CPH:DOX, also known as Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, is a Danish film festival focused on documentary films, held annually in Copenhagen, Denmark. Since 2008 it has been run by Copenhagen Film Festivals, which also organizes the children's film festival BUSTER.
History CPH:DOX - Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival was founded in 2002 by Kim Foss and Andreas Steinmann on behalf of Natsværmerfonden, which also founded the now defunct NatFilm Festival (1990 – 2008). Under the artistic direction of the festival’s first head of programme (and later festival director) Tine Fischer, the festival grew to become one of the leading documentary film festivals in Europe. Today, the festival ranks among the largest and most important documentary film festivals globally, with more than 150,000 admissions and more than 2,000 international industry guests in 2025.
Following the 2015 edition of CPH:DOX, the festival announced that it would change its dates from November to March, and the first of the new spring editions of the festival was held from 16 to 26 March 2017, with the centrally located Kunsthal Charlottenborg as the new festival centre.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2020 CPH:DOX held their festival virtually, using a Shift72 video-on-demand platform that was built and launched in just 24 hours.
In February 2021 it was announced that the first festival director of CPH:DOX, Tine Fischer, would be stepping down from the CEO role after the 18th edition (21 April to 2 May 2021) to take up a position as director of the National Film School of Denmark. Instead, the festival's Head of Programme, Niklas Engstrøm (who had been part of the festival team since the beginning in 2003) was appointed new Artistic Director in May 2021, and soon thereafter, Katrine Kiilgaard was appointed Managing Director.
The 2025 event took place between 19 and 30 March, 2025. The 2026 edition will take place between 11 and 22 March, 2026.
Past guest curators of film programmes have included artists and filmmakers such as The xx; Anohni; Harmony Korine; Animal Collective; Nan Goldin; Douglas Gordon; Ben Rivers with Ben Russell; Ai Weiwei; The Yes Men; Olafur Eliasson; and Naomi Klein with Avi Lewis.
Description and governance CPH:DOX is the official name of the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival. Copenhagen Film Festivals has managed CPH:DOX as well as the children's film festival BUSTER and CPH PIX since the latter was created in 2008. It is held in cinemas all over Copenhagen and with Kunsthal Charlottenborg as its festival centre. Since 2021, the festival has also been held in an increasing number of other Danish cities as part of its nation-wide festival concept DOX:DANMARK. In 2024, CPH:DOX was held in more than 40 cities all over Denmark.
CPH:DOX is devoted to supporting independent and innovative film and to present contemporary non-fiction, art cinema, and experimental film.
In 2009, the festival launched the international talent development and film production workshop CPH:LAB (formerly known as DOX:LAB) where around 20 filmmakers are invited each year to develop and direct a film in teams of two.
Besides its seven international competitions, the festival presents parallel curated and guest-curated sections. The festival hosts seminars, debates and events as well as the curated concert series "Audio:Visuals", where bands and artists perform to original work created for the occasion by visual artists. CPH:DOX also presents a number of other initiatives parallel to the festival itself: the industry platform CPH:Forum, with the attached CPH:Market for buyers and programmers, is a financing and co-production forum as well as a networking facility which takes place for three days during the festival. In 2011, the related ART:FILM branch was launched with the aim to facilitate the development and actual production of artists' films in the feature length format. CPH:DOX runs the five-day CPH:Conference as well as the experimental educational course DOX:Academy for students, both of which take place during the festival.
At the industry segment CPH:WIP, Nordic works-in-progress are presented to the potential sponsors and distributors.
CPH: DOX is part of the Doc Alliance, a creative partnership among seven key European documentary film festivals.
