CPH:DOX

CPH:DOX (Copenhagen International Documentary Festival)
Location	Copenhagen, Denmark
Founded	2003
Most recent	2024
Hosted by	Copenhagen Film Festivals
Artistic director	Niklas Engstrøm & Managing Director, Katrine Kiilgaard
No. of films	200
Festival date	19–30 March 2025
Website	www.cphdox.dk

CPH:DOX, also known as Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, is a Danish film festival focused on documentary films, held annually in Copenhagen, Denmark. Since 2008 it has been run by Copenhagen Film Festivals, which also organizes the children's film festival BUSTER.

History

CPH:DOX - Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival was founded in 2002 by Kim Foss and Andreas Steinmann on behalf of Natsværmerfonden, which also founded the now defunct NatFilm Festival (1990 – 2008). Under the artistic direction of the festival’s first head of programme (and later festival director) Tine Fischer, the festival grew to become one of the leading documentary film festivals in Europe. Today, the festival ranks among the largest and most important documentary film festivals globally, with more than 150,000 admissions and more than 2,000 international industry guests in 2025.

Following the 2015 edition of CPH:DOX, the festival announced that it would change its dates from November to March, and the first of the new spring editions of the festival was held from 16 to 26 March 2017, with the centrally located Kunsthal Charlottenborg as the new festival centre.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2020 CPH:DOX held their festival virtually, using a Shift72 video-on-demand platform that was built and launched in just 24 hours.^[1]

In February 2021 it was announced that the first festival director of CPH:DOX, Tine Fischer, would be stepping down from the CEO role after the 18th edition (21 April to 2 May 2021) to take up a position as director of the National Film School of Denmark.^[2]^[3] Instead, the festival's Head of Programme, Niklas Engstrøm (who had been part of the festival team since the beginning in 2003) was appointed new Artistic Director in May 2021, and soon thereafter, Katrine Kiilgaard was appointed Managing Director.

The 2025 event took place between 19 and 30 March, 2025. The 2026 edition will take place between 11 and 22 March, 2026.^[4]

Past guest curators of film programmes have included artists and filmmakers such as The xx; Anohni; Harmony Korine; Animal Collective; Nan Goldin; Douglas Gordon; Ben Rivers with Ben Russell; Ai Weiwei; The Yes Men; Olafur Eliasson; and Naomi Klein with Avi Lewis.

Description and governance

CPH:DOX is the official name of the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival.^[5] Copenhagen Film Festivals has managed CPH:DOX as well as the children's film festival BUSTER and CPH PIX since the latter was created in 2008.^[6]^[7] It is held in cinemas all over Copenhagen and with Kunsthal Charlottenborg as its festival centre. Since 2021, the festival has also been held in an increasing number of other Danish cities as part of its nation-wide festival concept DOX:DANMARK. In 2024, CPH:DOX was held in more than 40 cities all over Denmark.

CPH:DOX is devoted to supporting independent and innovative film and to present contemporary non-fiction, art cinema, and experimental film.^[8]

In 2009, the festival launched the international talent development and film production workshop CPH:LAB (formerly known as DOX:LAB) where around 20 filmmakers are invited each year to develop and direct a film in teams of two.

Besides its seven international competitions, the festival presents parallel curated and guest-curated sections. The festival hosts seminars, debates and events as well as the curated concert series "Audio:Visuals", where bands and artists perform to original work created for the occasion by visual artists. CPH:DOX also presents a number of other initiatives parallel to the festival itself: the industry platform CPH:Forum, with the attached CPH:Market for buyers and programmers, is a financing and co-production forum as well as a networking facility which takes place for three days during the festival. In 2011, the related ART:FILM branch was launched with the aim to facilitate the development and actual production of artists' films in the feature length format. CPH:DOX runs the five-day CPH:Conference as well as the experimental educational course DOX:Academy for students, both of which take place during the festival.

At the industry segment CPH:WIP, Nordic works-in-progress are presented to the potential sponsors and distributors.^[9]

CPH: DOX is part of the Doc Alliance, a creative partnership among seven key European documentary film festivals.

