The juries have deliberated and the winners of the international competitions at CPH:DOX 2025 have been announced this evening at the festival’s Award Show at Kunsthal Charlottenborg. The international competition lineup included a total of 71 films in competition, in 6 different categories, featuring 56 world premieres, 12 international premieres, and 3 European premieres. The main prize DOX:AWARD has been awarded to ‘Always’ (PHOTO) by Deming Chen – a striking debut of great beauty.

Friday 28th Mar 2025

Besides the festival’s main prize, the Dox:Award, prizes have been awarded in the categories F:act Award, Nordic:Dox Award, New:Vision Award, Next:Wave Award, Human:Rights Award and Inter:Active Award. The Audience Award is yet to be announced on April 4 as the online festival unfolds, providing a chance for audiences based outside of Copenhagen to vote for their favourite film.

The winners of the international competitions of CPH:DOX 2025 are:

DOX:AWARD
Winner: ‘ALWAYS’ by Deming Chen / US, FR & CN / 2025 / World Premiere

Special Mention: ‘FLOPHOUSE AMERICA’ by Monica Strømdahl / NO, NL & US / 2025 / World Premiere

Sponsored by Politiken and Politiken-Fonden with a prize of €10,000, the DOX:AWARD is the festival’s main competition, honoring films with artistic quality, cultural relevance, and strong personal expression.

The jury consisted of Rikke Tambo Andersen, Max Kestner, Nicolas Rapold, Adele Tulli and Raul Niño Zambrano.

F:ACT AWARD
Winner: ‘2000 METERS TO ANDRIIVKA’ by Mstyslav Chernov / UA / 2025 / European Premiere

Special Mention: ‘THE PERFECT NEIGHBOR’ by Geeta Gandbhir / US / 2025 / International Premiere

Supported by International Media Support (IMS) and the Danish Union of Journalists with a prize of €5,000, the F:act Award competition recognizes films blending documentary and investigative journalism.

The jury consisted of Alexis Bloom, Mikala Krogh and Steffi Niederzoll.

HUMAN:RIGHTS AWARD
Winner: ‘9-MONTH CONTRACT’ by Ketevan Vashagashvili / GE, BG & DE / 2025 / World Premiere

Special Mention: ‘THE ENCAMPMENTS’ by Michael T. Workman & Kei Pritsker / US / 2025 / World Premiere

Awarded for the second consecutive year, the Human:Rights Award is sponsored by the Danish Institute for Human Rights with a prize of €5,000, and focuses on films dealing with human rights issues.

The jury consisted of Mohamed Saïd Ouma, Tomáš Poštulka and Birgitte Stærmose.

NORDIC:DOX AWARD
Winner: ‘WALLS – AKINNI INUK’ by Nina Paninnguaq Skydsbjerg & Sofie Rørdam / GL/ 2025 / World Premiere

Special Mention: ‘THE NICEST MEN ON EARTH’ by Josefine Exner & Sebastian Gerdes / DK / 2025 / World Premiere

The NORDIC:DOX Award (€5,000) honors standout documentaries from the Nordic region.

The jury consisted of Butheina Kazim, Dario Oliveira and Roja Pakari.

NEXT:WAVE AWARD
Winner: ‘ABODE OF DAWN’ by Kristina Shtubert / DE / 2024 / International Premiere

Special Mention: ‘WHO WITNESSED THE TEMPLES FALL’ by Lucía Selva / SP / 2025 / World Premiere

The NEXT:WAVE Award (€5,000) highlights new and emerging filmmakers.

The jury consisted of Sissel Morell Dargis, Sona Karapoghosyan and María Palacios Cruz.

NEW:VISION
Winner: ‘RAMALLAH, PALESTINE, DECEMBER 2018’ by Juliette Le Monniyer / BE / 2025 / World Premiere

Special mention: ‘SCRAP’ by Noémie Lobry
FR / 2025 / World Premiere

The NEW:VISION Award (€5,000) celebrates art films and boundary-pushing experiments.

The jury consisted of Mason Leaver-Yap, Jeppe Lange and Marina Kožul.

