CPH:FORUM 2023 will introduce brand new projects by filmmakers such as Ljubomir Stefanov (Honeyland), Jessica Kingdon (Ascension), Finlay Pretsell (Time Trial), Ousmane Samassekou (The Last Shelter), Mila Turajlić (The Labudovic Reels), Tonislav Hristov (The Good Postman), Iryna Tsilyk (The Earth Is Blue as an Orange) and Brett Story (The Hottest August), among many others.
The festival writes: “Marking the 20th anniversary of CPH:DOX, this year’s CPH:FORUM line-up presents a curated slate of nuanced films, reflecting on the past and future of the non-fiction genre, and the world at large. Making a point of the richness and variety of the documentary genre, the line-up of 33 projects – bringing together more than 70 filmmakers and producers from 25 countries – is curated for the films to reflect each other and collectively point to some of the major issues of the current world politics, culture, and society.”
CPH:FORUM will run March 21-23, 2023, while CPH:WIP and CHANGE presentations will take place on Monday, March 20.
Wider WORK-IN-PROGRESS selection
This year, CPH:WIP is “scaling up” and will present a total of 8 projects, both Nordic and international. The titles include projects from established filmmakers such as Yrsa Roca Fannberg, Camilla Magid, Håvard Bustnes, Zippy Kimundu and others, who will show scenes from their upcoming films and look for gap financing or a launch pad for further distribution. The selected works will be featured as a prelude to CPH:FORUM in the CPH:WIP presentation on Monday, March 20, 2023.
Eastern European perspectives from the CHANGE projects
In 2021 CPH:DOX partnered up with IMS (International Media Support) and EAVE (European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs) for the development co-production training program CHANGE, featuring projects from the European Eastern Partnership countries (EaP) – Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The second edition of the 6-month long training program will have its last residential workshop in Copenhagen, organised in partnership with the National Film School of Denmark. The program will culminate with a presentation of the 8 participating projects at the CHANGE pitch session on Monday, March 20, 2023.
“In a time of increasing polarization and radicalisation of society, it’s inspiring to see filmmakers having complicated, nuanced conversations around such timely issues as the legacy of colonialism, inequality and free speech, but also cancel culture and the role of activism, arts and science in today’s society. Remarkably, they find also a great deal of hope, humor and beauty while doing so,” says Tereza Simikova, Head of Industry & Training
More than 250 CPH:FORUM financiers confirmed so far
The selected projects will be presented to established film financiers, representatives of streaming platforms such as Disney+, Netflix and Hulu; broadcasters such as ARTE, ZDF, BBC, CNN, National Geographic, POV and DR; film studios Participant Media, Amazon Studios, Concordia Studio, Freemantle, A24, Sandbox Films and HHMI Tangled Bank Studios; philanthropic foundations such as Sundance Institute, Doc Society, Chicken and Egg Pictures, Catapult, Open Society Foundations, Freedom of Speech Foundation, and Blue Ice Docs – among many others!
For the tenth year running, CPH:FORUM will present the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award (€20,000) for the event’s best pitch of a project intended for co-production.
The selected CPH:FORUM projects in alphabetic order (read more about each here):
- #WhileBlack, US, by Sidney Fussell and Samantha Knowles, produced by Ann Shin and Geeta Gandbhir
- Almost Human, NO/DK, by Ola Waagen, produced by Bjarte Mørner Tveit and Peter Engel.
