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CPH:DOX and Kunsthal Charlottenborg, one of Denmark’s most prominent art institutions, together Human Rights Watch Denmark and the Frececo Foundation, will collaborate in 2025 to promote human rights via an exhibition, a thematic film program, as well as talks and panels. "Through documentary films, art, conversation, and debate, CPH:DOX and Kunsthal Charlottenborg have both the credibility and the platform to communicate human rights through real people and lived experiences,” says Niklas Engstrøm, Artistic Director of CPH:DOX.

The Grand Prix for International Documentary was awarded to the Oscar-nominated Black Box Diaries by Shiori Itô, while the Grand Prix for French Documentary went to Bosco Grande by Giuseppe Schillaci. In Fipadoc Pro, the Best International Pitch Award went to Yugo Goes to America by Filip Grujič & Aleksa Borković, while Lucas Vernier won the Best French Pitch Award for Seven and One. All Awards…

Three documentary toppers shared their points of view on the non-fiction landscape at Fipadoc in Biarritz 30 January 2025. Hanka Kastelicova of HBO Max, Mark Edwards, former Director of Documentaries for Netflix (Europe), and Renaud Allilaire from France Télévisions, formed the panel which was chaired by Fipadoc’s Head of Co-production Forum, Ove Rishøj Jensen.

Cutting Through Rocks by Sara Khaki wins World Cinema Grand Jury Doc Prize while the Mr. Nobody Against Putin by David Borenstein and Pavel Talankin wins the World Cinema Doc Special Jury Award. The Directing Award: World Cinema Doc went to 2000 Meters to Andriivka by Mstyslav Chernov. On the US front, the Grand Jury Prize Doc went to Seeds by Brittany Shyne, while the Directing Award: U.S. Docu was won by Geeta Gandbhir for The Perfect Neighbor.

In Biarritz, the producer/director team of Johnny Brewin and Laura Plancarte presented their project Boom!, the story of Champion fighter G-Air and Sonia, a boxing couple who find solace in Muay Thai. At the heart of the story is a dilemma - what happens when they stop fighting? This layered story explores the balance between parenting, societal expectations and the relentless internal noise that pushes them to their limits.

Presented in Biarritz and tying in with this year’s focus on the Balkans at Fipadoc, co-directors Filip Grujić and Aleksa Borković’s doc Yugo Goes to America is based on an odyssey across America in the eponymous car that every family within the former Yugoslavia has a story about. “We wanted to see if we can actually have the best time in the worst car ever,” Grujić told attendees.

In Tehran, Auto-Immune, director Afsaneh Salari goes under the skin of Iranian society via an intimate observation of beauty clinics in a city that records the highest rates of cosmetic surgery. “That's pretty surprising, because Iran is a country where you’re not allowed to show your body, you're not allowed to show your hair, you're not allowed to show your curves,” Salari told the Biarritz audience.

The 2025 edition of CPH:FORUM, CPH:DOX’s flagship financing and co-pro event, will bring together 75 directors and producers representing 26 countries who will present 30 new documentary projects spanning early to late development and production. “We hope for this edition to be a space for community and dialogue - that demonstrates the power of documentary,” says Mara Gourd-Mercado, Head of Industry & Training.

Core to the Geneva-based industry programme is the pitch of 12 international film projects developed during the Impact Lab training programme, and 4 further impact projects in Swiss Focus 2025. Designed for filmmakers, NGOs & international organisations, philanthropists, impact practitioners and distributors, and offering case studies, networking events and examples of best practices from around the world, FIFDH Impact Days will run 9-11 March 2025.

Jane Ray, Artistic Director of UK funding body The Whickers, outlined the stark realities of documentary filmmaking in her ‘Can We Afford to Do This Anymore?’ keynote at Fipadoc, January 28. “If it was just about finance, then independent international documentary would be dead by now. I think really it all comes back to the resilience of people to carry on regardless,” she told attendees in Biarritz.