CPH:LAB RULES & REGULATIONS

Participants are guided by the Head of Studies Mark Atkin, who is assisted by a wide variety of acknowledged international mentors besides the CPH:DOX team.

Mark Atkin is one of Europe’s utmost capacities within innovative storytelling. As a curator and consultant at Crossover Labs, he has been responsible for leading cross disciplinary training since 2008 and spearheaded the development of processes which bring together creative professionals from diverse disciplines including film and TV production, animation, games, theatre, VR, AR and interactive design to form new interdisciplinary collaborations and generate ideas for projects.

Besides designing the curriculum of CPH:LAB, Mark also curates the INTER:ACTIVE Exhibition of immersive documentaries at CPH:DOX.

Mark is assisted by international mentors who change from year to year based on the selection of projects. Read more about our previous years’ mentors here.

The programme will focus on story development and production of a prototype with input from the Head of Studies and an expanded team of international, cross-disciplinary experts from the fields of documentary filmmaking, theatre, immersive media, game development, product design, art and interactive storytelling as well as the collective brains trust of peers.

CPH:LAB takes place as a mix of in person workshop in October 2024 in Copenhagen combined with online mentoring for several months from November to February 2025. The programme will be concluded with the CPH:LAB projects’ public presentation at CPH:DOX in Copenhagen in March 2025. Workshop sessions are conducted in English.

The CPH:LAB workshop sessions are:

• CPH:LAB Part I / Orientation-Preparation Meeting / September 11 / Online / 3 hours
• CPH:LAB Part II / Rapid Development / October 11-17  / Residential in Copenhagen / 7 full days (incl.arrival/departure)
• CPH:LAB Part III / Individual Mentoring & Peer-to-Peer Sessions  / November– February 2025 / Online / approx. 1 session every 2-3 weeks
• CPH:LAB Part IV / Public Presentation & Individual Meetings / Festival Days March 2025 / Residential in Copenhagen / 3 full intensive days + arrival/departure

In March 2025 the participants will attend CPH:DOX to present their prototype and meet selected decision makers.

CPH:LAB participants will have full access accreditation to CPH:DOX 2025 including CPH:FORUM. See more about the accreditation here.

• Project presentations
• Industry networking dinners
• Lunch & coffee during CPH:FORUM
• Access to CPH:MARKET online
• All regular festival screenings & seminars
• CPH:CONFERENCE
• Festival Center & Guest Desk services
• Delegate bag
• CPH:INDUSTRY catalogue
• Profiles and contact information of accredited guests (online guest lists)

Every year the CPH:LAB supports the development of up to 9 projects and up to 2 participants per project. CPH:LAB is for filmmakers, artists and creative technologists primarily from Europe although it is also open to a limited number of participants from non-European countries.

If selected, a core creative team of up to two participants per project must attend all sessions of CPH:LAB 2024-2025 and be able to commit to the full process.

The CPH:LAB has a tuition fee of 3750 DKK (approx. 500 EUR per participant, incl. VAT 25%), which covers access to all working sessions and documents, group and individual mentoring sessions and follow up activities. CPH:LAB covers accommodation and meals during the two residential workshops in Copenhagen as well as local transport to activities within the programme for up to two participants per project. Travel expenses, such as flight tickets, visa costs or insurance should be covered by the participants.

We encourage all participants to apply for financial support with their national/regional funding bodies. You can also get some ideas of European funding here.

The CPH:LAB team is ready to offer a limited number of scholarships to qualifying team members from the selected projects who do not have the possibility to pay the tuition fee. The scholarships will be based on an application that the relevant participant should submit.

Following the specifications of Creative Europe Media, citizens with the following nationality will be prioritised for a scholarship, discounting the tuition fee by 100%: Bulgaria, Cyprus, Hungary, Luxembourg, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta,Slovenia, Slovakia and the following third countries, subject to the conditions being fulfilled for their participation in the MEDIA strand: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Iceland, Lichtenstein, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Republic of Serbia, and Ukraine. Moreover, countries from the DAC list will be prioritized for a scholarship, discounting the tuition fee by 100%.

If a project requires the presence of more than two team members, participation can be applied for and will be at individual negotiation, if granted.

If the participation of an additional participant is agreed with the CPH:LAB organisers, the extra participant will have to cover the tuition fee of 3750 DKK (approx. 500 EUR per participant, incl. VAT 25%), plus the cost of the meals and accommodation for the two residential workshops in Copenhagen as well as travel expenses, such as flight tickets, visa costs or insurance. Moreover, the additional participant will not be considered for the CPH:LAB scholarships.

