The festival was founded in 1969 by Moritz de Hadeln and his wife Erika and is dedicated to documentaries. Their successors Jean Perret and Gabriele Bussmann in 1995 renamed it "Visions du réel" to indicate the manyfold approach of documentaries to reality. Festival director since 2011 is Luciano Barisone.
An Ecumenical Jury attended the festival from 1978-1995. After a ten years break, INTERFILM and SIGNIS established an Interreligious Jury, in the first years supported by the John Templeton Foundation. Its four members, appointed by INTERFILM and SIGNIS, come from the Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and Muslim communities. Their prize is endowed with CHF 5’000 by the Swiss Catholic Church and Médias-pro, the Media Department of Reformed Churches in the French-speaking Switzerland. (Photo: The members of the Jury 2014, from left: Jean-Jacques Cunnac, Amira Hafner-Al Jabaji, Brigitta Rotach, Serge Molla)