07/04/2025 - We take a close look at the award-winning European projects and the other most interesting works presented in the industry strands of CPH:DOX

This year, CPH:DOX's sprawling industry section included the usual strands of CPH:FORUM, CHANGE and CPH:LAB, plus the brand-new CPH:ROUGHCUT section. We take a closer look at the award-winning European projects (see the news), plus a selection of the most interesting works. Meanwhile, we are separately publishing interviews with the winners of the Eurimages Innovation Award (see the interview) and the Eurimages Outreach Award (see the interview), given out in the CPH:LAB strand.

CPH:FORUM

Unifrance/Titrafilm Doc Award
Salt of the South – Rami Arboui (Tunisia/France)
Tunisian filmmaker Rami Arboui and his partner at production company Phi Film, Ramzi Laâmouri, are teaming up with French producer Julien Coquet, of documentary and animation company Backstory Media, for a black-and-white film that deals with the intersection of environmental, economic and human rights issues. It follows Fathia, who lives in Gabès on the Mediterranean coast, and her son Fadhel, an undocumented immigrant in France who pleads to be recognised as a “climate refugee”, as his family lives off fishing and collecting clams in the waters now poisoned by the largest chemical industrial conglomerate in North Africa. The project is in late development and is expected to be released in October 2026.

Onassis ONX Studio Award
The Place Beyond - Elena Lyubarskaya, David Steiner (France/Germany)
What does your mind really look like? The Place Beyond is a collective AI-powered interactive experience for museums. Set in the future, where humans have reached immortality but need a synthetic afterlife, the project is centred on a startup allowing its “clients” to go through an artificial "death" and "purgatory". The custom-built AI, created in collaboration with AES+F art group, offers participants a unique look at their "soul" as a visually stunning, surrealist "mindscape" where they can reinvent their life story. It is being co-produced by France’s Parallel Cinéma and Germany’s The Dream Room.

The Mammoths That Escaped the Kingdom of Erlik Khan – Tamara Kotevska (Denmark/UK/Portugal/USA/North Macedonia)
Honeyland [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ljubomir Stefanov, Tamara K…
interview: Tamara Kotevska, Ljubomir S…
film profile] and The Walk [+see also:
film review
film profile] director Tamara Kotevska returns with a project set in the Yakut tundra, an idea and story developed in collaboration with co-writer and cinematographer Jean Dakar. The story follows the protagonist, Vladik, a young Dolgan reindeer herder who finds himself at a crossroads when he has to decide to either follow in his father’s ancestral footsteps of a sustainable, reindeer-herding way of life, or join the modern mammoth tusk hunters who sell to Chinese merchandisers. Set a thousand kilometres inside the Arctic Circle, the film explores a conflict of values within the Siberian tribe, observed through Vladik’s decisions. Kotevska and Dakar started off by self-producing the project, soon joining forces with the co-producers: Sigrid Dyekjær and Harry Vaughn (Real Lava), Anna Hashmi (The Corner Shop) and Enrico Saraiva (Alecrim Vagabundo). The project is currently in development, looking for funding.

Rescue - Sine Plambech, Janus Metz (Denmark/Italy)
Co-directors Sine Plambech and Janus Metz (best known for Armadillo [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Janus Metz, director of Arm…
film profile]), who previously collaborated on Heartbound [+see also:
trailer
film profile], have unprecedented access to the world’s largest rescue ship, operated by Doctors Without Borders in the Mediterranean, which faces opposition from coast guards, armed militias and the new EU agenda of paying African countries to stop refugees. The predominantly women rescuers, the film crew and the protagonist, Hani, helplessly witness how 29 Yemeni women and children, including the latter’s own wife and daughter, are kidnapped by an armed Libyan militia. As the film unfolds, the directors themselves face an ethical dilemma: should they break EU laws to help rescue Hani’s wife and child from Libya? The project, currently in development and aiming for a September 2026 release, is a co-production between Danish company Elk Film’s Andreas Dalsgaard and Sofie Johannesen (As the Tide Comes In [+see also:
film review
film profile], Daughter of Genghis [+see also:
film review
film profile]) and Italy’s Fluid Produzioni.