INTER:ACTIVE AWARD
Winner: ‘CONSTANTINOPOLIAD’ by Sister Sylvester & Nadah El Shazly / UK / Installation / 2025 / International Premiere

Special Mention: ‘THE GARDEN SAYS…’ by Uri Kranot, Michelle Kranot, Sara Topsøe Jensen, Sarah John & Marieke Breyne / DK / XR Perfomance-Installation / 2025 / World Premiere

The award winner will receive a winning package including two complimentary industry accreditations for Sunny Side of the Doc, two full access accreditations for the Industry Days of New Images Festival, 6 hours of legal consultation on European IP law and a cash prize of €1000.

The jury consisted of Irene Campolmi, David Adler and Carl Emil Carlsen.

Jury Statements

DOX:AWARD

Winner: ‘ALWAYS’
‘There’s a huge difference between nothing and small things. But life is in fact made up of many, often unnoticed, small things. We need the sensibilities of artists to show us the greatness of the little things.

This exquisitely shot chronicle of a rural farming family is alive with compassion and poetry.
The DOX AWARD goes to ALWAYS, directed by Deming Chen.’

Special mention: ‘FLOPHOUSE AMERICA’
‘Home is where the heart is, in love and in pain. A 12-year-old, his mother and his father live in close quarters that involve constant back and forth, fighting, making up, and fussing over one another (and the cat).

For its vision of living as a work-in-progress, squeezed by circumstances, the special mention goes to FLOPHOUSE AMERICA, directed by Monica Strømdahl.’

F:ACT AWARD

Winner: ‘2000 METERS TO ANDRIIVKA’
‘Ultimately we give the F: ACT award to ”2000 Meters to Andriivka” not just because it’s a conflict on our doorstep, but because it’s a masterpiece in filmmaking: a haunting, multi layered portrayal of war comparable to All Quiet on the Western Front. But this is not the First World War, it’s today. The meaningless of war, and also its unsettling poetry are all on full display here. An artist in amongst bloodshed brings the reality home, and make an anti war film that forces us to reflect on the diginity of each human life lost.’

Special Mention: ‘THE PERFECT NEIGHBOR’
‘Our special mention is extremely powerful on a physical level. The choice to stay on the bodycam footage was brave, and it paid off. This shows enormous filmmaking skill. This is a devastating film about gun violence, but it’s also a film about families, about every day life, and the connections between us. The triangle between the perpetrator, the police and the neighbors is woven together with great sensitivity. In its own way, The Perfect Neighbor is a restrained film, and that’s what proves so shattering.’

HUMAN:RIGHTS AWARD

Winner: ‘9-MONTH CONTRACT’
‘The winner in the Human Rights Competition is a film that portrays the relationship between a mother and her daughter with a radical intimacy and an outstanding tenderness.

Through its visual poetry the film balances delicately between the harshness of their situation and the humanity of Zhana and her intense love for her daughter.

The Human Rights Award goes to 9 MONTH CONTRACT directed by Ketevan Vashagashvili.’

Special Mention: ‘THE ENCAMPMENTS’
‘The Special Mention goes to a hopeful and inspiring film that immerses you in the activism of students in times of conflict and oppression.

While it was surprising for us that this was the only film in the Human Rights Competition that addresses the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, we are extremely happy to give the Special Mention to THE ENCAMPMENTS directed by Michael T. Workman & Kei Pritsker.’

NEXT:WAVE AWARD

Winner: ‘ABODE OF DAWN’
‘Set in a northern forest, the film follows a community which emerged as a replacement for a lost past which perhaps never existed.

For its immense respect and long-term commitment, nuanced approach to existential questions and ability to embrace an environment with so many contradictions, The Next:Wave award goes to Adobe of Dawn.’

Special Mention: ‘WHO WITNESSED THE TEMPLES FALL’
‘We also want to award a special mention to a film imbued with magic and mystery whose visual language and soundscapes impressed us. A film that blurs past and present to address issues around urbanisation, gentrification and the social landscape and troubled history of Spain.

The film with the most beautiful name and title design, we award a special mention to Who Witnessed the Temples Fall.’

NORDIC:DOX AWARD

Winner: ‘WALLS – AKINNI INUK’
‘Out of the periphery, armed with radical dignity in the face of a prolonged and harsh injustice, we bore witness to a pure flow of vulnerability, front and center, refusing to be cast aside.

In the heartbroken cadence of its native tongue, we found an alignment of elements, an intuitive and steadfast tale of a feminine force of nature.

Fresh like a gust of the Nordic wind, the healing powers of the film left us breathing hope and gentle triumph.

