Award winners of CPH:DOX 2026 announced!

The international competition lineup included a total of 74 films, hand-picked from thousands of submissions from around the world, featuring 53 world premieres, 17 international premieres, and 4 European premieres. The main prize, the DOX:AWARD, was awarded to ‘Whispers in May’ by Dongnan Chen.

Besides the festival’s main prize, the DOX:AWARD, prizes have been awarded in the categories F:ACT Competition, NEXT:WAVE Competition, NORDIC:DOX Competition, HUMAN:RIGHTS Competition, NEW:VISION Competition and INTER:ACTIVE Competition.

The following award winning films can be streamed on PARA:DOX to April 5.

• Whispers in May – stream it here
• The Cord – stream it here
• Local Sensations – stream it here
• The Great Experiment – stream it here
• Dream Of Another Summer – stream it here
• This Is Not a French Film – stream it here
• The Phantom Pain of Rojava – stream it here
• The Secret Reading Club of Kabul – stream it here
• Homesick – stream it here
• Amazomania – stream it here

NB: PARA:DOX is only available in Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands.

Jury statement

DOX:AWARD
‘The jury would firstly like to thank CPH:DOX for gathering us to view, discuss and debate a group of films that transported us around the world through varied cinematic languages. To the filmmakers, it has been an honor and a privilege to explore your art. Giving room for a decent birth as a metaphor for resistance in a bodily form, this emerging voice captivated us with its humanity, tenacity and empathy. The jury would like to acknowledge this filmmaker-to-watch with an honorable mention.

Congratulations to Nolwenn Herve for her unforgettable debut, The Cord.

That said, we had to choose one film as this year’s CPH:DOX Award winner. Telling mythical stories about hidden worlds is a gift. Giving breadth and depth to quotidian moments is a talent. Weaving cinematic forms while allowing reality to resonate is captivating. Ultimately, we were charmed by a young girl’s journey. Walking over the edge of the last days of childhood, this director has succeeded in sharing a modern-day fairytale that heeds monsters and factories, alike.

Congratulations to Dongnan Chen for her Whispers in May.’

FIPRESCI AWARD
‘We would like to recognise a film that brings a contemporary and thought provoking perspective on an intrusive culture clash. It is a story of the loss of innocence, the complex colonial legacy of the human gaze, and the devastating impact of capitalism. In times inundated with images, the film shows the potential of revisiting, reexamining and hopefully, relearning. We are proud to present the Fipresci award to Nathan Grossman’s Amazomania.’

INTER:ACTIVE AWARD

‘The winner of CPH:DOX – INTER:ACTIVE Exhibition 2026 is ‘Inside: The Childhood of an Artist’ by Sacha Wares

The jury finds ‘Inside: The Childhood of an Artist’ to be a powerful work that demonstrates how VR can evoke a deeply human experience—leaving the viewer with a lingering sense of reflection long after the headset is removed. The simplicity of its imagery—almost naïve in tone—echoes the fragility of childhood memory, while gradually allowing an idyllic atmosphere to take on subtle undertones of unease. What begins as a gentle recollection evolves into a narrative shaped by loss and possible betrayal.

As spectators, we are first placed in a chair. A warm membrane carrying subtle scents is wrapped around our neck like a comforting cloth before the VR headset and headphones are gently applied. Only then does the full experience begin. Inside: The Childhood of an Artist is an 18-minute immersive work that unfolds over the course of a single night, inviting the audience to inhabit a child’s perspective during a moment when the adult world suddenly becomes unstable. Through scent, sound, and a carefully restrained visual language, the work constructs a sensory environment that feels both intimate and authentic. In its final gesture, the experience moves beyond the VR environment to incorporate an artwork created by Judith Scott. This shift grounds the immersive experience in a tangible reality, bringing together memory, artistic expression, and documentary sensibility.

Sacha Wares worked with Joyce Scott, the sister of Judith Scott. Judith was abruptly and suddenly taken away from home, taken away to an institution because she was deaf and had downs syndrome. 35 years later, Joyce reconnects with Judith, helping her develop a vibrant artist career at the Creative Growth Art Center in Oakland, CA. Judith became a world known artist after that. The VR experience is sensory, crafted and poetic, letting us experience a fragile memory from the day Judith was taken away.

Honorable Mention – Jury Statement

Dart Room · ‘Dark Rooms’ by Mads Damsbo & Laurits Flensted Jensen

Dark Rooms invites audiences into an exploration of sexual awakening through real stories, where boundaries are challenged and taboos brought into the open. With courage and precision, the work confronts shame and prejudice, opening a space for reflection on desire, identity, and personal liberation. The result is a boundary-pushing and confrontational experience that expands both the possibilities of VR and our understanding of how intimate stories can be shared and experienced. With Dark Rooms, a new standard is set for what VR can achieve as an artistic and narrative medium. The work is both technically impressive and artistically ambitious in the way it uses virtual space to create a deeply intimate experience breaking boundaries in a gentle and respectful way.’

