CPH:DOX 2025

Hannah Papacek Harper’s feature doc is inspired by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris' book The Lost Words, itself created in response to 50 words all relating to nature being summarily removed from the Oxford Youth Dictionary in 2007 - words such as ‘raven’, ‘magpie’ and ‘otter.’ Without these words at their disposal, it becomes harder for the young generation to develop empathy and connection with the non-human world, Harper reasons to BDE.

Denmark has consistently been ranked as the best country in the world to be a woman. But what does that mean for the men? They’re being outperformed at school, out earned in the workplace. To put it bluntly, they no longer wear the trousers. “If we want to make new ideal masculinity role models, then we need to give confidence to these nice men,” co-director Exner suggests to BDE. “These men are the ones that are going to give space for a woman like me to have a career.”

At this year’s CPH:DOX Rough Cut session director Pieter-Jan De Pue unveiled a deeply personal and visually arresting project that has been nearly a decade in the making. Four Brothers [working title], a powerful 120-minute documentary, tells the story of four orphaned siblings growing up in war-ravaged Eastern Ukraine. “This story intrigued me from the moment I heard about families torn apart by war, and that of two brothers fighting on opposite sides of the conflict,” the helmer said.

The talk Collective Action, Collective Power, presented in partnership with Documentary Campus and held as part of this year’s CPH:DOX Conference on 25 March, brought together a distinguished group of panellists to discuss the potential of collective organising in reshaping the documentary ecosystem. “There’s an audience out there tired of being spoon-fed by algorithms. They want engaging, meaningful content—they just can’t find it,” said former Sundance Institute CEO Keri Putnam.

Director Tommy Gulliksen discusses his CPH:DOX opener Facing War, about fellow Norwegian Jens Stoltenberg, who was in the hot seat at NATO during a decade of global tumult before his departure in October 2024. “What we have [at NATO] was built over generations, but it can be torn down in a very short period. Leadership matters. Who we elect matters. Democracy matters,” Gulliksen tells Business Doc Europe.

CPH:DOX’s opening film Facing War, about Jens Stoltenberg’s final years as NATO Secretary General, is instructive in defining a current moment in our global geo-politics, but it already feels like ancient history – or history in the unmaking. Regrettably, Stoltenberg’s promise that NATO will stand by Ukraine “for as long as it takes” has lost much of its lustre since Trump’s re-election.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and former NATO Secretary General (and current Norwegian Finance Minister) Jens Stoltenberg will attend the opening of CPH:DOX March 19 to watch and discuss the festival opener Facing War, directed by Tommy Gulliksen, as well as the future of the NATO alliance. Niklas Engstrøm, Artistic Director at CPH:DOX, expressed his gratitude that the politicians will visit CPH:DOX “to discuss the value of diplomacy in the new world order.”

The Danish-born, New York-based director discusses her new feature doc, a climate change-themed story about a teenage brother and sister who face relocation from the sinking Louisiana island that they have always called home. “There are amazing films that put the stats and science first, but I think my strengths are something else. I love hanging out with people for a long time and observing them,” Winther tells BDE.

At this year’s CPH:DOX Rough Cut presentations, Czech filmmaker Barbora Chalupová and producer Pavla Klimešová unveiled their latest documentary, Virtual Girlfriends, a compelling exploration of online intimacy and the monetisation of virtual relationships. The project delves into the world of OnlyFans, offering “a deep dive” into the world of virtual relationships. “Barbora is a deeply sensitive director, and our aim is to present a nuanced, observational exploration of this world,” said Klimešová.

UK production outfit Hopscotch Films returned to CPH:DOX Forum with Story of Documentary Film, the latest epic by revered filmmaker Mark Cousins. Following on from their collaborations on The Story of Film: An Odyssey and Women Make Film, this new 16x60-minute series sets out to tell the definitive story of non-fiction cinema—"boldly feminist, jargon-free, and truly global in scope."