POV Season 39 Opens with The Dating Game, a Timely Look at Love, Loneliness and Connection in a Digital World
Overview
Debuts July 20, 2026 on PBS Television Nationwide and Streaming on PBS.org and the PBS App Until September 20, 2026
Award-Winning Director Violet Du Feng’s Documentary Offers a Groundbreaking Look at How Technology, Gender Dynamics and the Search for Intimacy are Reshaping Relationships Around the World
Watch Trailer • Download Press Photos • #DatingGameFilmPBS
Brooklyn, N.Y. – July 9, 2026 – As loneliness and digital intimacy increasingly reshape modern relationships around the world, American Documentary’s multi Emmy® Award-winning series, ‘POV,’ opens its 39th season with the premiere of The Dating Game. Directed by Emmy® Award-winning filmmaker Violet Du Feng, the acclaimed documentary uses China's dating crisis as a lens to explore universal questions about love and human connection in the age of screens and AI companionship.
In his review for Screen International, Allan Hunter wrote that “The Dating Game is sustained by the humanity that Du Feng finds in each of the individuals we come to know and understand a little better." The Dating Game will make its national broadcast premiere on POV on PBS stations nationwide Monday, July 20 2026 at 10pmET/9C (check local listings), and will be available to stream until September 20, 2026. The documentary is produced by Violet Du Feng, Joanna Natasegara, James Costa, and Mette Cheng Munthe-Kaas. POV is America’s longest running non-fiction series.
Set in China, where eligible men are estimated to outnumber women by more than 30 million “The Dating Game” examines a demographic phenomenon that has transformed the country’s dating landscape and reflects broader global anxieties around loneliness and connection. The film follows three working-class bachelors as they attend an intensive seven-day dating camp in a last-ditch effort to find love. Guided by a charismatic dating coach, the men learn how to navigate a rapidly changing romantic landscape shaped by economic pressures, shifting gender dynamics and digital culture.
Premiering at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, the film offers a humorous, revealing and deeply empathetic portrait of people searching for connection in an increasingly isolated and mediated world, where modern relationships are shaped by the tension between authenticity and performance.
“Dating has become increasingly political. The economy, technology, and culture all shape how we relate to one another, intensifying gender divides around the world, said Violet Feng, director and producer, The Dating Game. “They are not only redefining how we find love, but also reshaping how we connect with one another as human beings. And I hope this film helps audiences feel seen and included. I can’t dream of a better home for the film than POV. At a time when commercial and social media content increasingly dominates public attention and shapes how we think and feel, The Dating Game finds its relevance in spaces that still make room for complexity. As public media itself comes under pressure, the values it embodies—context, nuance, and empathy—are exactly what our society needs most.”
The film arrives at a moment when loneliness and isolation are increasingly recognized as global social challenges, particularly among younger generations. Using China’s dating crisis as a lens, "The Dating Game" delves into the forces changing the ways people seek love, intimacy and connection.
“We couldn’t imagine a more timely film to open POV’s 39th season,” said Chris White, Executive Producer, American Documentary. “At a time when conversations about China and the United States are dominated by politics and competition, The Dating Game reveals something deeply human and universal, our shared desire for connection, acceptance and love.”
Download The Dating Game photos.
Click The Dating Game Press Kit to access the festival press notes.
“The Dating Game” made its world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Festival accolades include: Special Mention, Best International Director, Doc Edge Festival (2025) and Special Mention, Best International Feature, Doc Edge Festival (2025). The film was an Official selection at CPH:DOX (2025) and True/False Film Fest (2025).
Raves:
“..an empathetic universe of insecurity, flirtation and, hopefully, love.”
— Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times
“The film balances the reality of these experiences with compassion, a sense of humor, and quiet observation, giving the subjects a chance to reflect on their own behaviors and memories.”
— Monica Castillo, rogerebert.com
“The Dating Game” is a production of Fish+Bear Pictures and Violet Films, in association with Bird Street Productions, Ten Thousand Images, and Chicken & Egg Pictures. Violet Du Feng is the director and a producer. Joanna Natasegara, James Costa, and Mette Cheng Munthe-Kaas are also producers. The executive producers are Chandra Jessee and Rebecca Lichtenfeld for Inmaat; Julie Parker Benello, Shizuka Asakawa, Ken Pelletier, Trevor Burgess and Erika Dilday and Chris White for American Documentary | POV. The cinematographer is Wei Gao and the editor is John Farbrother. The editing consultant is Maya Daisy Hawke. Original music is by Chad Cannon.
“The Dating Game” will be available for streaming concurrently with broadcast on all station-branded PBS platforms, including PBS.org and the PBS Video App, available on iOS, Android, Roku streaming devices, Apple TV, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung Smart TV, Chromecast and VIZIO. PBS station members can view many series, documentaries and specials via PBS Passport. For more information about PBS Passport, visit the PBS Passport FAQ website. In addition to standard closed captioning for the film, POV, in partnership with audio description service DiCapta, provides real-time audio interpretations for audiences with sensory disabilities.
