News

The Eurimages Outreach Award of €30,000 was won by Becoming Lucien, directed by Lucien Pin & Alex Haugmard and produced by Thibault Elie. The Eurimages Innovation Award of €20,000 went to A Sanctuary of Stuff by Francesca Tremulo & Eszter Várhidi. The $25,000 Sandbox Films Science Pitch Prize went to Metropolis by Anupama Srinivasan & Anirban, while the first Rise and Shine Award went to House No.7, directed by Rama Abdi and produced by Hazar Yazji. All awards…

At this year’s CPH:DOX Forum, Norwegian auteur Margreth Olin (Songs of Earth, The Self Portrait, Doing Good) unveiled details of her latest non-fiction venture. Known for her lyrical storytelling and focus on human rights and environmental consciousness, Olin is now turning her lens toward a different kind of subject: the horse - not as a servant to human needs, but as a sentient, autonomous being.

“Crossing the Mountains is a necessary and urgent film, telling the story of one of Europe’s most symbolic borders through an intimate and political lens,” says producer Céline Loiseau of her ParisDOC 2025 project. “At a time when fascism and migration repression are intensifying, this film offers a powerful narrative of resistance and solidarity. It is not just a documentary about the migration crisis, but a broader reflection on our times, on the struggles of those who challenge borders, and on the fragility of our idea of freedom.”

“First and foremost, it is a rare and unique point of view, one of the very few representatives of Chechen culture in contemporary cinema,” says French producer Alexandra Mélot ahead of the March 27 ParisDOC Work-in-Progress screening of Imago by director Déni Oumar Pitsaev. “Imago is an initiation tale about a free-spirited young man's search for his roots as he confronts the traditional dogmas of his clan, which he left as a teenager to exile in France.”

“Two out of three protagonists of Anatomy of a Portrait are on stage while the third, despite being the reason for their initial encounter, is a ghost,” begins the synopsis of Mattia Colombo and Francesco Clerici’s latest documentary opus, presented at this week’s ParisDOC Work-In-Progress forum. BDE was intrigued enough to catch with the film’s producer, Marco Malfi Chindemi to find out more.

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.

A powerful environmental and family documentary set in the rugged highlands of Montenegro, The Last Nomads by Biljana Tutorov and Petar Glomazić was presented as part of the Rough Cut sessions held at CPH:DOX 2025, marking the final production push ahead of its eventual premiere. “We joined the local people in defending their land, life, and identity,” said co-director Glomazić. “This is the story I’ve dreamt of telling since my childhood.”

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.

Boris Despodov’s feature The Sinner, presented at this year’s CPH:DOX Rough Cut sessions, offers a deeply polarising, character-driven portrait of Petar Nizamov, a former Bulgarian boxer turned ultra-conservative vigilante. “It’s a character-driven film, but also a creative documentary…and it shows how political events can shape not just a person, but society as a whole,” the director told the Copenhagen gathering.

Tommy Gulliksen’s film is about Jens Stoltenberg’s final year as Nato secretary general, and the prize makes the film eligible for nomination for the Academy Award® for Best Documentary Film. Other winners include Alina Simone's Black Snow (Activist Lens); Kamay by Ilyas Yourish and Shahrokh Bikaran (Justice Frame); Home Game by Lidija Zelovic (Dutch Focus); and Man Number 4 by Miranda Pennell (Shorts). Marianna Brennand’s Manas won the Grand Jury Fiction Award.