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.
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.[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 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.[4]
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.[citation needed]
Besides its seven international competitions, the festival presents parallel curated and guest-curated sections.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed]
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.[citation needed]
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]
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