Credits
Director/Producer: Violet Du Feng
Producers: Joanna Natasegara, James Costa, and Mette Cheng Munthe-Kaas
Executive Producers: Chandra Jessee and Rebecca Lichtenfeld for Inmaat; Julie Parker Benello, Shizuka Asakawa, Ken Pelletier, Trevor Burgess and Erika Dilday and Chris White for American Documentary | POV
Co-Executive Producers: Yao King, Jenn Lee Smith, Jamie Wolf, Nathalie Seaver
Director of Photography: Wei Gao
Editor: John Farbrother
Consulting Editor: Maya Daisy Hawke
Co-Producers: Abigail Anketell-Jones, Betsy Tsai, Maggie Li
Original Music: Chad Cannon
Countries: United States, United Kingdom, Norway
Language: Mandarin Chinese
Year: 2025
About the Filmmakers
Violet Du Feng, Director, Producer, The Dating Game
Violet Feng is an Emmy®-winning documentary filmmaker, a 2025 Guggenheim Fellow, a 2024 Chicken & Egg Awardee, and a 2023 Sundance Momentum Fellow. Her work is distinguished by its nuanced, intimate storytelling, using deeply personal narratives to illuminate broader social, cultural, and political issues. Her latest feature documentary, The Dating Game, premiered in the World Cinema Documentary Competition at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. The film went on to receive the International Best Director Award at the Doc Edge Festival and has been broadcast in ten countries. Her previous film, HIDDEN LETTERS, was Oscar®-shortlisted and received Emmy® and Peabody nominations. It premiered in competition at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival and won twelve festival awards. She also directed Harbor from the Holocaust, a PBS/CPB special featuring music performed by Yo-Yo Ma. Violet is a member of the Documentary Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) and serves as an adjunct professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
Joanna Natasegara, Producer, The Dating Game
Joanna Natasegara is the Academy Award-winning filmmaker behind Violet Films, a London-based production company. Joanna produced the Oscar®️-winning The White Helmets; the Oscar®️-nominated The Edge of Democracy; the Oscar & BAFTA nominated Virunga; docu-series The Heart of Invictus, all for Netflix; and the Oscar®️-nominated documentary short, Nǎi Nai And Wài Pó for Disney. Recent producing credits include The Dating Game by Violet du Feng and the forthcoming doc short, Maybe Tomorrow, directed by Oscar-nominated Waad al Kateab & Wafa Mustafa. Joanna executive produced Shoot the People, directed by BAFTA-winning director, Andy-Mundy Castle, on renowned photographer Misan Harriaman. Joanna's work as a director includes her directorial debut feature, The Disciple, which premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival and a forthcoming feature documentary on Gisèle Pelicot for HBO Documentary Films.
James Costa, Producer, The Dating Game
James is the Founder & Co-President of Los Angeles based Bird Street Productions. He is an award-winning film producer with over fifty titles to his credit. His most recent projects include the Academy Award®-winning film All the Empty Rooms, The Dating Game, Apocalypse In the Tropics, The Stringer, Cookie Queens, Closure, and The Disciple. He is on the National Council of The Roundabout Theatre in New York, as well as the Vice President for the Board of Directors for Sea Shepherd USA. He is a member of The Producers Guild of America and BAFTA/LA.
Mette Cheng Munthe-Kaas, Producer, The Dating Game
Mette Cheng Munthe-Kaas is an Emmy®-nominated and award-winning producer and editor of feature documentaries, with more than 25 years of experience in the field. She is the founder of the Norwegian-based production company Ten Thousand Images AS (TTI), through which she has produced and co-produced more than fifteen feature-length documentaries, as well as several short films. Her work has received international recognition, and she is a member of the Academy’s Documentary Branch. Her notable credits as producer include the award-winning No Word for Worry (2014), the IDFA-winning Nowhere to Hide (2016), the Oscar®-shortlisted Hidden Letters (2022), and The Dating Game (2025), which premiered at Sundance. As a minority co-producer, her credits include the award-winning Life of Ivanna (2021) and the Berlinale-winning Myanmar Diaries (2022).
About
About POV
Building on five 2026 News & Documentary Emmy® nominations, POV remains one of the most highly-acclaimed documentary series in broadcast and streaming. Recent honors include a 2024 Emmy® win for Eat Your Catfish (POV Season 37), a 2023 Emmy® win for The Last Out (POV Season 36), and a Peabody Award for While We Watched (POV Season 36), marking the eleventh consecutive year a POV film has been nominated for a Peabody and its 28th win. Additional recognition includes an IDA Documentary Award win for Best Curated Series in 2022 and nominations in that category for three consecutive years (2023, 2024, 2025) and the inclusion of seven POV films in Indiewire’s “The 50 Best Documentaries of the 21st Century”: Faya Dayi (2021), The Mole Agent (2020), Minding The Gap (2018), Cameraperson (2016), The Look of Silence (2015), The Act of Killing (2013) and After Tiller (2013). Across its history, POV films and projects have garnered more than 108 News & Documentary Emmy® nominations and won 52 Emmy Awards®, 29 Peabody Awards, 17 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards, three Academy Awards® and the first-ever George Polk Documentary Film.
Produced by American Documentary, POV is the longest-running independent documentary showcase on American television presenting films on PBS since 1988 that capture the full spectrum of the human experience, with a long commitment to centering women and people of color in front of and behind the camera. The series has introduced generations of viewers to groundbreaking work from filmmakers including Laura Poitras, Jonathan Demme, Nanfu Wang, Frederick Wiseman, Emiko Omori, Janus Metz Pedersen and Ava DuVernay, and to landmark films such as Tongues Untied (1989), Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1992), Rabbit in the Room (1999), Of Civil Wrongs & Rights: The Fred Korematsu Story (2001), Made in L.A. (2007), American Promise (2013), Not Going Quietly (2021), A House Made of Splinters (2022) and the mini-series And She Could be Next (2020). Since its launch in 2018, POV Shorts has expanded the series’ commitment to short-form storytelling, with films including A Broken House recognized on the Academy Award® shortlist. Extending beyond broadcast, POV engages audiences through streaming on PBS platforms, free educational resources and a nationwide community network that sparks dialogue around urgent social issues. Award. Learn more at pbs.org/pov and follow @povdocs on social media.
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