CPH:LAB 2025/2026 Projects revealed

Since 2009, CPH:LAB has been seeking to advance new visions of what a documentary can be in the digital age while using interactive and immersive technologies to contribute to conversations and spotlight the social problems of the world we live in through the artistic view of their creators.

Mara Gourd-Mercado, Head of Industry and Training at CPH:DOX, says:
“We are proud to welcome this group of international creators to CPH:LAB, whose diverse stories and innovative approaches embody the future of immersive documentary creation. Watching their ideas evolve and take shape through this program reaffirms our commitment to pushing artistic boundaries and fostering meaningful conversations. We look forward to seeing how they challenge conventions and inspire change in the years to come.”

Mark Atkin, Head of Studies at CPH:LAB, says:
‘’When artists create documentaries it has the power to be truly transformative. At a time when the documentaries that we see on television are becoming increasingly homogenised, it is in the shape-shifting, cross-disciplinary immersive and interactive sector that we are starting to see some of the most crucial, challenging, and affecting factual work. The CPH:LAB remains one of the few truly experimental and risk-taking programmes that is set to take documentary form into the future and make sure that it appeals to new generations of digital natives. I look forward to welcoming the exciting new cohort that will be taking us on this new voyage of discovery.’’

The training programme runs as a combination of onsite and online workshops and mentoring sessions spanning from September 2025 to February 2026. The nine projects’ core teams will be working with the Head of Studies, Mark Atkin, and a group of internationally renowned mentors to create a prototype that will be presented at CPH:DOX in March 2026 in Copenhagen.

The first residential workshop will take place in October 2025 in Copenhagen and the projects will work with five international mentors from different creative industries: Vassiliki Khonsari, producer and cofounder of iNK Storie and the award winning Brooklyn studio; Annette Mees, artistic director and creative producer, Lawrence Bennett, experience designer at No Ghost, David Adler, immersive director and Sarah Wolozin, director of the MIT Open Documentary Lab.

CPH:LAB’s project line-up deals with a wide range of stories, personal and collective, local and universal, reflecting the world at large. Focusing on the depth and variety of the immersive documentary genre, the nine projects – bringing together 20 core participants from 11 countries – is curated to point to some of the major issues of the current and past world politics, culture, society and technology.

The projects
See a list of the nine projects and teams selected for CPH:LAB 2025/2026 below, and read more about each project HERE.

• ANTHROME (Poland/ Germany) By Sylvia Rybak, Marco Winter, Ula Sowa Przybylska
• CHOICES∞ (Poland) By Au Matt (Mathius Scibor), Pepe Le Puke
• CTRL + ME: OPEN TABS (France/Hungary) By Najla Barouni, Julie Sanchez, David Laposi
• NANO PARTY (France/UK) By Emmanuel Hadji, Jamie Perera
• Piikaniksaahko (Piikani Land): The Story of Home (Canada/Greenland) By Colin Ahnahktsipiitaa Van Loon, Aka Hansen, James Monkman, Dana Dansereau
• RAN – an immersive installation about the dark side of 1760s Bohuslän (Sweden /Finland) By Anna Maria Joakimsdottir-Hutri, Emma Stüffe
• SCAM (Denmark) By Magnus Pind, Anja Tietze Lahrmann, Rebekka Meyer
• STILL POINT, TURNING WORLD (Australia/Switzerland/Spain) By Ben Joseph Andrews, Emma Roberts, Gilles Jobin, Susana Panades Diaz
• SYMBIOCENTRIC AI – Mirrors of Embodied Knowledge (Germany) By Sebastian Baurmann, Lena Thiele, Felipe Sanchez-Luna, Pascal Staudt, Valentin von Lindenau

CPH:LAB: A great track record
Projects from the previous editions of CPH:LAB have traveled the world and had their premieres and participation in international events. From the most recent editions:

• A Sanctuary of Stuff by Eszter Várhidi, Francesca Tremulo was awarded the Innovation Award by Eurimages New Lab (20.000€) while the project Becoming Lucien by Lucien Pin, Thibault Elie, & Alex Haugmard was awarded the Outreach Award (30.000€), both were part of (CPH:LAB 2024/2025).
• The Garden Says… (CPH:LAB 2023/2024) by Uri and Michelle Kranot and The Forest that Breathes Us (CPH:LAB 2022/2023) by Jennifer Abbott had their world premiere as part of the CPH:DOX Interactive Exhibition 2025 at Kunsthal Charlottenborg.
• Dark Rooms (CPH:LAB 2021/2022) by Mads Damsbo, Laurits Flensted Jensen, Anne Sofie Steen Sverdrup premiered at Venice Biennale Immersive 2025
• Collateral Echoes (CPH:LAB 2022/2023) premiered at Sheffield DocFest 2025.

CPH:DOX & DOK Leipzig new collaboration
DOK Leipzig and CPH:DOX/LAB, both part of the Doc Alliance Network, have decided to further their cooperation for activities in 2025 and beyond. Through this collaboration focusing on immersive and interactive media, we aim to create a meaningful European distribution network, foster talents and share knowledge. A new award will be presented by DOK Leipzig in the frame of CPH:LAB 2026.

CPH:LAB will collaborate closely with DOK Neuland, the section that celebrates digital creation and virtual worlds, as well as DOK Exchange XR, the networking and inspiration programme on interactive and immersive storytelling to showcase a selected CPH:LAB project. Moreover, the results of the annual CPH:LAB think-tank that are produced during CPH:DOX festival days in March, will be shared with DOK Leipzig in order to jointly further develop and expand them during the festival in Leipzig in October as a working platform.

CPH:LAB and Sunny Side of Doc partnership
We are delighted to announce that CPH:LAB will continue the partnership with Sunny Side of the Doc, which will award one CPH:LAB project of the 2025/2026 edition. One selected CPH:LAB project will be invited to attend the 2026 edition of Sunny Side of the Doc and be part of the Sunny Innovation Lab cohort.

Sunny Side of the Doc marketplace event celebrates digital creation and new forms of non-fiction storytelling offering a networking platform and a curated showcase of immersive, interactive, audio experiences that are reinventing the art of documentary film-making through the prism of technology and impact.