Doc Alliance is an international network. It consists of an initiative from seven European documentary film festivals, to which Doclisboa joined in 2013, and aims to support independent documentary film. Each year, Doc Alliance performs a set of activities designed to the development of alternative means of exhibition and distribution of documentary cinema, seeking new forms of collaboration between structures. Apart from Doclisboa, Doc Alliance consists of the following festivals: DOX Copenhagen (Denmark), DOK Lepizig (Germany), FID Marseille (France), Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival (Czech Republic), Docs Against Gravity (Poland) and Visions du Réel (Switzerland).

As a member of Doc Alliance, Doclisboa actively participates in its three main activities: the Doc Alliance Award, the VOD distribution platform (www.dafilms.pt), and the DA Academy.

Doc Alliance Award seven films nominated by each member-festival compete for the Doc Alliance Award, which is given by a seven member jury, equally nominated by each festival. The award ceremony takes place in August, comprised in the Locarno film Festival programme for professional activities. Since Doclisboa joined the project, two Portuguese films have won the award: Captivity, directed by André Gil Mata (2013), and The Quest of the Schooner Creoula, directed by André Valentim Almeida (2014). Later, all seven festivals programme a selection of these films in a special section, aiming at contributing to their circulation.

www.dafilms.com VOD online distribution platform for documentary cinema, to which member festivals contribute with an array of films per year, as well as providing titles for temporary thematic programming. Doclisboa yearly presents a showcase of Portuguese cinema in October, having held several online programmes in the platform: a full retrospective of the work of Catarina Mourão, a showcase of Jorge Silva Melo’s films, a programme of films on the Revolution of April 25th, 1974, on the occasion of its 40 years, among many others.

DA Academy a project started in 2015, in which seven festivals contribute with several teaching materials prepared by each educational service, with films for a common platform: http://www.daacademy.org. The project also includes an annual conference comprising those responsible for the educational services of the festivals. The aim of this project is sharing contents, methodologies, and common development strategies for filmic literacy.