CPH:DOX has topped winners on the newest version of the famend nonfiction movie competition in Copenhagen.
The DOX:Award, the competition’s prime prize, went to All the time, the directorial debut of Deming Chen. The movie tells the story of a younger poet, 8-year-old Youbin, who lives “deep within the lush mountains of Hunan province” in southern China.
“There’s an enormous distinction between nothing and small issues. However life is in actual fact made up of many, typically unnoticed, small issues. We want the sensibilities of artists to indicate us the greatness of the little issues,” famous the DOX:Award jury comprised of Rikke Tambo Andersen, Max Kestner, Nicolas Rapold, Adele Tulli and Raul Niño Zambrano. “This exquisitely shot chronicle of a rural farming household is alive with compassion and poetry.”
The ‘All the time’ filmmaking workforce celebrates their DOX:Award win at CPH:DOX
CPH:DOX
The DOX:Award, sponsored by Politiken and Politiken-Fonden, comes with a €10,000 prize.
Mikal in ‘Flophouse America’
Picture by Monica Strømdahl
The jury awarded a Particular Point out to Flophouse America, a documentary revolving round one other a boy sensible past his years. Monica Strømdahl makes her directorial debut with the movie about 12-year-old Mikal and his dad and mom, who battle with alcoholism whereas residing within the cramped quarters of a bare-bones resort in Florida.
‘2000 Meters to Andriivka‘
CPH:DOX
In a doable preview of subsequent yr’s Oscar race, Mstyslav Chernov’s 2000 Meters to Andriivka gained the F:ACT Award, whereas a Particular Point out in that aggressive class went to Geeta Gandbhir’s The Excellent Neighbor. Each movies held their world premieres in January on the Sundance Movie Pageant.
2000 Meters to Andriivka, Chernov’s observe as much as the Oscar-winning 20 Days in Mariupol, plunges viewers into battle as Ukrainian troops advance alongside a slim strip of land, making an attempt to recapture a village seized by Russian invaders.
“Finally we give the F:ACT award to 2000 Meters to Andriivka not simply because it’s a battle on our doorstep, however as a result of it’s a masterpiece in filmmaking: a haunting, multi layered portrayal of battle similar to All Quiet on the Western Entrance. However this isn’t the First World Warfare, it’s immediately,” wrote the jury, comprised of Alexis Bloom, Mikala Krogh and Steffi Niederzoll. “The meaninglessness of battle, and likewise its unsettling poetry are all on full show right here. An artist in amongst bloodshed brings the fact house, and make an anti battle movie that forces us to mirror on the dignity of every human life misplaced.”
The F:ACT Award, supported by Worldwide Media Help and the Danish Union of Journalists, honors “movies mixing documentary and investigative journalism” and comes with a €5,000 prize. [Director Mstyslav Chernov will appear on the next edition of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast, releasing on Tuesday].
‘The Excellent Neighbor’
CPH:DOX
The jury awarded a Particular Point out to The Excellent Neighbor, a movie that makes use of police bodycam and dashcam video to doc a surprising 2023 case in Florida the place a white lady shot to loss of life her Black neighbor. Calling the movie “extraordinarily highly effective on a bodily stage,” jurors stated, “The selection to remain on the bodycam footage was courageous, and it paid off. This exhibits monumental filmmaking talent. This can be a devastating movie about gun violence, but it surely’s additionally a movie about households, about on daily basis life, and the connections between us. The triangle between the perpetrator, the police and the neighbors is woven along with nice sensitivity. In its personal means, The Excellent Neighbor is a restrained movie, and that’s what proves so shattering.”
The competition’s HUMAN:RIGHTS Award, now in its second yr of existence, went to 9-Month Contract, directed by Ketevan Vashagashvili. In early March, Deadline premiered the trailer for the movie, “an intimate and uncooked portrait” of the emotional and bodily toll of unregulated surrogacy work within the republic of Georgia.