A reminder of putting cameras in the rightful hands, demonstrating the difference between observational documentary and representational storytelling.

For sending us off all the wiser, we present the award for Best Nordic Documentary to WALLS (Akinni Inuk) by Nina Paninnguaq Skydsbjerg & Sofie Rørdam from Greenland.’

Special Mention: ‘THE NICEST MEN ON EARTH’
‘Because some of the hardest questions can sometimes be answered with the simplest of ideas and a whole lotta style, an honorable mention goes to THE NICEST MEN ON EARTH by Josefine Exner & Sebastian Gerdes’

NEW:VISION

Winner: ‘RAMALLAH, PALESTINE, DECEMBER 2018’
‘Penetrating a sunny pastoral landscape in single-take, Juliette Le Monnyer’s video takes us through an unfolding yet unspecified moment of conflict. The shakey camera pans as if scaling a ziggurat from afar. Dated from 2018, this is a document of a just-past that refuses to give a comprehensive overview and yet, in its partial nature, reveals much about the moment we find ourselves in — the timing of this film’s release: March 2025.

Wavering hesitantly between the everyday and the unknowable, this is a short film delivered with uncompromising conceptual rigor. It demands questions about what we – as viewers, as filmmakers – are witnessing. What we choose to focus on and when – what do we overlook, what do we withold, when do we stop watching.’

Special mention: ‘SCRAP’
‘Through an inventive use of associations the film weaves together childhood memories, eerie scenes from computer games, and glimpses of a post-apocalyptic future.

Salvaging and cannibalising components of the coming of age drama and the road movie genre, we’ve been taken to look upon it with a different eye.’

INTER:ACTIVE AWARD

Winner: ‘CONSTANTINOPOLIAD’
‘In a world of hyper-immersive technologies, where interactivity often demands movement, headsets, or VR goggles, Costantinopoliad invites us to do something far more radical: to sit still and listen.

Costantinopoliad is not just a work of storytelling; it is an invitation to discovery. It intertwines narrative with action, making us feel as though we are the first to stumble upon this archive, the first to unearth Cavafy’s story, to breathe life into his words. The work radiates a rare curiosity and playfulness, slipping between the boundaries of literature, performance, and archaeology.

Yet, just as we settle into this deeply personal experience, an uncanny sensation creeps in. As we turn the pages, touch the stones, and immerse ourselves in the poet’s world, we become the protagonist, performers in an unfolding documentary. Our movements, our gestures, become part of a cinematic language, synchronized with the voice-over that narrates a past we are now embodying.

It is with great pleasure that we announce Costantinopoliad by Sister Sylvester & Nadah El Shazly as the recipient of this year’s INTER:ACTIVE exhibition award. This work is not just an artwork—it is an experience, a portal, a living archive.’

Special Mention: ‘THE GARDEN SAYS …’
‘We are delighted to extend an Honorable Mention to The Garden Says… by Uri and Michelle Kranot, Sara Topsøe Jensen, Sarah John & Marieke Breynefor their beautiful, thought-provoking, and deeply reflective installation.
Centered on the aesthetic experience of a virtual garden and the serendipity of chance encounters, this work dares to create a space where interactions unfold organically—and it does so with remarkable success. The Garden Says… is not just an environment but an invitation—one that encourages return, exploration, and the continuous possibility of new meetings.

Thank you for offering us a heartfelt and personal experience, one that reminds us of the power of connection and shared presence.’

Brilliant film, full of life, observing and arranging, lots of music, the end credits invite you to dance, young people, well read the intro from the catalogue to know where we are in the world:

“There is a lot of talking in ‘Balane 3’. About politics, friendships, love and sex – and sex especially. We are in Inhambane, a medium-sized city in the south of Mozambique. Here we meet the young inhabitants in their own element. They work, hang out, go out dancing – and then they talk. 

‘Balane 3’ is a social film. A panoramic snapshot of life as a young African right now, in this particular place (the film is named after the neighborhood where it was shot). In other words, there’s a lot going on, and Ico Costa’s spinning analog camera is always at eye level with the young participants.

Costa has made a number of films in Mozambique across documentary and fiction, about and with the country’s young generation, and has developed a method based on co-creation, relationships and trust, where all participants actively contribute – not just to tell their own story, but to transcend the narrative itself.”