The participation fee is due for payment at the latest 10 days after the acceptance letter is received by the project team participants. For bank transfers from non-EU countries, please note: “All expenses to be borne by the payer”, as any expenses incurred will be claimed subsequently.

The non-attendance at individual event units (e.g. the onsite residential workshops or individual mentoring sessions) will not result in a reduction or refund of the participation fees.

After CPH:LAB, all participants are asked to participate in two questionnaires to help us evaluate the year’s edition.

The selection committee’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into regarding the outcome. Feedback is not guaranteed if your application is unsuccessful.

The organisers reserve the right to change the rules and regulations or processes at any time without notification.

CPH:LAB is for filmmakers, artists and creative technologists keen to explore new forms of expression in factual storytelling and to advance new visions of what a documentary can be in a digital age. We encourage emerging artists from different career paths and artistic backgrounds to submit their projects for this opportunity.

We recommend that you attend as a team which means finding the appropriate collaborator before the lab commences in October 2024.

CPH:LAB has a natural emphasis on Europe but is open to projects from independent creatives worldwide.

Main criteria for selection:

• artistic quality of the project
• the uniqueness of the content
• the relevance of the subject matter
• the originality of the storytelling format

Projects that have not been part of other international training initiatives or development workshops will be given priority.

Project applications are only accepted via our online submission form. Please note that there’s an entry fee of 150 DKK (approx. 20 EUR) to be paid by credit card in order to complete the submission. Paid fees will not be refunded.

Only submissions that are duly completed and paid for before the deadline will be considered.

Exemptions to the entry fee can be made for countries from the DAC list as well as for following countries according to the specifications of Creative Europe Media: Bulgaria, Cyprus, Hungary, Luxembourg, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta,Slovenia, Slovakia and the following third countries, subject to the conditions being fulfilled for their participation in the MEDIA strand: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Iceland, Lichtenstein, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Republic of Serbia, and Ukraine.

All material must be in English and we urge you to have the following ready before you begin the online application process:

• Working Title
• Logline (max. 350 characters incl. spaces)
• Synopsis/treatment (max. 2500 characters incl. spaces)
• Thoughts about target audience and distribution (max. 2000 characters incl. spaces)
• Thoughts about what will be gained from participation in the lab (max. 2000 characters incl. spaces)
• Format
• Countries of production
• Main production company (if applicable, company name, contact info, short presentation of max. 600 characters incl. spaces)
• Co-production company (if applicable, company name, country)
• Core creative team (name, contact info, photo and short biography of max. 650 characters incl. spaces)
• Producer(s) (if applicable, name, contact info, photo and short biography of max. 650 characters incl. spaces)
• Visual material (moodboard or online link to moving images)
• Three stills for publication on our website and catalogue (specifying the main still to use in the title of the image)
• CV detailing work to date for participating creatives
• Photos of core creative team
• Application form for scholarship of tuition fee per participant (if applicable)

Further information and documentation may be requested at any time.‍

Selected projects and participants will be presented on our website cphdox.dk. A public presentation of the project includes working title, logline, name, picture and short biography of the creators(s), production country.

By providing your clips and stills, you give CPH:DOX permission to use the material at www.cphdox.dk and for promotional purposes for CPH:LAB 2024-2025.

Selected projects and participants will later be presented in the CPH:INDUSTRY catalogue with updated information submitted for the catalogue. The catalogue will be distributed to all CPH:INDUSTRY participants at CPH:DOX 2025.

Participants will be presented in the CPH:INDUSTRY catalogue with their name, portrait picture, professional title, country and professional profile. They will also be presented on the CPH:DOX website, where a public presentation includes name, portrait picture, professional title and country, while a password protected area in addition gives CPH:INDUSTRY delegates access to peoples’ professional profile and contact email.

Lastly, we share the names and photos of the LAB participants with our funding partners such as Creative Europe-Media, for our reporting purposes every year but the information is declared and treated as sensitive and never disclosed in public.

By submitting a project, you accept our data policy in accordance with the GDPR. Moreover, during the events we document the process by taking photos or filming and we use this for promoting our events. Lastly, for fulfilling our reporting obligations to our funding partners, we report all the relevant information about the selected projects and teams that are treated as sensitive data and are not disclosed to the public.

Credits

CPH:DOX requires the logo of CPH:LAB to be included in the credits of the work, once finalised, with the following sentence mentioned in the credit list: “[TITLE] has been developed at CPH:LAB of CPH:DOX – Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival [YEAR]”