‘9-Month Contract’
Courtesy of Giviko Tukhareli
The jury, comprised of Mohamed Saïd Ouma, Tomáš Poštulka and Birgitte Stærmose, stated 9-Month Contract “portrays the connection between a mom and her daughter with a radical intimacy and an excellent tenderness. Via its visible poetry the movie balances delicately between the harshness of their state of affairs and the humanity of Zhana and her intense love for her daughter.”
The HUMAN:RIGHTS Award, sponsored by the Danish Institute for Human Rights, comes with a prize of €5,000.
Jurors awarded a Particular Point out to The Encampments, a really well timed movie directed by Michael T. Workman and Kei Pritsker that examines the pro-Palestinian scholar activists who occupied Columbia College final yr to protest Israel’s decimation of Gaza following the October 7 Hamas terror assault on Israel.
The jury wrote, “The Particular Point out goes to a hopeful and galvanizing movie that immerses you within the activism of scholars in occasions of battle and oppression.”
These are the extra awards introduced Friday at CPH:DOX:
‘Partitions – Akinni Inuk’ wins the NORDIC:DOX Award at CPH:DOX
CPH:DOX
NORDIC:DOX AWARD
Winner: WALLS – AKINNI INUK by Nina Paninnguaq Skydsbjerg & Sofie Rørdam
GL/ 2025 / World Premiere
Particular Point out: THE NICEST MEN ON EARTH by Josefine Exner & Sebastian Gerdes
DK / 2025 / World Premiere
The NORDIC:DOX Award (€5,000) honors standout documentaries from the Nordic area.
The jury consisted of Butheina Kazim, Dario Oliveira, and Roja Pakari.
Jury assertion: “Out of the periphery, armed with radical dignity within the face of a protracted and harsh injustice, we bore witness to a pure circulate of vulnerability, entrance and middle, refusing to be forged apart. Within the heartbroken cadence of its native tongue, we discovered an alignment of parts, an intuitive and steadfast story of a female power of nature.
“Contemporary like a gust of the Nordic wind, the therapeutic powers of the movie left us respiration hope and delicate triumph. A reminder of placing cameras within the rightful fingers, demonstrating the distinction between observational documentary and representational storytelling.
“For sending us off all of the wiser, we current the award for Finest Nordic Documentary to WALLS (Akinni Inuk) by Nina Paninnguaq Skydsbjerg & Sofie Rørdam from Greenland.”
“As a result of a number of the hardest questions can generally be answered with the only of concepts and an entire lotta type, an honorable point out goes to THE NICEST MEN ON EARTH by Josefine Exner & Sebastian Gerdes.”
‘Abode of Daybreak’ wins the NEXT:WAVE Award at CPH:DOX
CPH:DOX
NEXT:WAVE AWARD
Winner: ABODE OF DAWN by Kristina Shtubert
DE / 2024 / Worldwide Premiere
Particular Point out: WHO WITNESSED THE TEMPLES FALL by Lucía Selva
SP / 2025 / World Premiere
The NEXT:WAVE Award (€5,000) highlights new and rising filmmakers.
The jury consisted of Sissel Morell Dargis, Sona Karapoghosyan, and María Palacios Cruz.
Jury assertion: ‘Set in a northern forest, the movie follows a neighborhood which emerged as a substitute for a misplaced previous which maybe by no means existed.
“For its immense respect and long-term dedication, nuanced strategy to existential questions and skill to embrace an surroundings with so many contradictions, The Subsequent:Wave award goes to Adobe of Daybreak.
“We additionally need to award a particular point out to a movie imbued with magic and thriller whose visible language and soundscapes impressed us. A movie that blurs previous and current to handle points round urbanization, gentrification and the social panorama and troubled historical past of Spain. The movie with essentially the most lovely title and title design, we award a particular point out to Who Witnessed the Temples Fall.
