Fifty nine films in total are screening at Copenhagen’s major documentary festival (March 16-26) that has added a fifth competition slot. The new NEXT:WAVE programme for emerging talents launched together with the festival’s main sponsor Normann Copenhagen, comprise nine titles such as world premieres of the Danish films Next Summer by Alexander Lind (Carl & Niels) and You Are Somebody’s Someone by Esther Wellejus.

The main DOX: Award strand for outstanding international documentaries is screening 13 films including Last Men in Aleppo and the world premiere of The John Dalli Mystery, both supported by the Fund.

Last Men in Aleppo (DK, SY, DE) directed by Feras Fayyad, with co-director/editor Steen Johannessen, just won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize. The film about a group of men - the white helmets  helping their fellow citizens in Aleppo will open CPH:DOX on March 15. 

The John Dalli Mystery (DK-NO) directed by Jeppe Rønde is a Kafkaesque EU-drama with journalists Mikael Bertelsen and Mads Brügger investigating why former EU Commissioner of Health John Dalli had to leave the Commission in disgrace. DR Sales handles sales for both films.

Other Nordic docs in the main competition programme include: 

  • When You Look Away (DK) by the director of Mechanical Love Phie Ambo 
  • Craigslist Allstar (FI-NL) by Finnish performance artist Samira Elagoz 
  • DRIB (NO) by rising talent Kristoffer Borgli. The hot title for sales agent TrustNordisk will first have its world premiere at Austin’s SXSW Festival. 
  • What Young Men Do (NO) by Jon Haukeland won Best Norwegian Doc and Bergen Film Festival.

The NORDIC DOX programme has 13 titles including the world premieres of A Modern Man, Land of the Free, Stay Behind and the international premiere of The Hotel, all backed by the Fund.

  • A Modern Man (DK) is directed by Eva Mulvad (The Good Life, Enemies of Happiness). It’s a portrayal of the multi-talented photo model and first violist Charlie Siem. Rise & Shine World Sales handles world distribution. 
  • Land of the Free (DK-FI) - previously known as Transformation- s directed by Camilla Magi who follows three characters in Los Angeles, fighting their battles to stay out of crime. DR handles sales. 
  • Stay Behind, My Grandfather’s Secret War (DK) -previously known as Code Faith- is director Ida Grøn’s personal portrait of her grandfather, a respected dentist and freedom fighter under the occupation who worked for the CIA during the Cold War. Rise & Shine World Sales handles sales.
  • The Hotel (SE) by Kristian Petri (Between Summers) is about hotels and those who populate them. The film screened earlier in Göteborg. 

Other NORDIC:DOX films include:

  • 69 minutes of 86 Days by Egil Håskjold Larsen (NO)
  • Childhood by Margret Olin (NO) 
  • Lida by Anna Eborn (DK-SE) 
  • My Mother is Pink by Cecilie Debell (DK) 
  • On the Edge of Freedom by Anita Mathal Hopland and Jens Lengerke (DK) 
  • Shapeshifters by Sophie Virkovic (SE) 
  • Thank You for the Rain by Julia Dahr (NO-UK) 
  • The Strangest Stranger by Magnus Bärtås (SE-JP) 
  • Waiting for the Sun by Kaspar Astrup Schröder (DK)

The F:ACT Award competition for investigative documentaries has 11 films including Dead Donkeys Fear no Hyena, a co-production between Sweden, Finland, Germany, supported by the Fund. Joakim Demmer captures the fight for land between speculators and farmers in Ethiopia. The film is produced by Fredrik Gertten (Bikes vs. Cars).


Other Nordic films in the programme include:

  • Cause of Death Unknown by Anniken Hoel (NO) 
  • Return of a President by Lotte Mik-Meyer (DK) 
  • The Unforgiven by Lars Fedballe-Petersen (FI-DK)

Six Nordic films out of 13 selected titles are competing in the NEW:VISION programme:

  • Maybe This Act, This Work, This Thing by Joachim Koester (DK-BE-NO) 
  • No Trace of Accelerator by Emily Wardill (PO-NO) 
  • Nosferatu by John Skoog (SE) 
  • The Haunted by Saodat Ismailova (NO-Uzbekistan) 
  • The Lost Dreams of Naoki Hayakawa by Anne Hjort Guttu and Daisuke Kosugi (NO) 
  • The Mærks Opera, an adaptation of SUPERFLEX’s opera of the same name, performed during Copenhagen Art Festival in 2012 (DK).

The winners will be announced on March 24.

For further details, check: www.CPHDOX.DK