Sheffield Documentary Festival 2016: My BBC highlights

The BBC had a brilliant Sheffield DocFest with some stand out films, exceptional sessions and some of the greatest names in documentary filmmaking speaking about BBC projects.

Louis Theroux discussed his My Scientology Movie for BBC Films.

The legendary D.A Pennebaker and Chris Hedgus talked about the films that changed documentary making forever (Don’t Look Back, The War Room) as well as their new BBC Storyville on animal rights, Unlocking the Cage.

We launched our New Directors Initiative aimed at the next generation of filmmakers.

And we engaged with the growing careers of BBCThree documentary faces Reggie Yates, Professor Green and Stacey Dooley.

But my highlight of the festival was the exceptional session where Sir David Attenborough inspired a packed Crucible Theatre with the passion, inspiration and risk taking that has driven him over seven decades at the heart of public service broadcasting. Amazing.

Patrick Holland is Head of Commissioning, Documentaries.

• Read Hannah Khalil's blog: BBC at Sheffield Documentary Festival 2016.
• Find out more about upcoming BBC documentaries on the BBC Media Centre website.