Awards Juries hand out prizes in seven international competition programmes: CPH:DOX Award, for international documentary features (€10,000) NEW:VISION Award, for experimental and artists' film (€5,000 prize) F:ACT Award, for films in the field between investigative journalism and documentary (€5,000 prize) NORDIC:DOX Award, for Nordic documentaries and artists' films (€5,000 prize) NEXT:WAVE Award, for emerging filmmakers and artists (€5,000 prize) Politiken:Danish:Dox Award, awarded by a jury of film critics from the Danish newspaper Politiken Doc Alliance Award, given in collaboration with six other European documentary film festivals, to one of the seven films nominated by the participating festivals Audience Award, chosen by the festival-goers (€5,000) Human:Rights Award, introduced in 2024 in collaboration with the Danish Institute for Human Rights
Award winners CPH:DOX Award Year Film Director Country 2003 Dans Grozny Dans 2004 Darwin's Nightmare The 3 Rooms of Melancholia 2005 Workingman's Death The White Diamond 2006 Black Sun 2007 Santa Fe Street 2008 Burma VJ 2009 Trash Humpers 2010 Le Quattro Volte 2011 Two Years at Sea 2012 The Act of Killing 2013 Bloody Beans 2014 The Look of Silence 2015 God Bless the Child 2017 Last Men in Aleppo 2018 The Raft 2019 Ridge 2020 Songs of Repression 2021 The Last Shelter 2022 The Eclipse 2023 MotherlandHanna Badziaka & Alexander Mihalkovich Belarus Ukraine2024 The FlatsAlessandra Celesia Italy2025 AlwaysDeming Chen China
2003 CPH:DOX Award Film Director Jos de Putter Mika Ronkainen José Padilha Carlos Bosch & Josep Maria Domènech
2004 CPH:DOX Award Film Director Hubert Sauper Pirjo Honkasalo Maria Ramos Andrei Nekrasov & Eyal Sivan Max Kestner
2005 CPH:DOX Award Film Director Michael Glawogger Werner Herzog Michale Boganim Sabina Guzzanti Peter Raymont Clive Holden Mike Stubbs
2006 CPH:DOX Award Film Director Gary Tarn Pernille Rose Grønkjær Maasja Ooms & Aliona van der Horst Vicky Funari & Sergio De La Torre Douglas Gordon & Philippe Parreno Naomi Kawase Michel Gondry
2007 CPH:DOX Award Film Director Carmen Castillo Michael Noer Charles Ferguson Brian Hill Du Haibin Gee-Jung Jun Hila Peleg Grant Gee Luke Fowler
2008 CPH:DOX Award Film Director Mark Hammersberg, Ester Martin Bergsmark and Beatrice Maggie Andersson Anders Østergaard Joseph Bullman Michel Auder, Andrew Neel Apichatpong Weerasethakul Sacha Gervasi Margarita Jimeno
2009 CPH:DOX Award Film Director Harmony Korine Geoffrey Smith, Yoav Shamir Deborah Stratment / Ben Russell Vincent Moon Kara Blake
2010 CPH:DOX Award Film Director Michelangelo Frammartino Andrei Ujică Ada Bligaard Søby / Jakob Boeskov Jacob Schulsinger Kim Longinotto Hito Steyerl Roee Rosen Dylan Goch, Gruff Rhys Árni Sveinsson Charles Fairbanks
2011 CPH:DOX Award Film Director Ben Rivers Philippe Grandrieux Anca Damian Thomas Østbye Kristín Björk Kristjánsdóttir, Orri Jónsson & Ingibjörg Birgisdóttir Wim Wenders
2012 CPH:DOX Award Film Director Joshua Oppenheimer Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Véréna Paravel Jonas Poher Rasmussen Andrey Gryazev Jay Bulger Mikala Krogh
2013 CPH:DOX Award Film Director Ben Rivers & Ben Russell Wilhelm Sasnal & Anka Sasnal Richard Rowley Arash T. Riahi &
