The winning films of CPH:DOX 2024

JURY STATEMENT
“Our main award recognises not only creative and conceptual daring, but a filmmaker with the humility to realise when the story outgrows its framework, and the confidence to follow where it, and its fantastically vivid characters lead. We live in a world of divisions, borders and locked gates. Coming like a conversation shouted through one of those locked gates, our winning film is a collective portrait of several proud, funny, resourceful individuals, who would be willing to die for their community but who choose each day the harder, braver and more hopeful option of living for it instead. The Dox:Award goes to Alessandra Celesia for the witty, multi-layered, profound and provocative ‘The Flats’.

12 feature-length world premieres competed in the festival’s main international competition DOX:AWARD. The selection was judged by an international jury consisting of Jessica Kiang (festival programmer Belfast FF and film critic, Variety), Nataša Urban (director and former Dox:Award winner with ‘The Eclipse’), Monica Hellström (producer), Rémi Bohnhomme (Artistic Director at Marrakech International Film Festival, Morocco) and Carla Gutiérrez (director and editor, ‘Frida’). The winning film will receive a cash prize of €10,000 sponsored by DR.

JURY STATEMENT
“To fall in love is a magical thing, but to stay in love is a miracle. Two people find each other in middle age, and build a beautiful later life together that is documented here with grace, humor and honesty. For a film that is so immaculately crafted that right from its stunning opening frame, it is like being cradled in the familiar but electric embrace of a longtime lover, the jury awards a dazzled special mention to the wonderful, warm and wise ‘Two Strangers Trying Not to Kill Each Other’ directed by Jacob Perlmutter & Manon Ouimet.”

JURY STATEMENT
“Elevating us into sensory abstraction, this film also takes us down into the underbelly of disorder and chaos, as well as the destruction and violence unleashed by human desires for order and certainty. An elegy for a listening lost, an awakening call for the siren inside each one of us. Artistically sophisticated yet socio-politically grounded, the New:Vision Award goes to Preemptive Listening, by Aura Satz.”

15 titles, both feature and short length, were in competition for the NEW:VISION Award delving into art films and boundary-pushing experiments. A €5,000 cash prize provided by the festival was handed out by Bo Wang (artist and former winner of the New:Vision Award for ‘An Asian Ghost Story’), Marie Braad (curator, Art Hub Copenhagen, Denmark) and Fatema Abdoolcarim (artist, filmmaker and writer).

JURY STATEMENT
“A tender journey that traverses the surfaces of rocks, the underside of a leaf, the touch between two hands, the lives that look for less. This curious and surprising film is an invitation to rediscover embodied connectedness. The special mention goes to ‘Lichens Are the Way’ by Ondřej Vavrečka.”

JURY STATEMENT
“A philosophical yet poetic exploration of becoming, which warps into mind and body, inside and outside, soil and territory, literature and history, and even into love. A visually daring and innovative film, the special mention goes to ‘My Want of You Partakes of Me’ by Sasha Litvintseva & Beny Wagner

JURY STATEMENT
“In a world where a government is commiting environmental crimes against its citizens in the most corrupt cynical way, where  communities are brutality neglected, an extraordinary courageous woman fights for justice against giant forces, where her life is at stake. She continues to imagine a society that puts people before profit, while being threatened by the totalitarian system. We were inspired by her strength and commitment for humanity. The director’s sensitivity for the protagonist’s safety and the intimate relationship they created greatly impressed us. The F-ACT award goes to Black Snow by Alina Simone.

10 films exploring the intersection between documentary filmmaking and investigative journalism were in competition for the F:ACT Award. The award comes with a cash prize of €5,000 and is supported by International Media Support and the Danish Journalist Union. The award was handed out by Lena Karbe (director and former F:act Award winner with ‘Black Mambas’), Sigal Yehuda (Founder & Executive Director, Close-Up, Belgium) and Maria Bäck (Director of Garagefilm International).

JURY STATEMENT
“With powerful cinematic language this film chronicles the fleeting nature of life while celebrating how fragments of memory make a lifetime. An emotional experience that transfers the filmmaker’s legacy onto the audience. And the jury is proud to present the Nordic:Dox Award to Roja Pakari’s ‘The Son and the Moon’”

10 films from the Nordic countries from across the festival programme were in competition for the NORDIC:DOX Award, valued at €5,000 and provided by the festival. The jury behind this competition consisted of Mina Keshavaraz (director and producer, MinDoc Film Production Iran), Murtada Elfadl (Programmer and writer, DOC NYC) and Lin Alluna (director, ‘Twice Colonized’). 