I would call it a situational documentary, scene follow scene – one of them you see in the photo: The young girl is having her birthday celebration, her mother cuts the cake, who is to have to the first piece she asks the daughter, who gives it to mother, after that to grandmother and birthday song is there as well, of course. You enjoy the situation as they do.

Many scenes give you an impression of the culture, gender questions are constantly being raised or rather the girls/young women talk about the young men, and the other way around (one young man to another: why don´t you like to jerk off… I am ashamed, he answers), and there are pretty daring public dance scenes and one long scene at the end with a dancer, amazing. Documentaries can take us to places, where we can’t go ourselves, in this case it is obvious that the director has the trust of his wonderful protagonists. Full of joy and yet there is a graffiti on the wall: Our survival stopped us from living. A social film it is written above, yes, but also a film that says Life is beautiful.

Portugal, France, 98 mins.

Eleanor Mortimer’s debut feature might be the most inspiring science doc of the year. Funny and serious, light and dark, poetic and informative. “Why we called it planet Earth when more than 70% of its surface is water?” says Mortimer’s playful voice over in the beginning of the film. And, indeed, the film is full of water with sea creatures that seem to come from another planet. But they live in planet Earth. Such a paradox that our civilization is willing to go to Mars while we have a vast portion of our own planet completely unexplored!

The film follows a crew of passionate biologists into the deep ocean. There’s no light five kilometers under the sea surface, however, it turns to be a realm full of life. In order to stop minery in international deep sea waters, it is crucial that marine scientists can map and categorize a vast amount of animals living in the oceanic darkest areas. But such work takes years, how much time do we have? 

A robot named by the Egyptian goddess of death Isis not only conducts such  necessary research but turns to be an extremely talented DoP. The team of biologists cannot believe what they are seeing and the audience will be mesmerized by their enthusiasm. Isis films an extraordinary array of creatures never seen before and still unnamed. So the biologist must give names to the unseen. And lucky for us they have sense of humor! A beautiful unknown creature who moves elegantly in the deep sea is temporary called Spanish Dancer; a starfish with a special skin it’s named as Wedding Dress Star; a pink luminescent alien-like creature becomes the Barbie Pig. Mortimer’s film is full of love for our planet and it is a must see for the young audiences.

United Kingdom, 2025, 101 minutes

Review by Pol Roig

I will write about this film again and again. Here just some few notes. The film will travel to all festivals and it will win awards. Happy that it simply has been made. It was not the idea, Alisa told the audience at CPH:DOX. It was her friend and colleague Marina Stepanska, who said that “there is a film” in the material – your letters to your son, the video clips, what you have shot… She told the audience that there was only 20 hours of material making a tribute to the editor, Polish Kasia Boniecka, “she is a magician”.

The tone of the film. Beautiful, balanced, Alisa´s voice, the voice of Théo in the face time clips, her colleagues at the front, the constant sound of bombing, I had to shake my head after the screening to get it away, the decision not to include any battle scenes, Alisa did not shoot any, everything is so well thought and she survived (!) contrary to many of her colleagues, we see them at the end credits with the sad information that they did not make it. And we see – like in the film of Olha Zhurba – a long sequence, where cars, with coffins, on the road pass people kneeling to pay respect. It gives me tears in the eyes every time I see it.

Alisa and Théo, Mother and Son. A love story. A hope for the future?!

Olha Stefanishyna er “The EUkrainian” med formentlig akkurat så mange rejsedage som Jens Stoltenberg havde på sit sidste år som NATO’s generalsekretær i flg. festivalens åbningsfilm “Facing War”. Svenske Nordenskjiöld har været tæt på hende, hun er diplomat, men holder sig ikke tilbage, når Ukraines sag skal tales på de store adresser i EUropa. Jeg må ikke anmelde filmen før premieren den 24. marts så dette er en anbefaling, hvor jeg har valgt at give ordet til filmens instruktør, en tekst taget fra pressematerialet:

”I disse dage virker det relevant at spørge: Hvordan ville verden være, hvis flere kvinder ledede verdens stormagter?

Efter at have filmet Olha Stefanishyna i to år, fangede jeg et intimt øjeblik af hende. Hun kigger ind i kameraet og taler direkte til sine børn og siger, at hun ønsker, at de kan “leve det liv, de vil”. De fleste forældre kan nok relatere til dette. Men det faktum, at hun er vicepremierminister i et land i krig, et land der er blevet invaderet, gør ønsket skræmmende alvorligt.

