Filmmaker Poh Si Teng (American Doctor), director Sara Dosa (Fire of Love), Shane Boris, the producer of artificial intelligence study The AI Doc and Carolyn Bernstein, evp of documentary film at National Geographic, are among the speakers participating in the three-day CPH: CONFERENCE programme taking place at Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival (CPH: DOX), from March 16-19.
Under the banner of CPH: INDUSTRY, this year’s line-up of talks will discuss topics including political pressure, platform power and AI disruption facing documentary filmmakers and producers around the globe.
Further speakers will include US comedian John Wilson (The History Of Concrete), Irish documentarian Sinéad O’Shea (All About The Money), US film documentary editor and long-term Werner Herzog collaborator Joe Bini (Grizzly Man) and US filmmaker and curator Tracy Rector, a mixed heritage filmmaker.
There will also be workshops exploring the opportunities and ethics of using AI and a panel about working with immersive formats.
A session called ‘Constructing Your Own Cinematic Language’ features the Jaripeo filmmaking team, directors Efraín Mojica and Rebecca Zweig, on crafting queer, hybrid aesthetics in rural settings, moderated by the film’s co-producer Elena Fortes
During ‘Rekindling the Machine – Documentary in the Age of AI’, a panel will examine how filmmakers can move from “users” to “architects” of human-centric storytelling, facilitated by Doc Society and the Atmospheric Intelligences Initiative together with filmmaker Marc Silver (Molly vs. The Machine).
Further discussions will include ‘We’re All Doomed - Can Hope Survive the Permacrisis?’ which will examine if filmmakers can tell dystopian stories that foster solidarity instead of despair, and ‘What’s Next? Future Perspectives on the Shifting Eco-System of the Creative Documentary’ in which speakers will address the end of the recent golden age of creative documentaries and what is in store for the future of the funding, financing and distribution of independent nonfiction filmmaking.
For ‘Updated Reflections on Contemporary Palestinian Documentary Filmmaking’, Palestinian performer and director Ashtar Muallem (Cosmos), director Dalia Al-Kury (Forma) and Kinda Kurdi (This is Gaza) will explore how diverse cinematic approaches to historic Palestine can heal trauma and act as cultural resistance against erasure.
With ‘Liberatory Image-Making: New Perspectives on Sovereignty and Futurity in Indigenous-Led Nonfiction Cinema’, panelists including Rector, Johannes Ujo Müller (Our Flag) and filmmaker and artist Adam Khalil, a core contributor to New Red Order and a co-founder of Cousins Collective, will explore the future of indigenous-led non-fiction.
Finally, ‘Position, Privilege and the Epistemic Power of the Gaze: Towards Narrative Positionality’ will ask filmmakers to consider how their closeness or distance to a subject – and their relationship with the people filmed – shapes the story they tell and the on-screen representation of those people.
Summit returns
The second annual CPH:DOX SUMMIT will take place on March 16, one day before the conference programme. Called ‘Sovereignty: Rethink, Envision, Redefine’, it will open with a keynote speech from ARTE France president Bruno Patino.
Presented in collaboration with French and German TV platform ARTE, it is curated by Paris-based producer Mark Edwards, former director of European feature documentaries at Netflix, Danielle Turkov Wilson, founder & CEO of Think-Film Impact Productions and independent researcher Sameer Padania.
“We see the CPH:CONFERENCE and CPH:DOX SUMMIT as a moment to come together and reflect on the deep changes and challenges we need to tackle head-on as an industry,” said CPH:DOX head of industry and training Mara Gourd-Mercado.
Sessions will include: ‘The Act of Building: New Infrastructure for Information Ecosystems Under Siege’, and ’To be seen or not to be seen, that is the question: the strategies we will need to connect, engage and inspire citizens in 2030,’ The latter is billed as a forward-looking strategy meet to mull how independent creatives and distributors can combine forces to ensure vital stories still reach citizens in 2030.
Additionally, a panel called ‘Tales from the Frontlines’ will bring together journalists and directors to share tactical approaches for resisting censorship and utilising grassroots innovations, from AI-powered fact-checking to cross-border partnerships, to restore trust and protect local democracy.
Gourd-Mercado said this year’s programme will offer up a hub for bold conversations on challenging the power of conglomerates over content, securing ‘safe havens’ for independent voices, looking at AI as a tool and redefining our relationship to it.”
One of the main aims of the industry programme is “to spark fresh ideas and equip filmmakers with tactical tools to bypass algorithms and resist censorship”, she added.
CPH:INDUSTRY 2026 activities encompass international financing and co-production platform CPH:FORUM, CPH:ROUGHCUT, a documentary showcase at rough cut stage, CHANGE, highlighting projects from the Eastern Partnership countries, CPH:LAB, a talent development programme for immersive non-fiction, INTRO:DOX, an introductory programme for emerging filmmakers and the CPH:MARKET online platform, which runs from March 11 to April 2.
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