JURY STATEMENT
“A new perspective that immediately plunges you into a specific social milieu with an insider’s personal narrative. The filmmaker’s unique vision and format are both easily digestible and emotionally potent. And the jury was unanimously impressed and awards a special mention to Loran Batti’s ‘G – 21 Scenes from Gottsunda’”

 

JURY STATEMENT
“‘The film we chose to award skilfully materialises the in-between and uncertain space of an ongoing custody battle in which the nine year old Melina is caught between her parents and the consequent disillusioning confrontation with the real, as well as the chasm between the separate realities of Melina, her mother, and her grandparents. The film finds its merit in this intersection, drawing attention to questions of motherhood, transformation, and the notion of belonging, indirectly interrogating the unequal position and rights of women in contemporary Iranian society. The film is ultimately a testament to the resilience of Melina and her grandparents, but also to the inherent imperfection and shortcomings of what it is to be human. The winner is: ‘Grand Me’”

14 titles competed for the NEXT:WAVE Award dedicated to emerging international artists and filmmakers. The selection was judged by Sofie Cato Maas (Film critic and editor / co-founder of Outskirts), Wim Vanecker (Programmer & Advisor, Festival de Cannes) as well as Christian Einshøj (director and former Next:Wave Award nominee). The NEXT:WAVE award comes with a cash prize of €5,000 provided by the festival.

JURY STATEMENT
“We would like to give a special mention to a true DIY marble about belonging and the reframing of masculinity, made on raw willpower and inexpensive videocameras. It is a film that is continuously in the process of becoming as the director reassesses the past and reshapes the present: ‘G – 21 scenes from Gottsunda’”

JURY STATEMENT
“An extraordinary woman takes control of her narrative in a film that offers unique insight into an individual fight for womens’ rights in a country, and a world, that stigmatizes and denies rights to the survivors of sexual assault. We are honoured to present the HUMAN:RIGHTS Award to ‘Black Box Diaries’ directed by Shiori Ito.”

10 films from across the festival programme were in competition for this new award dedicated to courageous filmmakers in defense and support of human rights. Sponsored by the Institute for Human Rights and valued at €5,000, the introduction of this new award celebrated the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The appointed jury consisted of Leah Sapin (Associate Director, Human Rights Watch Film Festival), Mette Hoffmann-Meyer (CEO & Executive Producer, THE WHY Foundation) and Hanna Atallah (Founder & Artistic Director, FilmLab Palestine).

JURY STATEMENT
“Our special mention is a sensorily stunning piece that honors the relentless work, effort, and strength of women with respect, refuses to play into a simple narrative, and instead celebrates women as they build community and seek a better life for themselves and their families. We are honored to award a special mention to ‘Marching in the Dark’, directed by Kinshuk Surjan.

AUDIENCE STATEMENT
“The film’s ability to convey both hopelessness and hope, as well as its exploration of pressing social issues, has resonated strongly with viewers. “Heartbreaking”, “eye-opening”, “brave”, “shocking”, and “honest” were some of the words the audience used to describe this film. They felt “shaken,” “touched,” “upset,” and as if “a gut-punch of reality” had hit them. It left the audience in “silence”. The documentary gave “a sense of hopelessness, yet also a glimmer of hope, and showed an ongoing struggle for justice”. With “unbelievable tenacity, genuine passion, and incredible humanity, the film explores how powerful the documentary form can be when it becomes the only tool for speaking out and reaching audiences beyond borders”. The award goes to a film that is “beautiful and deeply tragic at the same time”, a film that tells “the most important story right now” and a film that “EVERYONE should watch”. A documentary with a “powerfully moving and heartbreaking story from the West Bank narrated by two friends of Palestinian and Israeli backgrounds”. The Audience:Award goes to ‘No Other Land’.”

The Audience Award, with a prize of €5,000 provided by the festival, empowers festival-goers to vote for their favorite film, further enriching CPH:DOX’s commitment to engaging its audience across a spectrum of documentary filmmaking excellence. 

JURY STATEMENT

“This was not an easy decision for the jury. So many inspiring diverse works made using different mediums. There is one piece, though, that we believe fulfils all the provided criteria more than the rest. The criterias were Artistic Quality, Originality, Imagination, Intellectual quality and Stickiness. The winner is…. an immersive experience that is a playful, physically convincing and instantly satisfying experience that challenges the expression of contemporary art and left the jury wanting to come back for more. Overall, the fidelity of this piece is second to none. Normally you cannot touch a sculpture but here you are part of interacting with it and drawn into it. It has a natural adaption of the sound design created by Anna Fišere for the piece, and is a beginning of a new chapter of the future of art. Is it storytelling? Not in a traditional sense, but we like it’s none narrative but reminding us that technology can be organic in its nature. Intuitive, simple, yet powerful. The winner is: Intangible, by Carl Emil Carlsen”

17 pieces from VR and mixed reality to AI chatbots were in competition for a brand new award for the best immersive work. The appointed jury consisted of Helene Nyborg (Artistic Director, Nikolaj Kunsthal, Denmark), Peter Fisher (Co-founder and CTO, Khora VR, Denmark) and Sofie Hvitved (Futurist and Special Advisor in Media & Technology, Copenhagen Institute for  Futures Studies, Denmark). The award winner will receive a winning package including two (2) complimentary industry accreditations for Sunny Side of the Doc, two full access accreditations for the Industry Days of New Images Festival, 3 hours of legal consultation on European IP law and a cash prize of €1000.