Awards

Juries hand out prizes in seven international competition programmes:

CPH:DOX Award, for international documentary features (€10,000)^[10]
NEW:VISION Award, for experimental and artists' film (€5,000 prize)^[10]
F:ACT Award, for films in the field between investigative journalism and documentary (€5,000 prize)^[10]
NORDIC:DOX Award, for Nordic documentaries and artists' films (€5,000 prize)^[10]
NEXT:WAVE Award, for emerging filmmakers and artists (€5,000 prize)^[10]
Politiken:Danish:Dox Award, awarded by a jury of film critics from the Danish newspaper Politiken
Doc Alliance Award, given in collaboration with six other European documentary film festivals, to one of the seven films nominated by the participating festivals^[10]
Audience Award, chosen by the festival-goers (€5,000)^[10]
Human:Rights Award, introduced in 2024 in collaboration with the Danish Institute for Human Rights^[10]^[11]

Award winners

CPH:DOX Award

Year	Film	Director	Country
2003 (1st)	Dans Grozny Dans	Jos de Putter	Netherlands
2004 (2nd)	Darwin's Nightmare (shared)	Hubert Sauper	Austria
2004 (2nd)	The 3 Rooms of Melancholia (shared)	Pirjo Honkasalo	Finland
2005 (3rd)	Workingman's Death (shared)	Michael Glawogger	Austria
2005 (3rd)	The White Diamond (shared)	Werner Herzog	Germany
2006 (4th)	Black Sun	Gary Tarn	United Kingdom
2007 (5th)	Santa Fe Street	Carmen Castillo	Chile
2008 (6th)	Burma VJ	Anders Østergaard	Denmark
2009 (7th)	Trash Humpers	Harmony Korine	United States
2010 (8th)	Le Quattro Volte	Michelangelo Frammartino	Italy
2011 (9th)	Two Years at Sea	Ben Rivers	United Kingdom
2012 (10th)	The Act of Killing	Joshua Oppenheimer	Denmark
2013 (11th)	Bloody Beans	Narimane Mari	Algeria
2014 (12th)	The Look of Silence	Joshua Oppenheimer	Denmark
2015 (13th)	God Bless the Child	Robert Machoian, Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck	United States
2017 (14th)	Last Men in Aleppo	Feras Fayyad	Denmark
2018 (15th)	The Raft	Marcus Lindeen	Sweden
2019 (16th)	Ridge	John Skoog	Sweden
2020 (17th)	Songs of Repression^[12]^[13]	Estephan Wagner & Marianne Hougen-Moraga	Denmark
2021 (17th)	The Last Shelter	Ousmane Samassekou	Mali

2003 CPH:DOX

Award	Film	Director
CPH:DOX Award	The Damned and the Sacred (Dans, Grozny dans)	Jos de Putter
CPH:DOX Award Special Mention	Screaming Men (Huutajat – Screaming Men)	Mika Ronkainen
Amnesty Award	Bus 174 (Ônibus 174)	José Padilha
Amnesty:Award Special Mention	Cuban Rafters (Balseros)	Carlos Bosch & Josep Maria Domènech

2004 CPH:DOX

Award	Film	Director
CPH:DOX Award	Darwin's Nightmare The 3 Rooms of Melancholia (Melancholian 3 huonetta)	Hubert Sauper Pirjo Honkasalo
Amnesty:Award	Justice (Justiça)	Maria Ramos
Amnesty:Award Special Mention	Disbelief (Nedoverie)	Andrei Nekrasov
New:Vision Award	I Love You All (Aus Liebe zum Volk)	Audrey Maurion & Eyal Sivan
New:Vision Award Special Mention	Max by Chance (Rejsen på ophavet) Gunnar Goes Comfortable	Max Kestner Gunnar Hall Jensen

2005 CPH:DOX

Award	Film	Director
CPH:DOX Award	Workingman's Death The White Diamond	Michael Glawogger Werner Herzog
CPH:DOX Award Special Mention	Odessa... Odessa!	Michale Boganim
Amnesty:Award	Viva Zapatero!	Sabina Guzzanti
Amnesty:Award Special Mention	Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire	Peter Raymont
New:Vision Award	Trains of Winnipeg: 14 Film Poems	Clive Holden
New:Vision Award Special Mention	Cultural Quarter	Mike Stubbs

