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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.

The screening of Andres Veiel’s film, about arguably the 20th Century’s most controversial filmmaker, coincides with the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. “The documentary reminds us of the seductive power of images and narratives, while posing a crucial question: what is the artist's responsibility?” says DocsBarcelona Artistic Director Maria Colomer. The festival, which runs May 8 to 18, will feature Germany as its guest country and pay tribute to German producer and distributor Heino Deckert.

In addition to the strong Swiss selections in the Visions du réel programme, VdR–Industry announces 15 new Swiss projects participating within the RTS and SWISS FILMS pitch sessions, as well as in the official VdR–Pitching showcase. In addition, VdR–Industry announces a new partnership with Unifrance to welcome France as the Country of Focus, while also offering up a showcase of diverse new documentaries from Norway.

During the CPH:DOX Rough Cut session, directors Jacob Tschernia and Tomer Slutzky took to the stage to present The Alarmist, a gripping political documentary six years in the making. The Danish-US co-production traces the extraordinary political journey of Stav Shaffir, the youngest woman ever elected to the Israeli Parliament, against the backdrop of Israel’s democratic unravelling and the dramatic collapse of its political left. Screen Scotland’s Head of Unscripted Dani Carlaw moderated the presentation.

The Finnish industry delegation features five producers, “each with a unique vision and a slate of projects ready to captivate global audiences.” Additionally, the Finnish Film Fund has just invested 656,000 euros in production support; and at the Jussi Film Awards (March 21), the feature doc Once Upon a Time in a Forest won The Nordisk Film Award, worth 20,000 euros, as well as Documentary of the Year and Cinematography of the Year Awards.

BDE caught up with Elijah Stevens, producer of Barbara Forever, ahead of the project’s March 26 Work-in-Progress presentation at ParisDOC. Directed by Brydie O’Connor, the film is described as the first ever feature documentary to exclusively tell the story of the lesbian experimental filmmaker, Barbara Hammer. “Her work [has] become a blueprint for a new generation of queer and radical artists to write our own histories into existence,” says Stevens.