NEW:VISION
Winner: RAMALLAH, PALESTINE, DECEMBER 2018 by Juliette Le Monniyer
BE / 2025 / World Premiere
Particular point out: SCRAP by Noémie Lobry
FR / 2025 / World Premiere
The NEW:VISION Award (€5,000) celebrates artwork movies and boundary-pushing experiments.
The jury consisted of Mason Leaver-Yap, Jeppe Lange, and Marina Kožul.
Jury assertion: Winner: RAMALLAH, PALESTINE, DECEMBER 2018 “Penetrating a sunny pastoral panorama in single-take, Juliette Le Monnyer’s video takes us by an unfolding but unspecified second of battle. The shakey digicam pans as if scaling a ziggurat from afar. Dated from 2018, it is a doc of a just-past that refuses to offer a complete overview and but, in its partial nature, reveals a lot concerning the second we discover ourselves in — the timing of this movie’s launch: March 2025.
“Wavering hesitantly between the on a regular basis and the unknowable, it is a brief movie delivered with uncompromising conceptual rigor. It calls for questions on what we – as viewers, as filmmakers – are witnessing. What we select to give attention to and when – what can we overlook, what can we withhold, when can we cease watching.”
Particular point out: SCRAP
“Via an creative use of associations the movie weaves collectively childhood recollections, eerie scenes from pc video games, and glimpses of a post-apocalyptic future. Salvaging and cannibalizing elements of the approaching of age drama and the highway film style, we’ve been taken to look upon it with a special eye.”
INTER:ACTIVE AWARD
Winner: ‘CONSTANTINOPOLIAD’ by Sister Sylvester & Nadah El Shazly
UK / Set up / 2025 / Worldwide Premiere
Particular Point out: THE GARDEN SAYS… by Uri Kranot, Michelle Kranot, Sara Topsøe
Jensen, Sarah John & Marieke Breyne
DK / XR Perfomance-Set up / 2025 / World Premiere
The award winner will obtain a successful bundle together with two complimentary trade accreditations for Sunny Facet of the Doc, two full entry accreditations for the Business Days of New Pictures Pageant, 6 hours of authorized session on European IP regulation and a money prize of €1000.
The jury consisted of Irene Campolmi, David Adler, and Carl Emil Carlsen.
Jury assertion: “In a world of hyper-immersive applied sciences, the place interactivity typically calls for motion, headsets, or VR goggles, Costantinopoliad invitations us to do one thing way more radical: to sit down nonetheless and hear.
“Costantinopoliad is not only a piece of storytelling; it’s an invite to discovery. It intertwines narrative with motion, making us really feel as if we’re the primary to come across this archive, the primary to unearth Cavafy’s story, to breathe life into his phrases. The work radiates a uncommon curiosity and playfulness, slipping between the boundaries of literature, efficiency, and archaeology.
“But, simply as we settle into this deeply private expertise, an uncanny sensation creeps in. As we flip the pages, contact the stones, and immerse ourselves within the poet’s world, we develop into the protagonist, performers in an unfolding documentary. Our actions, our gestures, develop into a part of a cinematic language, synchronized with the voice-over that narrates a previous we are actually embodying.
“It’s with nice pleasure that we announce Costantinopoliad by Sister Sylvester & Nadah El Shazly because the recipient of this yr’s INTER:ACTIVE exhibition award. This work is not only anartwork—it’s an expertise, a portal, a residing archive.”
Particular Point out: “We’re delighted to increase an Honorable Point out to The Backyard Says… by Uri and Michelle Kranot, Sara Topsøe Jensen, Sarah John & Marieke Breynefor their lovely, thought-provoking, and deeply reflective set up.
“Centered on the aesthetic expertise of a digital backyard and the serendipity of probability encounters, this work dares to create an area the place interactions unfold organically—and it does so with exceptional success. The Backyard Says… is not only an surroundings however an invite—one which encourages return, exploration, and the continual chance of latest conferences. Thanks for providing us a heartfelt and private expertise, one which reminds us of the ability of connection and shared presence.”