2014 CPH:DOX Award Film Director Joshua Oppenheimer Camilla Nilsson Basim Magdy Lea Glob & Petra Costa Katy Chevigny & Ross Kauffman Grant Baldwin
2015 CPH:DOX Award Film Director Robert Machoian & Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck Ewan McNicol & Anna Sandilands Ali Cherri Rosa Barba Mika Taanila & Jussi Eerola Hemal Trivedi & Mohammed Ali Naqvi Lyric R. Cabral & David Felix Sutcliffe David Sington
2017 CPH:DOX Award Film Director Feras Fayyad, co-directed by Steen Johannessen Austin Lynch & Matthew Booth Jeppe Rønde Chen Zhou Ane Hjort Guttu & Daisuke Kosugi Camilla Magid Egil Håskjold Larsen Reber Dosky Schaul Schwarz & Christina Clusiau Marcos Migliavacca & Nahuel Lahora Wattanapume Laisuwanchai Matthew Heineman
2018 CPH:DOX Award Film Director Chase Whiteside & Erick Stoll Jumana Manna Tinne Zenner Steffan Strandberg Elissa Mirzaei & Gulistan Mirzaei Giorgio Ferrero Bing Liu Anat Yuta Zruia & Shira Clara Winther Katrine Philp
2019 CPH:DOX Award Film Director John Skoog Pia Hellenthaler Mania Akbari & Douglas White Petter Sommer & Jo Vemund Svendsen Lina Mannheimer Julien Elie Luke Lorentzen Aboozar Amini Juan Palacios Fredrik Gertten
2020 CPH:DOX Award Film Director Estephan Wagner & Marianne Hougen-Moraga Morgan Quaintance Wingyee Wu & Lotta Petronella Marc Wiese Jeff Orlowski David Osit Lisa Rovner Estephan Wagner & Marianne Hougen-Moraga
2021 CPH:DOX Award Film Director Ousmane Samassekou Rami Farah & Signe Byrge Sørensen Haig Aivazian Maxime Jean-Baptiste & Audrey Jean-Baptiste Nina Hobert Cille Hannibal & Christine Hanberg Cathy Chu, Iris Kwong, Ip Kar Man, Huang Yuk-kwok, Evie Cheung, Han Yan Yuen & Jenn Lee Theo Anthony Fanny Chotimah Liesbeth de Ceulaer Frigge Fri
2022 CPH:DOX Award Film Director Natasa Urban Trinh T. Minh-ha Bassem Saad Lena Karbe Alex Pritz Ivalo Frank Kasper Kiertzner Lea Najjar Anita Hopland Simon Lereng Wilmont Michael Graversen
2023 CPH:DOX Award Film Director Hanna Badziaka & Alexander Mihalkovich Nicolas Peduzzi Steffi Niederzoll Puk Damsgård & Søren Klovborg Jella Bethmann Juha Suonpää Bo Wang Nour Ouayda & Valentin Noujaïm Agnia Galdanova Benjamin Mullinkosson Lea Glob Christian Enshøj
2024 CPH:DOX Award Film Director Alessandra Celesia Manon Ouimet & Jacob Perlmutter Aura Satz ondřej vavrečka Sasha Litvintseva & Beny Wagner Alina Simone Roja Pakari Loran Batti Atiye Zare Arandi Loran Batti Shiori Ito Kinshuk Surjan Carl Emil Carlsen
2025 CPH:DOX
The 22nd Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, also known as CPH:DOX 2025 took place from 19 to 30 March 2025.
Award Film Director Deming Chen Monica Strømdahl Mstyslav Chernov Geeta Gandbhir Ketevan Vashagashvili Michael T. Workman & Kei Pritsker Nina Paninnguaq Skydsbjerg & Sofie Rørdam Josefine Exner & Sebastian Gerdes Kristina Shtubert Lucía Selva Juliette Le Monnyer Noémie Lobry Sister Sylvester & Nadah El Shazly Uri Kranot, Michelle Kranot, Sara Topsøe Jensen, Sarah John & Marieke Breyne
2026 CPH:DOX The 23rd Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, also known as CPH:DOX 2026 took place from 11 to 22 March 2026.
Award Film Director Dongnan Chen Olga Slusareva & Rati Tsiteladze(
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