The Grierson Trust has announced the longlist for the 2026 British Documentary Awards — set for November 10, 2026, at the Roundhouse in London — in association with All3Media.
This year’s awards form the centerpiece of the Trust’s celebration of the 100th anniversary of John Grierson first coining the term ‘documentary’ when discussing filmmaking. The centenary is also shared with Sir David Attenborough, who celebrated his 100th year in May. This year’s Best Science and Natural History Documentary award will be presented as the Sir David Attenborough Award for Best Science and Natural History Documentary.
The longlist spans 15 program categories, with the BBC again topping this year’s line-up with 32 entries across its channels and on iPlayer, followed by Channel 4 with 19, Netflix with 17, Sky Documentaries with seven, National Geographic with five, Apple TV+, ITV and The Guardian with three each, Disney+ with two, and HBO Max, Prime Video, Channel 5, and Discovery with one each.
London and Glasgow-based Rogan Productions is the production company with the highest number of entries.
The Trust has refreshed the categories this year, with the addition of Best Digital Documentary and the return of two awards: Channel 4 Best Constructed and Formatted Documentary Series, and Most Entertaining Documentary.
The complete longlist is available here.
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