2006 CPH:DOX

Award	Film	Director
CPH:DOX Award	Black Sun	Gary Tarn
CPH:DOX Award Special Mention	The Monastery: Mr. Vig and the Nun	Pernille Rose Grønkjær
Amnesty:Award	The Prize of the Pole	Staffan Julén
Amnesty:Award Special Mention	Voices of Bam (Stemmen van Bam) Maquilapolis (Maquilápolis)	Maasja Ooms & Aliona van der Horst Vicky Funari & Sergio De La Torre
New:Vision Award (short)	Eine Million Kredit ist normal sagt mein Grossvater	Gabriele Mathes
New:Vision Award (long)	Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait (Zidane, un portrait du 21e siècle) Tarachime birth/mother (Tarachime)	Douglas Gordon & Philippe Parreno Naomi Kawase
Sound & Vision Award	Dave Chappelle's Block Party	Michel Gondry

2007 CPH:DOX

Award	Film	Director
CPH:DOX Award	Santa Fe Street (Calle Santa Fe)	Carmen Castillo
CPH:DOX Award Special Mention	Vesterbro	Michael Noer
Amnesty:Award	No End in Sight	Charles Ferguson
Amnesty:Award Special Mention	The Not Dead Umbrella (San)	Brian Hill Du Haibin
New:Vision Award (short)	France 2007	Gee-Jung Jun
New:Vision Award (long)	Dust (Staub) A Crime Against Art	Hartmut Bitomsky Hila Peleg
Sound & Vision Award	Joy Division	Grant Gee
Sound & Vision Award Special Mention	Pilgrimage from Scattered Points	Luke Fowler

2008 CPH:DOX

Award	Film	Director
CPH:DOX Award	Burma VJ	Anders Østergaard
CPH:DOX Award Special Mention	Maggie in Wonderland	Mark Hammersberg, Ester Martin Bergsmark and Beatrice Maggie Andersson
Amnesty:Award	Burma VJ	Anders Østergaard
Amnesty:Award Special Mention	Dynamiters, Assassins, Fiends.	Joseph Bullman
New:Vision Award	The Feature	Michel Auder, Andrew Neel
New:Vision Award Special Mention	Morakot	Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Sound & Vision Award	Anvil! The Story of Anvil	Sacha Gervasi
Sound & Vision Award Special Mention	Gogol Bordello Non-Stop	Margarita Jimeno

2009 CPH:DOX

Award	Film	Director
CPH:DOX Award	Trash Humpers	Harmony Korine
DOX Award Special Mention	H:r Landshövding	Måns Månsson
Amnesty:Award	Presumed Guilty	Geoffrey Smith, Roberto Hernández
Amnesty:Award Special Mention	Defamation	Yoav Shamir
New:Vision Award	shared by: O'er The Land and Trypps 1-6	Deborah Stratment / Ben Russell
Sound & Vision Award	La Faute Des Fleurs	Vincent Moon
Sound & Vision Award Special Mention	The Delian Mode	Kara Blake

2010 CPH:DOX

Award	Film	Director
CPH:DOX Award	Le Quattro Volte	Michelangelo Frammartino
CPH:DOX Award Special Mention	The Autobiography of Nicolae Cweaucescu	Andrei Ujică
Danish:Dox Award	shared by: The Naked of St. Petersburg and Empire North	Ada Bligaard Søby / Jakob Boeskov
Danish:Dox Award Special Mention	Fini	Jacob Schulsinger
Amnesty:Award	Pink Saris	Kim Longinotto
New:Vision Award	In Free Fall	Hito Steyerl
New:Vision Award Special Mention	Out	Roee Rosen
Sound & Vision Award	Separado!	Dylan Goch, Gruff Rhys
Sound & Vision Award Special Mention	Backyard	Árni Sveinsson
Short:Dox Award	Irma	Charles Fairbanks
Politiken Audience Award	Lost Inside a Dream – The Story of Dizzy Mizz Lizzy	Theis Molin

