CPH:CONFERENCE 2025 : NEW PARADIGMS
Through the lens of ‘new paradigms in documentary’, over the course of 3 curated afternoons we will deliver an eclectic range of panels and talks by a diverse and talented group of storytellers, that aims to confront and explore ways to thrive within a constantly evolving and challenging documentary landscape.
In an age of disinformation and abuses of power, there is a price to pay for films that use investigative journalism and the kind of courageous filmmaking that exposes truth to power. At the conference we also dive into the genres of science and art, with work being done that challenges the traditional status quo. We also look at the role of the producer, key to raising finance, but ingenious and reactive to the unforeseen, dealing with logistics but also with delicate ethical issues.
The many conflicts and wars raging around the world have filmmakers grappling on how to tell those stories in a way that is both compelling and respectful. From Palestine to Ukraine, filmmakers talk about their approaches and experiences to these themes.
We hear from commissioners and leaders about new partnerships across global borders and new ways of collaborating as a strategy for survival and solidarity, as well as learning how the bond between commissioner and filmmaker can be a powerful and beneficial relationship over time.
Producers from the Global Majority, Europe and North America look at how we navigate co-productions to ensure they are inclusive, equitable and productive and not always based on European and North American funding models.
While examining the present we will take a moment to imagine a documentary future that is sustainable and robust at every level.
Mandy Chang, Conference curator 2025
Programme
A Morning With Violet Du Feng
Violet Du Feng's The Dating Game was a hit at Sundance and is a highlight in this year's CPH:DOX Program. Join us for an in depth conversation about her work and creative processes.
Moderator: Thom Powers (TIFF, Pure Non-Fiction)
Dialogues on Interactivity
Join us for an interactive session, exploring a range of new productions skills through the lens of two very different immersive projects.
The first, A Deep Dive Into Dark Rooms explores how intimacy coordination is being embedded into the production of the Danish VR project Dark Rooms, which explores non-normative desires, trauma, and healing through sexuality in an intimate VR experience. This unique approach to co-creation offers methods and reflections to filmmakers interested in telling deeply personal stories ethically, without compromising creativity or impact. Anne Sofie Steen Sverdrup, intimacy coordinator in dialogue with creative producer Mads Damsbo and film director Laurits Flensted-Jensens.
Adaptive Storytelling: Crafting Frameworks for the AI + Automation Era, asks: What does a contemporary production team look like in the age of AI and how do you transition from a film-maker to involve roboticists and AI collaborators as team members? Violeta Ayala, filmmaker, AI innovator, creative technologist, and the first Quechua member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, in dialogue with Mark Atkin, Curator of CPH:DOX Inter:Active.
Speakers: Anne Sofie Steen Sverdrup, Laurits Flensted-Jensen, Mads Damsbo, Violeta Ayala
Curator/moderator: Mark Atkin
DAY 1 - Opening of CPH:CONFERENCE
Katrine Kiilgard, Director of CPH:DOX and Donata von Perfall, Managing Director of Documentary Campus welcome you to this edition of CPH:CONFERENCE
The Cost of Exposing Truth to Power
Disinformation and abuses of power are daily bread for investigative journalists, open source investigations have changed the game and longform filmmaking has become a trusted source for deep dive journalistic storytelling. We ask our panel, how has journalism changed in the digital age? What is the cost of exposing truth to power? And who will dare to show these films, increasingly difficult to air, especially in America. A courageous team unpack a revelatory and painful to watch documentary "Antidote", which is vital in understanding Putin and contemporary Russia.
Speakers: Christo Grozev, James Jones, Jenny Raskin (Impact Partners)
Moderator: Mandy Chang (Undeniable Productions)
Collaborations & Coalitions
We are in a crisis of distribution. As the consolidation of platforms continues, narrowing down subject matter, a major study by Keri Putnam has identified a significant audience for independent storytelling. A key theme emerging from the paper centers around building public funding models and leaders to marshall resources and collective power. A panel of European and American public service commissioners and deeply experienced thinkers sit down to discuss creative solutions both real and imagined.
Speakers: Keri Putnam, Alexandre Marionneau (ARTE), Erika Dilday (POV)
Moderator: Beadie Finzi (Doc Society)
Producing for Success
In challenging times, how do we finance, produce and deal with the unique issues that accompany each and every individual feature film. What is a producer’s responsibility for the people in their films and how can they safeguard the future for independent documentaries, not only in the West, but in the Global Majority? Successful producers share experiences of working on films like Mr Nobody against Putin and Co-Existence, My Ass!.
Speakers: Helle Farber, Rachel Leah Jones
Moderator: Christian Popp (Tag Film)
A Morning With Sam Soko
Sam Soko is a producer and director whose films Softie and No Simple Way Home have screened at previous editions of CPH:DOX.
Moderator: Thom Powers
Dialogues on Transitions: Filming New Frontiers
This session looks at the craft of documentary filmmaking - at two very different ends of the scale.
Join Olivier Sarbil, a cinematographer turned director who through his singular artistic vision and deep experience of being in war zones paints an extraordinary portrait of a deaf man on the frontline in Ukraine. Geeta Gandbhir, an ex-editor turned director, uses police body cam footage to create a dramatic and emotionally compelling narrative. Their two films, ‘Viktor’ and ‘The Perfect Neighbor’, are having their European and International premieres at CPH:DOX 2025.
