Highlights
Festival hits and front page stories. Great films, great stories, and great characters.
Ibelin
A young Norwegian gamer with an unusual double life in 'World of Warcraft' turns out to be a true online superhero, much to his family's surprise. A genuinely moving film about transcending your disability and making a real difference in other people's lives.
Tehachapi
The hardest core of inmates in a maximum security prison in California participate in a life-changing photography project with French art star and Oscar-nominated director JR.
A Disturbance in the Force
A wildly entertaining deep dive into the Star Wars film everone tried to forget, but which refused to die and has grown to become the ultimate cult favourite: The Star Wars Holiday Special.
Cinema Laika
Cool Finnish countryside charm meets French elegance when Finland's greatest film director Aki Kaurismäki decides to build the ultimate cinema from the past in an abandoned mining town.
The Walk
The director of 'Honeyland' returns with a contemporary fairytale made with sensitivity and poetry as a giant puppet travels from Syria up through Europe to tell the story of migration from a child's perspective.
Bottlemen
7,000 years ago, the area was one of the largest civilisations in prehistoric Europe. Today, it is the largest landfill on the continent. An unexpected festival hit about the men who fight a daily battle against the fury of the elements.
The Many Lives of Édouard Louis
One of the most important contemporary writers invites us on a personal stroll through the past he has come to terms with in his autobiographical novels. Class, culture, sexuality, identity and education: Édouard Louis speaks from experience.
Antarctica Calling
The sequel to the international mega-hit 'The March of the Penguins' returns to Antarctica on an epic adventure with director Luc Jacquet as a familiar guide in the alien landscapes.
Thank You Very Much
Andy Kaufman was the favourite comedian of all the other comedians. The story of his life is an endlessly fascinating and entertaining trip through the mind of a brilliant, tragic and extreme human being with an unsurpassed sense of humour.
I’m Not Everything I Want to Be
A black and white (self-)portrait of a fascinating, liberated artist and the memory of her wild youthful journey from Czechoslovakia to freedom in the last decades of the Soviet Union.
The Train and the Peninsula
A thoughtful and sensuous tour along Mexican train tracks on the Yutacán Peninsula, where a new, large-scale railway project threatens the indigenuos Mayan culture and the nature around them.
Bye Bye Tiberias
Four generations of Palestinian women give vivid and moving accounts of their relationship with their homeland, their hometown of Tiberias, and the resistance that has been passed down from mother to daughter.
The Contestant
A real-world 'The Truman Show’ in which a Japanese man became a national superstar without realising it through a bizarre reality TV show. A story stranger than fiction, which gets a second chapter as he is looking back at it today.
Copa 71
A forgotten chapter in Danish football history finally gets its place in the spotlight 50 years after a legendary World Cup match in Mexico. A film with women in all the leading roles and with all the drama and excitement you would expect from a true adventure.
Bottle Conditioned
Cheers! The sour lambic beer that is experiencing a big comeback. Join us on a trip to the Flemish Pajottenland region and learn more about the process, tradition and the drama behind scenes.
Time to Gather
A sunlit and sensuous film from the center of Portugal, where an entire village has been growing cork for generations. An elegant fable about the changing times in an old world.
A New Kind of Wilderness
A family who have created an idyllic self-sufficient life for their four children are forced to rethink their choices and try to (re)integrate into modern society when tragedy strikes unexpectedly. Radical life choices meet dilemmas in a moving and wise film.
Johatsu – Into Thin Air
In Japan, thousands of people disappear voluntarily every year. And there are companies ready to help those who want to disappear without a trace and start a new life somewhere else. Meet some of them in a film that soberly examines a modern phenomenon.
Swan Song
A love sonata to ballet and to 'Swan Lake' with all that it entails of hard training, low self-esteem, dreams, racism, redemption and stubborn traditions that might be in a process of change.
Minted
How can a digital artwork that anyone can download for free be sold for 69 million dollars? Get the answer - and lots of new questions to ponder - in a critical and entertaining film about culture and capital in the 21st century.
As the Tide Comes In
The 27 residents of the Danish Wadden Sea island of Mandø experience the forces of climate change in the form of severe weather and the risk of flooding. Still, they stubbornly cling to their identity as islanders, as they have done for generations.
Every Little Thing
Hummingbirds are the fairies of nature's grand fairy tale. But for a woman who has dedicated her life to saving them from her Los Angeles mansion, the magical creatures are more than just cute.
God is a Woman
The Search for a lost film from the 70s takes a young man from one of South America's largest indigenous communities on an existential journey in a post-colonial film about the right to one's own image.
Agent of Happiness
How happy are you on a scale of 1 to 10? Two government officials are sent out to measure the happiness of the people of Bhutan, but how are they doing themselves? A bittersweet, existential crowd favourite from the Himalayas.
Hard to Break
Two young Finns are fuelled by their (self-)destructive love for each other as their parallel lives on social media become further and further removed from reality.
Being Ola
Heartwarming and life-affirming Norwegian coming-of-age story about the intellectually disabled man Ola, his deeply felt friendship with Danish Lasse and the need for all people to belong.