2011 CPH:DOX

Award	Film	Director
CPH:DOX Award	Two Years at Sea	Ben Rivers
New:Vision Award	It May Be That Beauty Has Strengthen Our Resolve – Masao Adachi	Philippe Grandrieux
Amnesty:Award	Crulic – The Path Beyond	Anca Damian
Nordic:Dox Award	Imagining Emmanuel	Thomas Østbye
Sound & Vision Award	Grandma Lo-fi: The Basement Tapes of Sigrídur Nielsdóttir	Kristín Björk Kristjánsdóttir, Orri Jónsson & Ingibjörg Birgisdóttir
Politiken Audience Award	Pina	Wim Wenders

2012 CPH:DOX

Award	Film	Director
CPH:DOX Award	The Act of Killing	Joshua Oppenheimer
New:Vision Award	Leviathan	Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Véréna Paravel
Nordic:Dox Award	Searching for Bill	Jonas Poher Rasmussen
Amnesty:Award	Tomorrow	Andrey Gryazev
Sound & Vision Award	Beware of Mr. Baker	Jay Bulger
Politiken Audience Award	A Normal Life	Mikala Krogh

2013 CPH:DOX

Award	Film	Director
CPH:DOX Award	Bloody Beans	Narimane Mari
New:Vision Award	A Spell to Ward Off the Darkness	Ben Rivers & Ben Russell
New:Vision Award Special Mention	Alexander	Wilhelm Sasnal & Anka Sasnal
Nordic:Dox Award	After You	Marius Dybwad Brandrud
F:ACT Award	Dirty Wars	Richard Rowley
Politiken Audience Award	Everyday Rebellion	Arash T. Riahi & Arman T. Riahi

2014 CPH:DOX

Award	Film	Director
CPH:DOX Award	The Look of Silence	Joshua Oppenheimer
CPH:DOX Award Special Mention	Democrats	Camilla Nilsson
New:Vision Award	The Dent	Basim Magdy
Nordic:Dox Award	Olmo & the Seagull	Lea Glob & Petra Costa
F:ACT Award	E-Team	Katy Chevigny & Ross Kauffman
Politiken Audience Award	Just Eat It – A Food Waste Story	Grant Baldwin

2015 CPH:DOX

Award	Film	Director
CPH:DOX Award	God Bless the Child	Robert Machoian & Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck
CPH:DOX Award Special Mention	Uncertain	Ewan McNicol & Anna Sandilands
New:Vision Award	The Digger	Ali Cherri
New:Vision Award	Bending to Earth	Rosa Barba
Nordic:Dox Award	Return of the Atom	Mika Taanila & Jussi Eerola
Nordic:Dox Award Special Mention	Time Passes	Ane Hjort Guttu
F:ACT Award	Among the Believers	Hemal Trivedi & Mohammed Ali Naqvi
F:ACT Award Special Mention	(T)ERROR	Lyric R. Cabral & David Felix Sutcliffe
Politiken Audience Award	The Fear of 13	David Sington

2017 CPH:DOX

Award	Film	Director
CPH:DOX Award	Last Men in Aleppo	Feras Fayyad, co-directed by Steen Johannessen
CPH:DOX Award Special Mention	Gray House	Austin Lynch & Matthew Booth
CPH:DOX Award Special Mention	The John Dalli Mystery	Jeppe Rønde
New:Vision Award	Life Imitation	Chen Zhou
New:Vision Award Special Mention	The Lost Dreams of Naoki Hayakawa	Ane Hjort Guttu & Daisuke Kosugi
Nordic:Dox Award	Land of the Free	Camilla Magid
Nordic:Dox Award Special Mention	69 Minutes of 86 Days	Egil Håskjold Larsen
F:ACT Award	Radio Kobani	Reber Dosky
F:ACT Award Special Mention	Trophy	Schaul Schwarz & Christina Clusiau
Next:Wave Award	1996 Lucy and the Corpses in the Pool	Marcos Migliavacca & Nahuel Lahora
Next:Wave Award Special Mention	Phantom of Illumination	Wattanapume Laisuwanchai
Politiken Audience Award	City of Ghosts	Matthew Heineman

