in our business models and structures, and provide protection, transparency and good practice.”

There are still reasons to be cheerful though, according to Ray. One survey finding is that a significant proportion of documentaries (41%) now take between 6 months and 2 years to complete. It appears that since Covid, fewer documentaries are taking longer than this to produce and complete.

“There are pockets of cautious optimism; fewer docmakers are taking a job unrelated to documentary to pay the bills whilst working on their film. Perhaps, as a consequence of this, the average length of time it takes to complete their film has reduced for the first time.”

On the wellbeing and mental health front, 41% of respondents felt that they needed mental health support during the production of their most recent documentary, but 37% felt unable to afford it. Only 19% knew where to even look for mental health support. Not a single Arabic respondent answered ‘yes’ to needing mental health support, the organisation reveals. Ray further cites one of the comments returned by an Arabic respondent who wrote, “Documentary films are the mirror of society, reflecting the human soul.”

Ray concludes, “Once again it is humbling to see the amount of time documentary makers from all corners of the world are taking to tell us how they are faring in today’s challenging climate,” but she also tempers that with an appeal to the whole industry.

“If The Cost of Docs Survey is to continue into its second decade, we need more volume as well as range. The Whickers are always interested to hear how we might incentivise more people to participate in The Cost of Docs survey to gain ever more insight into the pressures and trends. We do this because we feel strongly that quality and diversity in documentary making matters, now more than ever.”

Click here to read The Whickers Cost Docs 2025/26 report in its entirety or head over to our Cost of Docs page to see all 7 previous editions

Thank you to our partner Sheffield DocFest for working with us on the survey and for sharing on their platform