In a post-factual age where the media’s power to shape perceived reality has long surpassed that of science and reason, documentary cinema’s role as an intermediary between those fields is becoming both crucial and complex. Within this climate of heightened political scrutiny of cinematic voices that the 23rd edition of the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, aka CPH:DOX, starts tonight with a gala screening of the opening film at the Royal Danish Academy of Music. Founded in 2002 by Kim Foss and Andreas Steinmann, the festival grew rapidly into one of the leading venues for international documentary film as well as hybrid and experimental forms. From March 11–22, the event once again gathers filmmakers, journalists, activists, and artists to test the boundaries of non-fiction storytelling.
Known for blending investigative journalism, artistic experimentation, and industry networking, the program overseen by artistic director Niklas Engstrøm aims to attune itself to a world marked by war and political polarization. Pieter-Jan De Pue’s opening title Mariinka, following young Ukrainians growing up in a frontline town transformed by war, sets the tone for an edition fundamentally concerned with geopolitical upheaval and the multilevel consequences of conflict. Other competitors in the DOX:AWARD slate include Nathan Grossman’s Amazomania, exploring environmental destruction and the colonial gaze in the Amazon, and Dongnan Chen’s Whispers in May, promising a poetic reflection on memory and political trauma. This year’s agenda includes more than 200 films and events across Copenhagen, alongside interactive exhibitions, debates, and concerts emphasizing the festival’s multidisciplinary identity.
Still, the cinematic core remains its six competitive sections, where twelve world-premiere documentaries compete for the festival’s top prize. In total, 74 films appear across the competitions, including 53 world premieres, underlining the festival’s growing status as a launchpad for major theatrical and streaming releases. Within a festival structure trying to reflect different forms that contemporary documentary can take, the F:ACT Award focuses on investigative journalism and thematic urgency, while the NEW:VISION section features filmmaking beyond conventional documentary language. Regional filmmaking has a platform in NORDIC:DOX, dedicated to entries from Scandinavia and the Nordic region. The NEXT:WAVE section introduces emerging voices and filmmakers looking for innovative aesthetic, and the HUMAN:RIGHTS promises to center films confronting repression, social injustice, and inequality.
Ironically, the latter can be strongly felt at a festival with dozens of exclusive events. The opening and award ceremonies are “by invitation only,” leaving a major part of the attending press locked out. It remains to be seen how strongly such hierarchies shape the main festival circuit. Among its most talked-about titles are Omar Shargawi’s daring activist chronicle Palestinian Unwanted, as well as Amy K. Jenkins’s Adam’s Apple, a collaborative documentary told through the dual perspectives of Jenkins’s transgender son, Adam, and his mother, the filmmaker and visual artist herself. The HIGHLIGHTS section, assembling prominent works from international festivals, presents, among others, Werner Herzog’s Venice nature doc Ghost Elephants and Sébastien Lifshitz’s intimate portrait of a former French gay porn icon, A Very Good Boy.
While these selections address a broad thematic range from personal identity to historical memory and cultural mythology, the underrepresentation of classism is as conspicuous as the rather cautious representation of films about the genocide in Gaza and rising authoritarianism almost everywhere. Whether CPH:DOX will position itself as the politically engaged platform that Berlinale increasingly shuns being will depend on its own willingness to truly embrace the plurality and diversity it claims to support. As activism becomes increasingly and inseparably interspersed with documentary cinema, the question is whether the festival will withstand the controversies repressed by and threatening to break other festivals. In a media scene overflowing with often biased content, context and integrity are constantly harder to maintain—not only on screen.
Here you’ll find the complete program and the festival schedule.