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Source: CPH:DOX

Human:Rights Award title ‘Mediha’

Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival (CPH:DOX) has unveiled the line-ups for its five competitive sections for its 2024 edition. All films in the main Dox:Award competition are world premieres for the second successive year.

Scroll down for the full list of competition titles

Titles in that section include Alessandra Celesia’s The Flats, a France-UK-Ireland-Belgium co-production about Belfast youngsters accessing their memories of the Troubles.  Belfast-based Italian filmmaker Celesia has previously made documentaries including 2017’s Anatomy Of A Miracle, which played at Locarno.

The 12-strong Dox:Award competition also includes Manon Ouimet and Jacob Perlmutter’s UK title Two Strangers Trying Not To Kill Each Other, in which elderly artist couple Joel Meyerowitz and Maggie Barrett deal with mortality, love and legacy.

The New:Vision strand includes the world premiere of Philipp Schaeffer and Jonathan Schaller’s Silent Night, a Germany-Palestine-Israel co-production about an incident on a tour of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank.

The festival has launched a new section and award for 2024, the Human:Rights award, marking the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A €5,000 prize sponsored by the Institute for Human Rights will be given to a film that addresses human rights issues.

The festival will also include a series of events and discussions focusing on universal rights, beginning with a photo exhibition at the Pressen venue.

The award ceremony for the competitive categories will take place on March 22 at Kunsthal Charlottenborg.

“This year’s competition sharpens its focus on the most urgent issues of our time, from the wars in Ukraine and Gaza to gang violence in Sweden, exploring themes of identity politics, colonialism, and the foundational struggles for democracy and the fight against climate change,” said Niklas Engstrom, artistic director of CPH:DOX.

The festival will open with Max Kestner’s Life And Other Problems on March 13. The Forum and Conference programmes have been unveiled in the past week; while the full festival programme will be announced on Wednesday, February 21, with over 200 titles across the entire selection.

CPH:DOX 2024 competition sections 

Dox: Award

Balomania (Den-Sp) dir. Sissell Morell Dargis

The Black Garden (Fr-Bel) dir. Alexis Pazoumian

E.1027 – Eileen Gray and the House by the Sea (Switz) dirs. Beatrice Minger, Christoph Schaub

The Flats (Fr-UK-Ire-Bel) dir. Alessandra Celesia

Immortals (Switz-Iraq) dir. Maja Tschumi

Life And Other Problems (Den-Swe-UK) dir. Max Kestner

Motherboard (UK) dir. Victoria Mapplebeck

Night of Nights (US) dir. Truman

Once Upon A Time In A Forest (Fin) dir. Virpi Suutari

Phantoms of the Sierra Madre (Nor-Fin-US-Mex) dir. Havard Bustnes

Two Strangers Trying Not To Kill Each Other (UK) dirs. Manon Ouimet, Jacob Perlmutter

Wilfred Buck (Can) dir. Lisa Jackson

New:Vision Award

Preemptive Listening (UK-Fin) dir. Aura Satz

Ottu (Can-Fr-It) dir. Sandra Ignagni

My Want of You Partakes of Me (UK-Neth) dirs. Beny Wagner, Sasha Litvintseva

Familiar Phantoms (UK-Pal) dirs. Larissa Sansour, Soren Lind

And Still, It Remains (Alg-UK) dirs. Arwa Aburawa, Turab Shah

Look On The Bright Side (Fr-It) dir. Yuyan Wang

Dieseline Dreams (Swe) dir. Max Goran

Trash The Musical (Ger) dir. Loretta Fahrenholz

Two Suns (Den) dir. Superflex

You, My, Omma, Mama (Bel-Fr-Austria) dir. Laure Provost

Lichens Are The Way (Cze-Slovakia) dir. Ondrej Vavrecka

Single File (It-US-UK-HK) dir. Simon Liu

Silent Night (Ger-Pal-Isr) dirs. Philipp Schaeffer, Jonathan Schaller

Efforts of Nature (UK) dir. Morgan Quaintance

No Exorcism Film (Th) dir. Komtouch Napattaloong

F:Act Award

The Battle For Laikipia (Ken-US) dirs. Daphne Matziaraki, Peter Murimi

Black Snow (US) dir. Alina Simone

Can’t Feel Nothing (Den-China-Rus-N Mac-US) dir. David Borenstein

Daughter of Genghis (Den) dirs. Kristoffer Juel Poulsen, Christian Als

Democracy Noir (US-Ger-Den) dir. Connie Field

Lie To Me (Nor) dir. Baar Tyrmi

Limits of Europe (Cze-Slovakia-Fr) dir. Apolena Rychlikova

Night of the Coyotes (Ger-Austria) dir. Clara Trischler

Stray Bodies (Gr-Switz-It-Bul) dir. Elina Psykou

Union (US) dirs. Stephen Maing, Brett Story

Next:Wave Award

Appearances (Arg) dir. Nicolas Onischuk

The Base (Fr) dir. Vadim Dumesh

Blueberry Dreams (Geo-Fr-Bel) dir. Elena Mikaberidze

Death of a Saint (Den) dir. Patricia Bbaale Bandak

Eros (Braz) dir. Rachel Daisy Ellis

G – 21 scenes from Gottsunda (Den-Swe) dir. Loran Batti

Grand Me (Bel-Ir) dir. Atiye Zare Arandi

Invisible People (Fr-Ger) dir. Alisa Berger

KIX (Fr-Cro-Hun) dirs. Balint Revesz, David Mikulan

My First Film (US) dir. Zia Anger

The Nights Still Smell Of Gunpowder (Fr-Neth-Moz-Nor-Por-Ger) dir. Inadelso Cossa

Realm of Satan (US) dir. Scott Cummings

Sting Like a Bee (It) dir. Leone Balduzzi

To be an Extra (Ger) dir. Henrike Meyer

Nordic:Dox Award

G – 21 scene from Gottsunda (Den-Swe) dir. Loran Batti

Hard to Break (Fin) dirs. Anna-Maija Heinonen, Krista Moisio

The Labour of Pain and Joy (Fin) dir. Karoliina Grondahl

Life and Other Problems (Den-Swe-UK) dir. Max Kestner

Mina and the Radio Bandits (Nor) dir. Kari Anne Moe

Once Upon a Time in a Forest (Fin) dir. Virpi Suutari

Our Father Wears a Sun (Den) dirs. Jasper Spanning, Rosalinde Mynster

Phantoms of the Sierra Madre (Nor-Fin-US-Mex) dir. Havard Bustnes

A Place in the Sun (Den) dir. Mette Carla Albrechtsen

The Son and the Moon (Den-Ir) dir. Roja Pakari

Human:Rights Award

Black Box Diaries (Jap-UK-US) dir. Shiori Ito

I Shall Not Hate (Can-Fr) dir. Tal Barda

Limits of Europe (Cze-Slovakia-Fr) dir. Apolena Rychlikova

Marching in the Dark (Bel-Neth-Ind) dir. Kinshuk Surjan

Mediha (US) dir. Hasan Oswald

A Poem for Little People (Lith-UK-Ukr) dir. Ivan Sautkin

Power (US) dir. Yance Ford

The Recovery Channel (Nor) dir. Ellen Ugelstad

Silent Trees (Den-Pol-Ger) dir. Agnieszka Zwiefka

The Sky Above Zenica (Boz/Her-Den) dirs. Zlatko Pranjic, Nanna Frank Moller