CPH:DOX has topped winners on the newest version of the famend nonfiction movie pageant in Copenhagen.
The DOX:Award, the pageant’s prime prize, went to At all times, 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 reality made up of many, typically unnoticed, small issues. We’d like the sensibilities of artists to point out 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 DOX:Award, sponsored by Politiken and Politiken-Fonden, comes with a €10,000 prize.
Mikal in ‘Flophouse America’
Photograph by Monica Strømdahl
The jury awarded a Particular Point out to Flophouse America, a documentary revolving round one other a boy smart past his years. Monica Strømdahl makes her directorial debut with the movie about 12-year-old Mikal and his mother and father, who wrestle with alcoholism whereas dwelling within the cramped quarters of a bare-bones lodge 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 comply with as much as the Oscar-winning 20 Days in Mariupol, plunges viewers into warfare as Ukrainian troops advance alongside a slender strip of land, attempting 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 warfare similar to All Quiet on the Western Entrance. However this isn’t the First World Struggle, it’s immediately,” wrote the jury, comprised of Alexis Bloom, Mikala Krogh and Steffi Niederzoll. “The meaninglessness of warfare, and in addition its unsettling poetry are all on full show right here. An artist in amongst bloodshed brings the fact house, and make an anti warfare movie that forces us to mirror on the dignity of every human life misplaced.”
The F:ACT Award, supported by Worldwide Media Assist 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 girl shot to dying her Black neighbor. Calling the movie “extraordinarily highly effective on a bodily degree,” jurors stated, “The selection to remain on the bodycam footage was courageous, and it paid off. This reveals huge filmmaking ability. This can be a devastating movie about gun violence, however it’s additionally a movie about households, about each day 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 pageant’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 impressive tenderness. By way of 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 pupil 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 offered Friday at 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 chronic 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 drive of nature.
“Contemporary like a gust of the Nordic wind, the therapeutic powers of the movie left us respiratory hope and delicate triumph. A reminder of placing cameras within the rightful arms, demonstrating the distinction between observational documentary and representational storytelling.
“For sending us off all of the wiser, we current the award for Greatest 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.”
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 method to existential questions and skill to embrace an setting with so many contradictions, The Subsequent:Wave award goes to Adobe of Daybreak.
“We additionally wish 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 deal with points round urbanization, gentrification and the social panorama and troubled historical past of Spain. The movie with probably the most lovely identify 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 way of an unfolding but unspecified second of battle. The shakey digital camera pans as if scaling a ziggurat from afar. Dated from 2018, it is a doc of a just-past that refuses to present 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 concentrate on and when – what can we overlook, what can we withhold, when can we cease watching.”
Particular point out: SCRAP
“By way of an creative use of associations the movie weaves collectively childhood recollections, eerie scenes from laptop video games, and glimpses of a post-apocalyptic future. Salvaging and cannibalizing elements of the approaching of age drama and the street film style, we’ve been taken to look upon it with a unique 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 business accreditations for Sunny Aspect of the Doc, two full entry accreditations for the Business Days of New Photographs Pageant, 6 hours of authorized session on European IP legislation 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 much more radical: to sit down nonetheless and hear.
“Costantinopoliad isn’t just 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 encounter 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 change into the protagonist, performers in an unfolding documentary. Our actions, our gestures, change 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 isn’t just anartwork—it’s an expertise, a portal, a dwelling 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 likelihood encounters, this work dares to create an area the place interactions unfold organically—and it does so with outstanding success. The Backyard Says… isn’t just an setting however an invite—one which encourages return, exploration, and the continual risk of latest conferences. Thanks for providing us a heartfelt and private expertise, one which reminds us of the ability of connection and shared presence.”
