CPH:DOX 2025

Christian Sønderby Jepsen’s The Father, The Sons and The Holy Spirit (a world premiere in International Competition at CPH:DOX) is a sequel to the director’s earlier, hugely impactful, documentary, The Testament (aka The Will, 2011), about how an inherited family fortune sparks a bitter family dispute. “I didn’t think the story had been put to an end,” Jepsen explains to BDE just why he is again chronicling the lives of the troubled siblings.

Yes, Gar O’Rourke did himself try the mud treatment when he was preparing his new feature doc Sanatorium (a world premiere in International Competition at CPH:DOX and sold by MetFilm Sales). He has also done the salt pools the electro-massages and everything else between. Many docs have been made in Ukraine since the invasion but this is surely the gentlest, funniest and most surprising. O’Rourke gets the full treatment from BDE.

It takes a brave filmmaking team to pivot when the story they thought they were telling suddenly changes – and also to realise when they’ve become a protagonist in the story. That’s what happened with Walls – Akinni Inuk, directed by Denmark’s Sofie Rørdam and Greenland’s Nina Paninnguaq Skydsbjerg. The film has its world premiere at CPH:DOX on March 21. The directors talk to 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.

After the implosion of his once successful career as a TV comedy producer, the affable, well-spoken Rob Moore began to work as a gardener and as a corporate “spy” on the activities of anti-asbestos campaigners, posing as…a documentary filmmaker. When he turned whistle-blower to try and help the activists, they ended up suing him. “For us [as documentary makers], conflict is great. We want conflict - but conflict can be very hurtful to people,” Norwegian director Håvard Bustnes reflects on making his new doc, world-premiering at CPH:DOX.

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.

“The world was quite different when we selected the film just a couple of months ago,” Artistic Director Niklas Engstrøm cites CPH:DOX opening film Facing War, about Jens Stoltenberg’s tumultuous final years at the helm of NATO, on the eve of the festival’s 23rd roll-out. “Developments have been so fast that the film looks different today than when we selected it…in some ways, it almost feels like a document from another time period.” CPH:DOX 2025 runs March 19-30.

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.

World-premiering in CPH:DOX HUMAN:RIGHTS Competition, The Lions by the River Tigris demonstrates how cultural heritage is the invisible casualty of any war. ISIS left the northern Iraqi city of Mosul in ruins after liberation. Today, a fisherman, a musician and a collector struggle to preserve what remains of the city's soul. The film is produced by Thorvald Nilsen of Indie Film Bergen (Norway).

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.”