| Hip Hop-eration | Bryn Evans | New Zealand |
| I Am the Blues | Daniel Cross | Canada |
| Cartel Land | Matthew Heineman | United States |
| Seamstress | Ville Suhonen | Finland |
| The True Cost | Andrew Morgan | United States |
| The Forest is Like the Mountains | Didier Guillain, Christiane Schmidt | Germany, Romania |
| Last of the Elephant Men | Daniel Ferguson, Arnaud Bouquet | France, Canada, Cambodia |
| Iraqi Odyssey | Samir | Germany, Switzerland, Iraq, United Arab Emirates |
| Den tilfeldige rockestjernen | Leiv Igor Devold | Norway |
| Bonne Nuit Papa | Marina Kem | Germany |
| 20,000 Days on Earth | Iain Forsyth, Jane Pollard | United Kingdom |
| Antonio Vega. Tu voz entre otras mil | — | Spain |
 Blackfish | Gabriela Cowperthwaite | United States |
 Population Boom | Werner Boote | Austria |
 One Direction: This Is Us | Morgan Spurlock | United Kingdom, United States |
| Barefoot in the Kitchen | Diego Galán | Spain |
| La Maison de la radio | Nicolas Philibert | France, Japan |
| Disrupted | Roberto Fiesco | Mexico |
| Cutie and the Boxer | Zachary Heinzerling | United States |
| The Square | Jehane Noujaim | United Kingdom, United States, Egypt |
| Wavemakers | Caroline Martel | Canada |
| So - The Definitive Authorised Story of the Album | — | United Kingdom |
| We Were Children | Tim Wolochatiuk | Canada |
| The Green Planet | Jan Haft | Germany |
| The Human Cargo | Daniele Vicari | Italy |
| Stories We Tell | Sarah Polley | Canada |
| Palme | Kristina Lindström, Maud Nycander | Sweden |
| Ballerina Blues | Ruti Murusalu | Estonia |
| Enxaneta | Paulí Subirà i Claramunt | Spain |
| Colouring Light: Brian Clarke - An Artist Apart | Mark Kidel | United Kingdom |
| Roman Polanski: A Film Memoir | Laurent Bouzereau | United Kingdom, Germany, Italy |
| Senna | Asif Kapadia | United Kingdom |
| Wings of Life | Louis Schwartzberg | France, United States |
| The Glorious Resolve | — | Pakistan |
| Pit No 8 | Marianna Kaat | Estonia, Ukraine |
| Restrepo | Tim Hetherington, Sebastian Junger | United States |
| Mothers, Daughters, Dresses | Ilze Burkovska Jacobsen | Latvia |
| Babies | Thomas Balmès | France |
| Passione | John Turturro | Italy |
| Waiting for "Superman" | Davis Guggenheim | United States |
| The Wildest Dream | Anthony Geffen | United States |
| Women and the Guards | Una Celma | Latvia |
| Capitalism: A Love Story | Michael Moore | United States |
| The Cove | Louie Psihoyos | United States |
| Good Hair | Jeff Stilson | United States |
| Praise of the Distance | — | Spain |
| (Half) The Time of My Life | Marko Doringer | Germany, Austria |
| Léif Lëtzebuerger | Ray Tostevin | United Kingdom, Luxembourg |