For this year’s CPH:Forum unspooling virtually from April 26-30, parallel to the leading international film festival CPH:DOX (April 21-May 2), 35 international projects were selected out of 422 submissions.

With gender and diversity representation high on the festival’s agenda, 46% of the projects are directed by women, 43% by men, with the remaining 11% by male/female teams, while 34% are from filmmakers of colour.

The curated programme put together by Head of CPH:FORUM Tereza Simikova and her team, is meant to represent “a diversity of topics, genres and artistic approaches as well as a diverse representation among the storytellers.”

“In the context of increasingly mono cultural mainstream space, we stand by our long-standing mission to nurture non-fiction as a wide variety of genres and voices from across the fields of non-fiction, fiction, visual art, journalism and science,” told Simikova to nordicfilmandtvnews.com. “We are grateful to see the overwhelming quality of projects coming our way, firmly grounded in strong artistic expressions, exploring highly relevant timely topics and coming up with a clear voice in civil society.”

Award-winning directors set to pitch their upcoming works across the five categories FictionFiction, Cinema, F:ACT, Art and Science include Denmark’s Mads Brügger (The Mole) with Double Trouble, the UK’s Lucy Walker (Waster Land) with The Forest for the Trees, Lech Kowalski (East of Paradise) with A Little Story About an Immeasurable Problem, and Canada’s Geneviève Dulude De Celle (A Colony) with Les Jours.

For the 8th year, the €20,000 Eurimages Co-Production Development Award will be handed out to the best project intended for co-production.

Buyers who will provide their valuable feedback include platforms Disney+, Netflix, Hulu, broadcasters such as DR, ARTE, ZDF, BBC, CNN, National Geographic, POV, film studios Participant Media, Topic, Endeavour, and philanthropic foundations such as Creative Capital, Sundance Institute, Creative Capital, Chicken and Egg Pictures, Freedom of Speech Foundation, and Blue Ice Docs.

Commenting on CPH:FORUM’s second virtual showcase, under Covid-19, Simikova said: “A year after pulling together a first ever digital festival in March 2020, we understood that what we did in a week’s time last year wasn’t a special anomaly, but rather a first step in a much deeper transformation of the entire modus operandi of the documentary community."

Simikova goes on: “It's a challenge for producers and filmmakers to make films, for distributors and festivals to make them visible, and for market places like CPH:FORUM to find new ways to truly help them find partners, under new circumstances. We believe there is a huge potential to revise the power dynamics of film financing, but it takes a lot of work on all sides, to preserve the core values, and to harvest the opportunities, that the transformation online actually offers.”

Full list of CPH:FORUM Nordic projects with official log-lines:

CINEMA

  • Before the Storm by Juan Palacios, Sofie Husum Johannesen (DK).
    Despite the looming prospect of a climate change-induced storm wiping out the island of Mandø, its 32 inhabitants seem oblivious to the existential threat. Out of step with modern times, they fight to stay on the island.
  • Cold & Warm by Jørgen Leth and Andreas Koefoed (Denmark)
    What does it mean to play? How does it feel to listen? The film is an ode to the power of music, expressed by an ensemble of the world’s most influential jazz musicians, directed by two of Denmark’s most prolific filmmakers.
  • Double Trouble by Mads Brügger (Denmark)
    Details still confidential.
  • Songs of Earth by Margret Olin (Norway)
    A grandiose full-length feature documentary-symphony. Nature has its own language, that we must listen to in order to survive. It’s a plea for us to respect all life.
  • The End of All by Sun Hee Engelstoft (Denmark/France)
    The film is an exploration using science and mysticism, depicting the relation between The Republic of Kiribati, a nation of atolls in the Pacific, facing annihilation by the rising ocean caused by the melting ice from Greenland and the Arctic.
  • Tvind by Max Kestner, Henrik Veileborg (DK)
    “For people who were not themselves part of Tvind, it is impossible to understand the feeling of invincibility our community gave us. We had youth, strength, crazy ideas. Everything!”

F:ACT

  • The Broken Caliphate by Jess Kelly, Vanessa Bowles (Denmark/UK)
    A coming-of-age film set in the ruins of ISIS’ former capital, exploring innocence and radicalisation through the eyes of 11-year-old Aya, as she grapples with a new ‘liberated’ society that shuns the ideology she was brought up to believe in.

FICTIONFICTION

  • The Woman Who Cleaned the World by Fia Stina Sandlund (Sweden)
    A single mother of five works as a cleaner in an arms factory but within her dreams – she’s cleaning the world.

NORDIC WORKS IN PROGRESS
The eight Nordic works in progress will be presented on April 27. The projects were selected in collaboration with the national film institutes and foundation in the Nordics.

  • Band by Álfrún Örnólfsdóttirn (Iceland/Estonia)
    The make-or-break story of a female Icelandic band that probably won't make it and isn't really a band.
  • Into the Ice by Lars Ostenfeld (Denmark/Germany)
    The ice at the poles is melting, but the question is: how fast? The director follows three of the world's leading scientists, as they risk their lives going over, under and deep into the ice sheet of Greenland, to find the answer. The project is produced by Malene Flindt Pedersen for Hansen & Pedersen, in co-production with Germany’s Kloos & Co, co-financing from SVT, NRK, NDR ARTE, support from the Danish Film Institute, Novo Nordisk Fund, Lundbeck Fund, and Nordisk Film & TV Fond.
  • Stories from the Debris by Jennifer Rainsford (Sweden)
    With the 2011 Tsunami as a backdrop, the film is a staggering odyssey told as an essay on grief, and on how humans and nature rebuild after a trauma.
  • The Killing of a Journalist by Matt Sarnecki (Denmark/US)
    A young investigative journalist is gunned down in Slovakia. When the police files of the murder investigation are leaked to his colleagues, they uncover a vast corruption reaching up to the highest levels of Slovak society.
  • The Life & Times of Omar Sharif by Axel Petersén and Mark Lofty (Sweden/Egypt/the UK).
    Through eclectic imagery, suggestive humour, and thriller-like suspense, the film depicts the first Arab movie star Omar Sharif, the characters he played, on and off screen, in the changing political landscapes of East and West.
  • The Norwegian Headache by Rune Denstad Langlo (Norway)
    The environmental §112 in the Norwegian Constitution has been put to the test for the first time in the Supreme Court. Can a short article destroy the welfare state? Can it bring down the powerful oil industry? And can it protect future generations?
  • The Sky Above Zenica by Nanna Frank Møller and Zlatko Pranjic (Denmark/Bosnia & Herzegovina/Germany). In Zenica a giant steel factory belches toxic gasses into the air. People are dying. EkoForum fights an uneven fight against the corporation and the politicians who focus on re-elections, and the EU, which funds it without enforcing international laws.
  • Twice Colonized by Lin Alluna (Greenland, Denmark, Canada)
    Inuit lawyer Aaju Peter has led a lifelong fight for the rights of her people. When her son dies of suicide, Aaju embarks on a personal journey to bring her colonizers to justice. But is it possible to change the world and yourself at the same time?