2018 CPH:DOX

Award	Film	Director
CPH:DOX Award	The Raft	Marcus Lindeen
CPH:DOX Award Special Mention	América	Chase Whiteside & Erick Stoll
New:Vision Award	Wild Relatives	Jumana Manna
New:Vision Award Special Mention	Translations	Tinne Zenner
Nordic:Dox Award	Lykkelænder	Lasse Lau
Nordic:Dox Award Special Mention	The Night	Steffan Strandberg
F:ACT Award	Laila at the Bridge	Elissa Mirzaei & Gulistan Mirzaei
Next:Wave Award	Beautiful Things	Giorgio Ferrero
Next:Wave Award Special Mention	Minding the Gap	Bing Liu
Next:Wave Award Special Mention	Conventional Sins	Anat Yuta Zruia & Shira Clara Winther
Politiken Audience Award	False Confessions	Katrine Philp

2019 CPH:DOX

Award	Film	Director
CPH:DOX Award	Ridge	John Skoog
CPH:DOX Award Special Mention	Searching Eva	Pia Hellenthaler
New:Vision Award	A Moon for My Father	Mania Akbari & Douglas White
Nordic:Dox Award	The Men's Room	Petter Sommer & Jo Vemund Svendsen
Nordic:Dox Award Special Mention	Mating	Lina Mannheimer
F:ACT Award	Dark Suns	Julien Elie
F:act:Award Special Mention	Midnight Family	Luke Lorentzen
Next:Wave Award	Kabul, City in the Wind	Aboozar Amini
Next:Wave Award Special Mention	Inland	Juan Palacios
Politiken Audience Award	Push	Fredrik Gertten

2020 CPH:DOX

Award	Film	Director
CPH:DOX Award	Songs of Repression^[12]^[13]	Estephan Wagner & Marianne Hougen-Moraga
New:Vision Award	South	Morgan Quaintance
New:Vision Award Special Mention	Mother's Tongue	Wingyee Wu & Lap-See Lam
Nordic:Dox Award	Being Eriko	Jannik Splidsboel
Nordic:Dox Award Special Mention	Själö – Island of Souls	Lotta Petronella
F:ACT Award	We Hold the Line	Marc Wiese
F:act:Award Special Mention	The Social Dilemma	Jeff Orlowski
Next:Wave Award	Mayor	David Osit
Next:Wave Award Special Mention	Sisters with Transistors	Lisa Rovner
Politiken:Danish:Dox Award	Songs of Repression^[12]^[13]	Estephan Wagner & Marianne Hougen-Moraga

2021 CPH:DOX

Award	Film	Director
CPH:DOX Award	The Last Shelter	Ousmane Samassekou
CPH:DOX Award Special Mention	Our Memory Belongs to Us	Rami Farah & Signe Byrge Sørensen
New:Vision Award	All of Your Stars are but Dust on My Shoes	Haig Aivazian
New:Vision Award Special Mention	Listen to the Beat of our Images	Maxime & Audrey Jean-Baptiste
Nordic:Dox Award	Julia & I	Nina Hobert
Nordic:Dox Award Special Mention	He's My Brother	Cille Hannibal & Christine Hanberg
F:act Award	When a City Rises	Cathy Chu, Iris Kwong, Ip Kar Man, Huang Yuk-kwok, Evie Cheung, Han Yan Yuen & Jen Lee
F:act:Award Special Mention	All Light, Everywhere	Theo Anthony
Next:Wave Award	You and I	Fanny Chotimah
Next:Wave Award Special Mention	Holgut	Liesbeth de Ceulaer
Politiken:Danish:Dox Award	Dark Blossom	Frigge Fri

