# CPH:DOX

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

The Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival was established in 2003 by Natsværmerfonden, the foundation that also started the now defunct Natfilm Festival. Under the leadership of the festival's first director, Tine Fischer, CPH:DOX quickly became 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 125,000 admissions and more than 2,000 international industry guests in 2023.
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.
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. Instead, the festival's Head of Programme, Niklas Engstrøm (who had been part of the festival since the beginning in 2003) was appointed new Artistic Director in May 2021, and soon thereafter, Katrine Kiilgaard was appointed Managing Director.
The 2024 event took place between 13 and 24 March, 2024. The 2025 edition will take place between March 19 and 30, 2025.
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. 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. 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.
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.
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)
* NEW:VISION Award, for experimental and artists' film (€5,000 prize)
* F:ACT Award, for films in the field between investigative journalism and documentary (€5,000 prize)
* NORDIC:DOX Award, for Nordic documentaries and artists' films (€5,000 prize)
* NEXT:WAVE Award, for emerging filmmakers and artists (€5,000 prize)
* 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
* Audience Award, chosen by the festival-goers (€5,000)
* Human:Rights Award, introduced in 2024 in collaboration with the Danish Institute for Human Rights

## Award winners
### CPH:DOX Award

| Year | Film | Director | Country |
| 002003 (1st) | Dans Grozny Dans | Jos de Putter | Netherlands |
| 002004 (2nd) | Darwin's Nightmare (shared) | Hubert Sauper | Austria |
| 002004 (2nd) | The 3 Rooms of Melancholia (shared) | Pirjo Honkasalo | Finland |
| 002005 (3rd) | Workingman's Death (shared) | Michael Glawogger | Austria |
| 002005 (3rd) | The White Diamond (shared) | Werner Herzog | Germany |
| 002006 (4th) | Black Sun | Gary Tarn | United Kingdom |
| 002007 (5th) | Santa Fe Street | Carmen Castillo | Chile |
| 002008 (6th) | Burma VJ | Anders Østergaard | Denmark |
| 002009 (7th) | Trash Humpers | Harmony Korine | United States |
| 002010 (8th) | Le Quattro Volte | Michelangelo Frammartino | Italy |
| 002011 (9th) | Two Years at Sea | Ben Rivers | United Kingdom |
| 002012 (10th) | The Act of Killing | Joshua Oppenheimer | Denmark |
| 002013 (11th) | Bloody Beans | Narimane Mari | Algeria |
| 002014 (12th) | The Look of Silence | Joshua Oppenheimer | Denmark |
| 002015 (13th) | God Bless the Child | Robert Machoian, Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck | United States |
| 002017 (14th) | Last Men in Aleppo | Feras Fayyad | Denmark |
| 002018 (15th) | The Raft | Marcus Lindeen | Sweden |
| 002019 (16th) | Ridge | John Skoog | Sweden |
| 002020 (17th) | Songs of Repression | Estephan Wagner & Marianne Hougen-Moraga | Denmark |
| 002021 (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 [fr] & Eyal Sivan |
| New:Vision Award Special Mention | Max by Chance [da] (Rejsen på ophavet) Gunnar Goes Comfortable [no] | Max Kestner Gunnar Hall Jensen [no] |

### 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! [fr] | 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 [da] | Staffan Julén [sv] |
| Amnesty:Award Special Mention | Voices of Bam (Stemmen van Bam) Maquilapolis (Maquilápolis) | Maasja Ooms & Aliona van der Horst [nl] Vicky Funari & Sergio De La Torre |
| New:Vision Award (short) | Eine Million Kredit ist normal sagt mein Grossvater | Gabriele Mathes [de] |
| 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 [da] | 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 [de; ハルトムート・ビトムスキー] 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 [ar; arz; da; de; fi; fr; pt] |
| CPH:DOX Award Special Mention | Maggie in Wonderland [sv] | 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 [sv] | Måns Månsson [sv] |
| Amnesty:Award | Presumed Guilty | Geoffrey Smith, Roberto Hernández [es] |
| 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 [de] | 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 [da] |

### 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 [da] | Jonas Poher Rasmussen |
| Amnesty:Award | Tomorrow | Andrey Gryazev |
| Sound & Vision Award | Beware of Mr. Baker | Jay Bulger |
| Politiken Audience Award | A Normal Life [fr] | Mikala Krogh |

### 2013 CPH:DOX

| Award | Film | Director |
| CPH:DOX Award | Bloody Beans | Narimane Mari [de] |
| 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 [de; sv] |
| F:ACT Award | Dirty Wars | Richard Rowley |
| Politiken Audience Award | Everyday Rebellion [de] | Arash T. Riahi [de; fa; fr; id; mg] & Arman T. Riahi [arz; de] |

### 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 [it] |
| Nordic:Dox Award | Olmo & the Seagull [da; pt] | 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 [fi] | Mika Taanila & Jussi Eerola |
| Nordic:Dox Award Special Mention | Time Passes | Ane Hjort Guttu [no] |
| 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 [da] | 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 [sv] |
| 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 [da] | Lasse Lau [da] |
| 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 [it] | 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 [da] | 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 | Estephan Wagner & Marianne Hougen-Moraga |
| New:Vision Award | South | Morgan Quaintance |
| New:Vision Award Special Mention | Mother's Tongue | Wingyee Wu & Lap-See Lam [sv] |
| Nordic:Dox Award | Being Eriko | Jannik Splidsboel [da] |
| 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 | 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 |