Overview Doc Stories is SFFILM's four-day documentary festival in San Francisco each November, timed to the awards calendar in a region that SFFILM says has one of the highest concentrations of Academy documentary branch members in the country. Its program has featured more than 20 Academy Award and international award winners and contenders, among them No Other Land, winner of the 2025 Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. Doc Stories started in 2015, and the 2025 edition, its 11th, played ten features and 12 shorts at the Vogue Theatre. SFFILM also runs the San Francisco International Film Festival, which it describes as the longest-running film festival in the Americas. On site The festival runs on early and exclusive screenings followed by conversations with the filmmakers and audience questions, opening and closing nights, and a small set of hosted events: a welcome party, a filmmaker happy hour and the Doc Stories Brunch. The brunch is invite-only, about 150 guests of filmmakers, VIPs, industry and Academy voters, and SFFILM calls it the most anticipated event of the four days. A slideshow runs before every screening. In 2025 Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus's Cover-Up, on the journalist Seymour Hersh, opened the festival, Tasha Van Zandt's A Life Illuminated, on the marine biologist Edie Widder, closed it, and Mariska Hargitay's My Mom Jayne played as a free community screening. Audience The seats hold Bay Area documentary audiences and the trade side by side: filmmakers travel in with their films, and SFFILM builds the weekend around getting them in front of Academy voters and industry decision-makers. Talent and Influencers Filmmakers who came to present work in 2025 included Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus with Seymour Hersh himself, Ben Proudfoot, Mariska Hargitay, Sky Hopinka and Tamara Kotevska. Brand presence The presenting sponsor's name is on the pre-screening slideshow before every festival screening, and it alone can run a 15 to 30 second trailer before all of them. Presenting and major sponsors get the branded step and repeat for press and talent, recognition in the remarks before screenings, seats at the brunch and reserved seating with concierge service. Lower levels take a dedicated logo slide before every screening and the option to sponsor a single film or event, and sponsors can host the welcome party, the happy hour or the brunch.