- Confidential, US/D, by “Confidential”, produced by Sigrid Dyekjaer, Ross Levine
- Conscious, UK, by Suki Chan, produced by Aimara Reques
- Cuba&Alaska, UA/FR, by Yegor Troyanovsky, produced by Olha Beskhmelnytsina and Christian Popp
- Douglas Gordon: Self Divided, UK/FR, by Finlay Pretsell, produced by Sonja Henrici
- Dreams of a Dark Sky, IN. by Anmol Tikoo, produced by Raghu Karnad
- Evo: The Burnt Palace, US/AR, by Martin Sivak and Noah Friedman-Rudovsky, produced by Justine Nagan and Irene Cajias
- Far from Maine, IL/FR/PS, by Roy Cohen, produced by Roy Cohen and Serge Gordey
- Generation, DK/UK, by David Borenstein, produced by Helle Faber
- Give It a Shot, IN/US, by Vaishali Sinha, produced by Hemang Chheda, Tracie Holder, Jessica Harrop and Greg Boustead
- House of Earth, MK/US, by Ljubomir Stefanov, produced by Maya E. Rudolph and Sarah D’hanens
- Intercepted, CA/FR/UA, by Oksana Karpovych, produced by Giacomo Nudi
- Once upon a Time in a Forest, FI, by Virpi Suutari, produced by Virpi Suutari
- Only on Earth, DK/ES, by Robin Petré, produced by Signe Skov Thomsen and Malene Flindt Pedersen
- Opening Night, SE, by Aron Skoog and John Skoog, produced by Aron Skoog and John Skoog
- Our Love, SE/FI/DE, by Hannah Reinikainen and Lia Hietala, produced by Melissa Lindgren
- Dreamscape, FR/ML, by Ousmane Samassekou, produced by Estelle Robin You and Andrey S Diarra
- Part of Society, GE, by Rati Tsiteladze, produced by Olga Slusareva
- Red Zone, UA, by Iryna Tsilyk, produced by Darya Bassel
- Second World, Second Sex, CS, by Mila Turajlić, produced by Carine Chichkowsky
- The Dawn of the Post Plantation, NL/DE, by Renzo Martens, produced by Lea Fels
- The Eukrainian, SE/FR/UA, by Viktor Nordenskiöld, produced by Viktor Nordenskiöld, Christian Popp and Olga Beskhmelnytsina
- The Infinite Rehearsal, UK/GY, by Louis Henderson, produced by Luke Moody and Romola Lucas
- The Lions at the River Tigris, NO, by Ahmed Zaradasht, produced by Thorvald Nilsen
- The Menopause Mystery, DK, by Louise Unmack Kjeldsen, produced by Malene Flindt Pedersen
- The Production of the World, CA/US, by Brett Story, produced by Jeff Reichert
- Truth.com, FI/BG, by Tonislav Hristov, produced by Kaarle Aho
- Two Strangers Trying Not to Kill Each Other, UK/DK, by Jacob Perlmutter, produced by Manon Ouimet and Signe Byrge Sørensen
- Untitled Animal Project, US, by Jessica Kingdon, produced by Nathan Truesdell and Jamie Gonçalves
- Untitled Dwarfism Project, US, by Julie Forrest Wyman, produced by Lindsey Dryden and Jonna McKone
- Voice/over, HU, by Balint Revesz, produced by Viki Reka Kiss
- We Have Always Lived in the End Times, DE, by Ben Russell, produced by Guillaume Cailleau
The selected CPH:WIP projects in alphabetic order:
- Adil, NO/ NL, by Adil Khan and Julian Nazario Vargas, produced by Eirik Smidesang Slåen and Elisabeth Opdal
- Before the Storm, DK, by Juan Palacios and Sofie Husum Johannesen, produced by Kasper Lykke Schultz
- Fighting Demons with Dragons, DK, by Camilla Magid, produced by Heidi Elise Christensen
- Phantoms of Sierra Madre, NO/FI, by Håvard Bustnes, produced by Christian Aune Falch, Håvard Bustnes
- Testament, KE/US/PT/DE, by Zippy Kimundu and Meena Nanji, produced by Zippy Kimundu, Meena Nanji and Eliane Ferreira
- The Animated Mind of Oliver Sacks, US/UK, by Dempsey Rice, produced by Lori Cheatle
- The Ground beneath Our Feet, IS/PL, by Yrsa Roca Fannberg, produced by Hanna Björk Valsdóttir
- Confidential, US
The selected CHANGE projects in alphabetic order:
- A Bit of a Stranger, UA, by Svitlana Lishchynska, produced by Anna Kapustina
- Boxes from Georgia, GE, by Gvantsa Meparishvili, produced by Tiko Nadirashvili
- Flow, PL/BY, by Belarusian Filmmakers
- Here, between This Sea and Those Mountains, GE, by Keti Machavariani, produced by Keti Machavariani
- How Long Is the Echo?, AM, by Merri Mkrtchyan, produced by Yelizaveta Petrosyan
- Kartli, GE, by Julien Pebrel and Tamar Kalandadze, produced by Ketevan Kipiani and Jean-Baptiste Bonnet
- Memo ‘94, UA, by Kornii Hrytsiuk, produced by Anna Palenchuk
- Strange Sea, AZ, by Lala Aliyeva, produced by Aysel Akhundova