NORDIC:DOX
‘Through great precision and resilience the director creates an echo chamber where the voices of silenced children can circulate freely. The special mention goes to Homesick, by Taekyung Tanja In Wol Sørensen

This film exposes the brutal dismantling of women’s rights under an authoritarian regime. In doing so, it affirms the power of documentary cinema to make injustice visible and the voice of the oppressed heard. We are grateful for this piercing call coming from Afghan homes turned prisons. We hear you. You are not forgotten.

The NORDIC:DOX Award goes to The Secret Reading Club of Kabul, by Shakiba Adil & Elina Hirvonen.’

HUMAN:RIGHTS
‘We the jury would like to begin by highlighting a special mention for a film from our section. The filmmaker shows an urgent account of a human rights violation that is still unfolding in front of our eyes. With its attention to the systematic killing of medical professionals and children in Gaza and its depiction of the lasting effects on those who work to ease the suffering of the victims. The special mention goes to Poh Si Teng for American Doctor.

The winner in the human rights competition is a film that lyrically portrays the bond that exists between a group of brave, predominantly women fighters who find ways to see the beauty in the evolving companionship that grew from their struggle. And while their human rights continue to be threatened by new developments in modern warfare, the director achieves the perfect balance between their continued precariousness and their ongoing model of dignity and dedication to their cause. The filmmaker weaves together the current fights for not only the land, but also for the women who inhabit the land. So, in the spirit of the film – women, life, freedom and the award goes to Maryam Embrahimi for ‘The phantom pain of Rojava.’

NEXT:WAVE
‘We would like to give a Special Mention to a film that kept surprising us from beginning to end with its playful form and charming narrative, unfolding in the intersection of fiction and documentary. This film highlights the complexity of identity and representation in a completely disarming and humerous manner, as a courageously clumsy filmmaker gathers a collective of friends and colleagues in an effort to confront their experience of racialization within the Belgian film industry.

The special mention goes to “This is not a French Film” by Tom Adjibi.

The Next:Wave Award goes to a film that, through a rigorous formal approach and a conscious gaze, immerses us in a suspended space where the scars of the past, the awareness of the present, and the dreams of the future brush against one another. The city of Beirut is the epicenter of this meditative journey, but the film transcends the local and becomes an existential reflection on the fragility of the human condition.

The Next:wave Award goes to “Dream of Another Summer” by Irene Bartholomé.’

NEW:VISION
‘A genuinely surprising and beautifully crafted cinematic essay on how to avoid becoming a
shrine. Shot on black-and-white 16mm and mixed together with digital footage and animation, the film reimagines the monument as something fluid and unfixed. An architectural film without buildings, it delves into and interconnects diverse poetic instances of Thai society while posing questions like: “What if a monument could question history rather than consecrate it?”

The special mention goes to LOCAL SENSATIONS, by Tulapop Saenjaroen

The film is a deeply moving intimate portrayal of a group of young friends who come together to revisit their involvement in the recent protests. The film utilizes a range of low-fi technologies to collectively reassemble their fragmented memories. Interrogation footage of their imprisonment is played from a compact disc on their laptop and refilmed by a handheld camera; the closeup camera lingers on their bodies – retelling the skin as a map with its own markings. Shot in close, dark spaces, the film turns its blurry images back on its subjects: mirroring, animating, layering – finding in the act of recollection not just a record of what was endured but a way of carrying it forward together. Among the film’s many qualities are its experimental use of lowtech pixelated media and genuine storytelling that allow for a range of emotions to surface without glossing over or drawing cathartic closure to an all too recent event and its present resonances.

The NEW:VISION award goes to COMPACT DISC, by Rico Wong’

F:ACT AWARD
‘A special mention in the Fact Award goes to a remarkable artistic work capturing a historic
turning point in the political landscape, affecting all of us. With cinematic precision and emotional depth, the film lays bare the profound divides within American society, becoming an essential witness – not only of this moment, but of the future it will inevitably shape.
The special mention goes to THE GREAT EXPERIMENT, by Stephen Maing & Eric Daniel Metzgar.

A film about a subject that couldn’t be more urgent and important, but is often overlooked. It manages to be funny, uplifting and even hopeful. We are honoured to give the award to the film for its well-crafted, beautifully observed story about a group of young people trying to save the world from self-inflicted destruction.
The FACT Award goes to JUST LOOK UP, by Emma Wall & Betsy Hershey.’