12:15
The Many Lives of Édouard Louis
François Caillat / France / 2023 / 72 min
One of the most important contemporary writers invites us on a personal stroll through the past he has come to terms with in his autobiographical novels. Class, culture, sexuality, identity and education: Édouard Louis speaks from experience.
16:00
Copa 71
Rachel Ramsay & James Erskine / United Kingdom / 2023 / 90 min
A forgotten chapter in Danish football history finally gets its place in the spotlight 50 years after a legendary World Cup match in Mexico. A film with women in all the leading roles and with all the drama and excitement you would expect from a true adventure.
Johatsu – Into Thin Air
Andreas Hartmann & Arata Mori / Germany & Japan / 2024 / 86 min
In Japan, thousands of people disappear voluntarily every year. And there are companies ready to help those who want to disappear without a trace and start a new life somewhere else. Meet some of them in a film that soberly examines a modern phenomenon.
17:00
The Walk
Tamara Kotevska / Syria, Türkiye, France, Palestine, Greece & United Kingdom / 2023 / 79 min
+ Event: Join us for a special film screening and debate at UN City
Join us for a special screening as we move out of the cinema and into the United Nations. For this CPH:DOX x docUNight screening, we will dive into a discussion on migration and the many bodies travelling across borders as a consequence of conflict, climate change, persecution, and more. Meet the Chairperson of Rapolitics, recipient of the Institute for Human Rights' Human Rights Award (2022) and former refugee from Afghanistan, Manila Ghafuri, in conversation with Deputy Head of Joint Data Centre at UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, Maja Lazić, and Secretary General for Red Cross in Denmark, Anders Ladekarl. The conversation will be moderated by Head of Communication and Engagement at The Danish Institute for Human Rights, Jakob Sheikh. Prior to the screening, the UN offers a free guided tour of UN City (limited spots available). Co-organised by docUNight.
Language: English
The director of 'Honeyland' returns with a contemporary fairytale made with sensitivity and poetry as a giant puppet travels from Syria up through Europe to tell the story of migration from a child's perspective.
The Many Lives of Édouard Louis
François Caillat / France / 2023 / 72 min
One of the most important contemporary writers invites us on a personal stroll through the past he has come to terms with in his autobiographical novels. Class, culture, sexuality, identity and education: Édouard Louis speaks from experience.
18:30
7,000 years ago, the area was one of the largest civilisations in prehistoric Europe. Today, it is the largest landfill on the continent. An unexpected festival hit about the men who fight a daily battle against the fury of the elements.
A New Kind of Wilderness
Silje Evensmo Jacobsen / Norway / 2024 / 83 min
Q&A: Meet the director
A family who have created an idyllic self-sufficient life for their four children are forced to rethink their choices and try to (re)integrate into modern society when tragedy strikes unexpectedly. Radical life choices meet dilemmas in a moving and wise film.
Agent of Happiness
Arun Bhattarai & Dorottya Zurbó / Bhutan & Hungary / 2024 / 94 min
How happy are you on a scale of 1 to 10? Two government officials are sent out to measure the happiness of the people of Bhutan, but how are they doing themselves? A bittersweet, existential crowd favourite from the Himalayas.
A love sonata to ballet and to 'Swan Lake' with all that it entails of hard training, low self-esteem, dreams, racism, redemption and stubborn traditions that might be in a process of change.
19:00
As the Tide Comes In
Juan Palacios & Sofie Husum Johannesen (Co-director) / Denmark / 2023 / 89 min
The 27 residents of the Danish Wadden Sea island of Mandø experience the forces of climate change in the form of severe weather and the risk of flooding. Still, they stubbornly cling to their identity as islanders, as they have done for generations.
A young Norwegian gamer with an unusual double life in 'World of Warcraft' turns out to be a true online superhero, much to his family's surprise. A genuinely moving film about transcending your disability and making a real difference in other people's lives.
The Contestant
Clair Titley / United Kingdom / 2023 / 90 min
A real-world 'The Truman Show’ in which a Japanese man became a national superstar without realising it through a bizarre reality TV show. A story stranger than fiction, which gets a second chapter as he is looking back at it today.
Copa 71
Rachel Ramsay & James Erskine / United Kingdom / 2023 / 90 min
A forgotten chapter in Danish football history finally gets its place in the spotlight 50 years after a legendary World Cup match in Mexico. A film with women in all the leading roles and with all the drama and excitement you would expect from a true adventure.
A love sonata to ballet and to 'Swan Lake' with all that it entails of hard training, low self-esteem, dreams, racism, redemption and stubborn traditions that might be in a process of change.
Copa 71
Rachel Ramsay & James Erskine / United Kingdom / 2023 / 90 min
A forgotten chapter in Danish football history finally gets its place in the spotlight 50 years after a legendary World Cup match in Mexico. A film with women in all the leading roles and with all the drama and excitement you would expect from a true adventure.
21:30
Heartwarming and life-affirming Norwegian coming-of-age story about the intellectually disabled man Ola, his deeply felt friendship with Danish Lasse and the need for all people to belong.