CPH:DOX, also known as Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, is a Danish film festival focused on documentary films, held annually in Copenhagen, Denmark. Since 2008 has been run by Copenhagen Film Festivals, which also managed the now-defunct CPH PIX festival.

History

The Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival was established in 2003. CPH:DOX has since grown to become one of the largest documentary film festivals in Europe, with 114,408 admissions in 2019. The festival's founder-director was Tine Fischer. Following the 2015 edition of CPH:DOX, the festival announced that it would change its dates from November to March, and the first of the new spring editions of the festival was held from 16 to 26 March 2017, with the centrally-located Kunsthal Charlottenborg as the new festival centre. From 2016, Jacob Neiiendam and CPH:DOX founder-director Tine Fischer were co-CEOs of the three festivals (CPH PIX, CPH:DOX, and Buster Film Festival). In September 2018 it was announced that Jacob Neiiendam would be stepping down after 31 October, and that Fischer would continue as sole CEO for all three festivals. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2020 CPH:DOX held their festival virtually, using a Shift72 video-on-demand platform that was built and launched in just 24 hours. In February 2021 it was announced that Tine Fischer would be stepping down from the CEO role after the 18th edition (21 April to 2 May 2021) to take up a position as director of the National Film School of Denmark. The 2023 event took place between 15 and 26 March. Past guest curators of film programmes have included artists and filmmakers such as The xx; Anohni; Harmony Korine; Animal Collective; Nan Goldin; Douglas Gordon; Ben Rivers with Ben Russell; Ai Weiwei; The Yes Men; Olafur Eliasson; and Naomi Klein with Avi Lewis.

Description and governance

CPH:DOX is the official name of the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival. Copenhagen Film Festivals has managed CPH:DOX and CPH PIX since the latter was created in 2008. It is held in Kunsthal Charlottenborg. CPH:DOX is devoted to supporting independent and innovative film and to present contemporary non-fiction, art cinema, and experimental film. In 2009, the festival launched the international talent development and film production workshop CPH:LAB (formerly known as DOX:LAB) where around 20 filmmakers are invited each year to develop and direct a film in teams of two. Besides its seven international competitions, the festival presents parallel curated and guest-curated sections. The festival hosts seminars, debates and events as well as the curated concert series "Audio:Visuals", where bands and artists perform to original work created for the occasion by visual artists. CPH:DOX also presents a number of other initiatives parallel to the festival itself: the industry platform CPH:Forum, with the attached CPH:Market for buyers and programmers, is a financing and co-production forum as well as a networking facility which takes place for three days during the festival. In 2011, the related ART:FILM branch was launched with the aim to facilitate the development and actual production of artists' films in the feature length format. CPH:DOX runs the five-day CPH:Conference as well as the experimental educational course DOX:Academy for students, both of which take place during the festival. At the industry segment CPH:WIP, Nordic works-in-progress are presented to the potential sponsors and distributors. CPH: DOX is part of the Doc Alliance, a creative partnership among seven key European documentary film festivals.

Awards

Juries hand out prizes in seven international competition programmes:

Award winners

CPH:DOX Award

2003 CPH:DOX

2004 CPH:DOX

2005 CPH:DOX

2006 CPH:DOX

2007 CPH:DOX

2008 CPH:DOX

2009 CPH:DOX

2010 CPH:DOX

2011 CPH:DOX

2012 CPH:DOX

2013 CPH:DOX

2014 CPH:DOX

2015 CPH:DOX

2017 CPH:DOX

2018 CPH:DOX

2019 CPH:DOX

2020 CPH:DOX

2021 CPH:DOX