References

^ White, David (20 June 2020). "Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival Case Study". www.shift72.com. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
^ Alcinii, Daniele (8 February 2021). "CPH:DOX festival director Tine Fischer to step down". Realscreen. Archived from the original on 13 December 2024. Retrieved 13 May 2024.
^ Mitchell, Wendy (13 May 2024). "Tine Fischer to depart CPH:DOX to run Danish film school". Screen. Archived from the original on 29 January 2023. Retrieved 13 May 2024.
^ Economou, Vassilis (13 February 2025). "CPH:DOX reveals the line-up for its competitions". Cineuropa. Retrieved 17 February 2025.
^ "About us".
^ Mitchell, Wendy (6 September 2018). "Jacob Neiindam stepping down from CPH PIX after 10th edition (exclusive)". Screen. Archived from the original on 13 May 2024. Retrieved 13 May 2024.
^ Dams, Tim (15 May 2024). "Danish film festival CPH PIX closes down permanently". Screen. Archived from the original on 15 May 2024. Retrieved 15 May 2024.
^ Kudláč, Martin (15 March 2023). "Niklas Engstrøm • Artistic director, CPH:DOX". Cineuropa. Retrieved 26 January 2024.
^ Bałaga, Marta (27 March 2019). "Nordic talents are celebrated once again at CPH:WIP". Cineuropa. Archived from the original on 26 January 2024. Retrieved 26 January 2024.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Barraclough, Leo (15 February 2024). "Documentary Film Festival CPH:DOX Unveils Competition Lineup". Variety. Archived from the original on 12 April 2024. Retrieved 21 March 2024.
^ Dalton, Ben (14 May 2024). "CPH:DOX unveils competitions, adds human rights award". Screen Daily. Archived from the original on 14 May 2024. Retrieved 14 May 2024.
^ ^a ^b ^c "'Songs Of Repression': CPH:DOX Review". Screen. Archived from the original on 28 March 2020. Retrieved 9 June 2020.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Review: Songs of Repression". Cineuropa – the best of european cinema. Archived from the original on 11 April 2020. Retrieved 9 June 2020.

External links

Official website

55°40′34″N 12°34′06″E / 55.67611°N 12.56833°E / 55.67611; 12.56833

[1] White, David (20 June 2020). "Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival Case Study". www.shift72.com. Retrieved 2 August 2023.

[2] Alcinii, Daniele (8 February 2021). "CPH:DOX festival director Tine Fischer to step down". Realscreen. Archived from the original on 13 December 2024. Retrieved 13 May 2024.

[3] Mitchell, Wendy (13 May 2024). "Tine Fischer to depart CPH:DOX to run Danish film school". Screen. Archived from the original on 29 January 2023. Retrieved 13 May 2024.

[4] Economou, Vassilis (13 February 2025). "CPH:DOX reveals the line-up for its competitions". Cineuropa. Retrieved 17 February 2025.

[about-5] "About us".

[mitchell2018-6] Mitchell, Wendy (6 September 2018). "Jacob Neiindam stepping down from CPH PIX after 10th edition (exclusive)". Screen. Archived from the original on 13 May 2024. Retrieved 13 May 2024.

[dams2022-7] Dams, Tim (15 May 2024). "Danish film festival CPH PIX closes down permanently". Screen. Archived from the original on 15 May 2024. Retrieved 15 May 2024.

[8] Kudláč, Martin (15 March 2023). "Niklas Engstrøm • Artistic director, CPH:DOX". Cineuropa. Retrieved 26 January 2024.

[9] Bałaga, Marta (27 March 2019). "Nordic talents are celebrated once again at CPH:WIP". Cineuropa. Archived from the original on 26 January 2024. Retrieved 26 January 2024.

[variety24-10] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Barraclough, Leo (15 February 2024). "Documentary Film Festival CPH:DOX Unveils Competition Lineup". Variety. Archived from the original on 12 April 2024. Retrieved 21 March 2024.

[11] Dalton, Ben (14 May 2024). "CPH:DOX unveils competitions, adds human rights award". Screen Daily. Archived from the original on 14 May 2024. Retrieved 14 May 2024.

[screendaily5148262-12] "'Songs Of Repression': CPH:DOX Review". Screen. Archived from the original on 28 March 2020. Retrieved 9 June 2020.

[cineuropa387368-13] "Review: Songs of Repression". Cineuropa – the best of european cinema. Archived from the original on 11 April 2020. Retrieved 9 June 2020.

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