Anatomy of a Genocide – Torstein Grude (Norway/Croatia/Sweden)
Experienced Norwegian multi-hyphenate documentary filmmaker Torstein Grude, who directed Mogadishu Soldier, and worked on films such as Forever Pure, Gulabi Gang, The Act of Killing [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Cold Case Hammarskjöld [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mads Brügger
interview: Mads Brügger
film profile], once again tackles a burning political issue through this portrait of Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on Occupied Palestine. The film explores her besieged mandate and her efforts to hold the perpetrators accountable as she and her small team of volunteers collect testimonies and corroborations from Palestine, amassing a wealth of documentation. Currently in development and aiming for a November 2025 release, it is being produced by Grude and Torstein Parelius, of Norway’s Jordskjelv AS, in co-production with Siniša Juričić, of Croatia’s Nukleus Film, and Ove Rishøj Jensen, of Sweden’s Auto Images.

In the Black Fantastic – Julianknxx (UK)
Julianknxx is a poet, artist and filmmaker whose new project is a visually arresting documentary that embarks on a journey through myth, fantasy and speculative fiction to explore profound questions of black freedom. Anchored by writer Ekow Eshun, the film examines what it means to live unbound in a world often hostile to black existence, and how the embrace of the fantastical offers a powerful way to both reimagine and resist. Conversations with leading black artists and thinkers, such as Arthur Jafa, Ellen Gallagher, Wangechi Mutu, Tavares Strachan, Marlon James and Tina Campt, are interwoven with dreamlike sequences that blend poetry, archival footage and performance. Currently in production and aiming for an early 2026 release, it is being produced by Debo Amon as a co-production between Rememory and Studioknxx.

Thermocene – Giorgio Ferrero (Italy)
A sensorial experience combined with visions of life in a transformed world from thought leaders in physics, astronomy, philosophy, architecture, theology and activism, Italian director Giorgio Ferrero’s documentary observes two composers, isolated at 3,000 metres up in the Alps, as they craft a musical symphony from the invisible traces of humanity in the air – short waves, radio waves from satellites, electromagnetic fields, fine dust and valley noise. The film portrays a world where nature and humanity intentionally collaborate to foster a new collective awareness, underscored by the ticking climate clock. Co-produced by Giovanni Pompili, of Kino Produzioni and My Boss Was, the project is in development, with an expected release in June 2026.

Words We Never Say – Agnieszka Zwiefka (Poland)
Fresh off two recent festival hits, Silent Trees [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Vika!, Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Zwiefka’s new project is a personal, autobiographical blend of documentary road movie and fiction. After not speaking to her right-wing-leaning mother for three years and learning of her mum’s diagnosis of an incurable illness that leads to blindness, Zwiefka decides to go with her on a journey through Poland and Europe. Each of them takes the other to see places, meet people or witness situations that define who they are and what they stand for. Meanwhile, their past disagreements are re-created in a film studio. Currently in development, the project is being produced by Zwiefka and Izabela Igel, of Chilli Productions.

CHANGE

Millennium Docs Against Gravity Award
Missing in Action - Marharyta Melnychuk, Kateryna Holovko (Ukraine)
One of Ukraine’s top production companies, Tabor (Butterfly Vision [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Maksym Nakonechnyi
film profile], This Rain Will Never Stop [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alina Gorlova
film profile]), is on board this first feature-length documentary by Marharyta Melnychuk and Kateryna Holovko, which follows the protagonist, Natalia, as she looks for her brother Vitaliy, a combat medic who went missing in the Donetsk region in March 2023. After the search yields no results, she has to accept the offer to rejoin the border service in a different part of the country as she supports Vitaliy’s daughters and her mother. Driven by survivor’s guilt and love for her brother, she continues searching for answers and helps others who are missing their loved ones. Aliona Kachkan (As Far as Possible) is producing the project, currently in development, and is eyeing a January 2027 release.

CPH:ROUGHCUT

Four Brothers (working title) - Pieter-Jan De Pue (Sweden/Belgium/Netherlands/ Germany)
Pieter-Jan De Pue returns after the fantastic The Land of the Enlightened [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (2016) with his second film, which has been in the works for almost ten years, just like his debut; in 2019, it won the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award at CPH:FORUM (see the interview). It is a story of four orphan brothers in Ukraine’s destroyed city of Marinka, who encounter other war victims, with each interaction deepening our understanding of their identity and the sacrifices that come with survival. Over the years, their paths diverge, so much so that one of them ends up fighting for the Ukrainian army and another for the Russian side. Shot on 16 mm and currently in editing, with a planned running time of 120 minutes, it is a co-production between Sweden’s Dark Riviera, Belgium’s Savage Film and Naoko Films, Dutch company Submarine and Germany’s beetz brotherz. The partners are still looking for post-production funding, hoping for a release this coming September.