Speakers: Olivier Sarbil, Geeta Ghandbir
Moderator: Eric Hynes
ELEMENTAL: A Sandbox Presentation
A behind-the-scenes look at ELEMENTAL, a playful series of short documentaries produced by PFilm and presented by Sandbox Films that explore our lives through the lens of the periodic table elements. The diverse human stories combine to create something bigger than the sum of its parts, shedding light on our connections with the elements and celebrating the art and craft of documentary filmmaking. In this panel, you'll hear from the producers, executives, and contributing filmmakers from around the globe. They’ll share insights into their creative processes and discuss how the project's unique constraints inspired their storytelling approaches
Speakers: Heidi Fleischer, Mike Paterson, Elizabeth Lo, Ross McLean
Moderator: Jess Harrop
Technology and Its Impact On Our Lives
Join Catapult Film Fund for an engaging panel discussion and networking event highlighting the critical role of bold nonfiction storytelling in examining the intersection of technology and democracy.
Since 2010, Catapult Film Fund has launched hundreds of impactful documentaries that have ignited conversations on today’s most pressing issues, including recent CPH:DOX films UNION (directed by Brett Story and Stephen Maing), BLACK SNOW (directed by Alina Simone), and BEYOND UTOPIA (directed by Madeleine Gavin). This special event will delve into pressing topics our documentary community is facing at this critical moment, as we grapple with the inescapable influence of technology on shaping global democracies.
Following the panel, join us for a light reception to continue the conversation with fellow filmmakers, journalists, and industry.
Stay tuned for updates on the panel…
Distribution in Partisan Landscapes
Distribution for the past decade has been in a state of major contraction.
As the landscape for a richly diverse range of documentaries shrinks, filmmakers are seeking alternative solutions to reaching audiences and communities beyond festivals and new ways to connect and create impact that can extend the life of a film. On the panel we talk to some new and more established players, doing interesting work in this space, as well as the filmmakers who have worked with them, to learn how they are navigating innovative new pathways to audiences.
Speakers: Alexis Bloom, Amy Shepherd, Tara Hein-Phillips
Art Revolution
Provocative arts filmmaking that pushes the boundaries of form, is disappearing from mainstream screens. This deprives audiences of the opportunity to engage with inspirational, ground breaking work that enriches us and our world. But it is alive and well in other mediums. We meet 3 artists at the cutting edge, making work that deals with Queer identity, AI and the complexities of black life through myth, fantasy and fiction as a form of liberation.
Speakers: Cecilie Waagner Falkenstrom, Ahmed Umar, Julian Knox
Moderator: Ekow Eshun
A Morning With Mark Cousins
Renowned Scottish-Irish filmmaker and writer Mark Cousins joins for a lively and playful session.
Moderator: Thom Powers
Dialogues on Urgent Issues
A session with two veteran filmmakers, focused on two very powerful subjects, the topic of endless films, with a pressing urgency – the war in Ukraine and the environment.
Join filmmaking heavyweights Mstyslav Chernov (2000 Meters to Andriivka) and Nathan Grossman (I Am Greta, Climate in Therapy) as both filmmakers delve into how they bring a different lens and approach to their films. What is it that drives them and what is the importance of revisiting these subjects whilst being able to capture audiences in a landscape saturated with such stories.
Speakers: Mstyslav Chernov, Nathan Grossman
Filmmaker - Commissioner Relationships
What are the dynamics at play between filmmakers and commissioners? What elements of the relationship are important to ensure the best outcome for the work?
The relationships between filmmakers and commissioners can be delicate and fraught. They can also be hugely important and beneficial, especially, built up over time, where the commissioner gets to know the filmmaker and how they tick and vice versa. A hugely experienced commissioner from one of the biggest SVODs, sits down with an award winning filmmaker to explore what a relationship of mutual respect can bring to a film.
Speakers: Kate Townsend, Petra Costa
Palestine - A View from Two Perspectives
A look at two bold and differing approaches to filmmaking around the Israel-Palestine conflict.
As with the plethora of films about the war in Ukraine, so the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine is a critical source of storytelling for filmmakers and who seek to draw audiences into complex and challenging issues in order to gain an understanding of what is happening, not only in contemporary terms, but how, using the tools of history, one can look back to see the influence of the past on the present. Two filmmakers, one Danish of Palestinian descent and a Lebanese Canadian filmmakers working with an Israeli comedian, discuss their films and how they try, in different ways, through different styles and approaches, to bring insights into a conflict that many have become fearful of discussing.
Speakers: Amber Fares, Omar Shargawi
Equitable Co-Producing On A Global Stage
Producers from the global south and from Europe discuss the way forward for more equitable co-producing.
Both are involved in forward thinking work in the field – from being part of the 2024 Eave Report think tank of producers and experts in Europe – looking at best practices and challenges and recommended ways of working to ensure inclusive and ethical co-productions for all parties. In the South producers are working to build a South Asian producers’ forum to help unite the small number of South Asian documentary producers. Join us for this fascinating and important discussion
Speakers: Anupama Srinivasan, Emile Hertling Péronard
Artistic Research in Filmmaking
The Norwegian and Danish Film Schools have joined forces to explore how artistic research benefits filmmakers.
This session showcases exciting projects and sparks discussion on their relevance. How can we share insights effectively? Are we overlooking key topics? Let’s examine artistic research’s role in filmmaking.
Speakers: Lise Birk Pedersen, Kristine Ann Skaret, Nefise Özkal Lorentzen
Moderators: Jakob Høgel, Nina Grünfeld
Wrap Up of CPH:CONFERENCE
Thank you for joining this year`s edition