Hvad kræver det, for at ukrainere kan leve det liv, de ønsker? Hvad kræver det for nogen at leve det liv, de ønsker, i en verden, hvor autoritære regimer vinder magt?

Da jeg først mødte Olha Stefanishyna ved et EU-møde i Prag i juni 2022, vidste jeg med det samme, at hun var én, der kunne personificere og gøre den komplicerede og komplekse historie levende. Hvis man vil tale om Europas fremtid og demokratiets fremtid, skal man bruge en følelsesladet, skarp, jordnær og fascinerende person...

Det er 30 år siden, jeg for første gang tog til Ukraine. I løbet af det sidste årti, har jeg lavet mange workshops i Kyiv og Odessa. Mange af de folk, jeg har mødt, er blevet fantastiske filmskabere. Nu har nogle af dem været nødt til at opgive deres kameraer for våben. Når Ruslands fuldskalainvasion begynder, har man i Ukraine ikke noget valg, hvis man vil bevare muligheden for at vælge. Det er hjerteskærende på så mange måder.

Selvom jeg har tilbragt mange måneder i Kyiv efter fuldskalainvasionen – og hørt Ukraines soundtrack, luftalarmerne mange gange – er jeg blot en besøgende. Mit job har været at rejse mellem Kyiv og andre europæiske hovedstæder, at forstå det diplomatiske bånd, at undersøge den politiske koreografi, og gennem en hovedkarakter lave en overbevisende film, en “politisk thriller”, som jeg håber vil blive i folks hjerter og inspirere til kritisk tænkning.

Hvad lærer Ukraine os? Tror vi stadig på, at demokrati og de værdier, som EU-familien blev grundlagt på, er værd at kæmpe for? Jeg håber, at nogle seere vil reflektere over disse spørgsmål, og også over hvilke ledere de ønsker for fremtiden.”

Producers: MALCOLM DIXELIUS, Sweden, OLHA BESKHMELNYTSINA, Ukraine, CHRISTIAN POPP, France, SERGIO GHIZZARDI, Belgium.

2025, 90 mins.

It’s looking at you, the bull. From the big screen in the cinema Grand in Copenhagen. Together with an almost full hall on a Wednesday afternoon, the first day of CPH:DOX 2025, I booked a ticket for Catalan Albert Serra’s first non-fiction film. Admired for his fiction films, considered a true auteur, he had a masterclass last year at DocsBarcelona, that I missed but I understood that he and editor Artur Tort told that they had spent 9 months of editing the two hour long bullfighting documentary! And that Serra said that it would have been impossible to find an actor for the role of torero. That’s why he decided to leave fiction for this film. He found Andrés Roca Rey, see photo.

You also hear the breathing of the bull. It’s ready for the fight that in most cases ends with its death. And in some cases with blood on the torero, again see photo of Roca, as they call him, in a hotel room undressing after a fight assisted by what you could call his butler. The same man is the one who – in a precious scene – dresses Roca starting with feminine underwear and pink socks before the heavy colorful outfit is settled on the body of the young man.

A fight yes, but also a show, that Serra has his focus on. No spectators are seen, but they are heard, we see Roca in the arena alone with the bull with his red cloth, moving, inviting the bull to attack, the sound is strong, Roca communicates with the bull, he gets advice from his team and praise, all is hearable and even more so when they are back in the car, the sole other location, “you’ve got balls”, “you are the best”, simple dialogues in this world of men.

It’s all about the image. I don’t remember having seen so poignant closeups of a bull suffering; with blood all over it keeps the attack until Roca delivers the death blow with his sword after the bull has received lances in its body. Serra comes back with detail after detail of Roca, bull after bull, taking dancing steps with inviting sounds toward the animal and a face that changes expression depending on how close we are to the final sword thrust. In some sequences Roca performs as a kind of Shakespearean character supported by strong music, classical.

I would never enter a bullfighting arena, it’s disgusting animal cruelty what is going on there to entertain us – Serra is not telling us what to think about this cultural phenomenon – up yo you, but I was caught by the drama as it was magnificently conveyed on the screen by a filmmaker, who knows his métier. One man in the arena.

Spain, France, Portugal, 2024, 125 mins.