2025 CPH:DOX Arms Out Awards To ‘At all times,’ ‘2000 Meters To Andriivka’

CPH:DOX has topped winners on the newest version of the famend nonfiction movie competition in Copenhagen.

The DOX:Award, the competition’s high prize, went to At all times, the directorial debut of Deming Chen. The movie tells the story of a younger poet, 8-year-old Youbin, who lives “deep within the lush mountains of Hunan province” in southern China.

“There’s an enormous distinction between nothing and small issues. However life is in reality made up of many, typically unnoticed, small issues. We want the sensibilities of artists to point out us the greatness of the little issues,” famous the DOX:Award jury comprised of Rikke Tambo Andersen, Max Kestner, Nicolas Rapold, Adele Tulli and Raul Niño Zambrano. “This exquisitely shot chronicle of a rural farming household is alive with compassion and poetry.”

The DOX:Award, sponsored by Politiken and Politiken-Fonden, comes with a €10,000 prize.

The jury awarded a Particular Point out to Flophouse America, a documentary revolving round one other a boy clever past his years. Monica Strømdahl makes her directorial debut with the movie about 12-year-old Mikal and his dad and mom, who wrestle with alcoholism whereas dwelling within the cramped quarters of a bare-bones resort in Florida.

In a doable preview of subsequent yr’s Oscar race, Mstyslav Chernov’s 2000 Meters to Andriivka gained the F:ACT Award, whereas a Particular Point out in that aggressive class went to Geeta Gandbhir’s The Good Neighbor. Each movies held their world premieres in January on the Sundance Movie Competition.

2000 Meters to Andriivka, Chernov’s observe as much as the Oscar-winning 20 Days in Mariupol, plunges viewers into warfare as Ukrainian troops advance alongside a slender strip of land, attempting to recapture a village seized by Russian invaders.

“Finally we give the F:ACT award to 2000 Meters to Andriivka not simply because it’s a battle on our doorstep, however as a result of it’s a masterpiece in filmmaking: a haunting, multi layered portrayal of warfare similar to All Quiet on the Western Entrance. However this isn’t the First World Battle, it’s at present,” wrote the jury, comprised of Alexis Bloom, Mikala Krogh and Steffi Niederzoll. “The meaninglessness of warfare, and in addition its unsettling poetry are all on full show right here. An artist in amongst bloodshed brings the fact residence, and make an anti warfare movie that forces us to mirror on the dignity of every human life misplaced.”

The F:ACT Award, supported by Worldwide Media Help and the Danish Union of Journalists, honors “movies mixing documentary and investigative journalism” and comes with a €5,000 prize. [Director Mstyslav Chernov will appear on the next edition of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast, releasing on Tuesday].

The jury awarded a Particular Point out to The Good Neighbor, a movie that makes use of police bodycam and dashcam video to doc a surprising 2023 case in Florida the place a white lady shot to demise her Black neighbor. Calling the movie “extraordinarily highly effective on a bodily degree,” jurors stated, “The selection to remain on the bodycam footage was courageous, and it paid off. This exhibits huge filmmaking ability. This can be a devastating movie about gun violence, nevertheless it’s additionally a movie about households, about on daily basis life, and the connections between us. The triangle between the perpetrator, the police and the neighbors is woven along with nice sensitivity. In its personal approach, The Good Neighbor is a restrained movie, and that’s what proves so shattering.”

The competition’s HUMAN:RIGHTS Award, now in its second yr of existence, went to 9-Month Contract, directed by Ketevan Vashagashvili. In early March, Deadline premiered the trailer for the movie, “an intimate and uncooked portrait” of the emotional and bodily toll of unregulated surrogacy work within the republic of Georgia.

The jury, comprised of Mohamed Saïd Ouma, Tomáš Poštulka and Birgitte Stærmose, stated 9-Month Contract “portrays the connection between a mom and her daughter with a radical intimacy and an excellent tenderness. By means of its visible poetry the movie balances delicately between the harshness of their state of affairs and the humanity of Zhana and her intense love for her daughter.”

The HUMAN:RIGHTS Award, sponsored by the Danish Institute for Human Rights, comes with a prize of €5,000.

Jurors awarded a Particular Point out to The Encampments, a really well timed movie directed by Michael T. Workman and Kei Pritsker that examines the pro-Palestinian scholar activists who occupied Columbia College final yr to protest Israel’s decimation of Gaza following the October 7 Hamas terror assault on Israel.

The jury wrote, “The Particular Point out goes to a hopeful and provoking movie that immerses you within the activism of scholars in occasions of battle and oppression.”

These are the extra awards introduced Friday at CPH:DOX:

NORDIC:DOX AWARD

Winner: WALLS – AKINNI INUK by Nina Paninnguaq Skydsbjerg & Sofie Rørdam

GL/ 2025 / World Premiere

Particular Point out: THE NICEST MEN ON EARTH by Josefine Exner & Sebastian Gerdes

DK / 2025 / World Premiere

The NORDIC:DOX Award (€5,000) honors standout documentaries from the Nordic area.

The jury consisted of Butheina Kazim, Dario Oliveira, and Roja Pakari.

Jury assertion: “Out of the periphery, armed with radical dignity within the face of a chronic and harsh injustice, we bore witness to a pure movement of vulnerability, entrance and middle, refusing to be forged apart. Within the heartbroken cadence of its native tongue, we discovered an alignment of parts, an intuitive and steadfast story of a female power of nature.

“Contemporary like a gust of the Nordic wind, the therapeutic powers of the movie left us respiration hope and mild triumph. A reminder of placing cameras within the rightful fingers, demonstrating the distinction between observational documentary and representational storytelling.

“For sending us off all of the wiser, we current the award for Finest Nordic Documentary to WALLS (Akinni Inuk) by Nina Paninnguaq Skydsbjerg & Sofie Rørdam from Greenland.”

“As a result of among the hardest questions can generally be answered with the best of concepts and a complete lotta model, an honorable point out goes to THE NICEST MEN ON EARTH by Josefine Exner & Sebastian Gerdes.”

NEXT:WAVE AWARD

Winner: ABODE OF DAWN by Kristina Shtubert

DE / 2024 / Worldwide Premiere

Particular Point out: WHO WITNESSED THE TEMPLES FALL by Lucía Selva

SP / 2025 / World Premiere

The NEXT:WAVE Award (€5,000) highlights new and rising filmmakers.

The jury consisted of Sissel Morell Dargis, Sona Karapoghosyan, and María Palacios Cruz.

Jury assertion: ‘Set in a northern forest, the movie follows a group which emerged as a substitute for a misplaced previous which maybe by no means existed.

“For its immense respect and long-term dedication, nuanced strategy to existential questions and talent to embrace an setting with so many contradictions, The Subsequent:Wave award goes to Adobe of Daybreak.

“We additionally need to award a particular point out to a movie imbued with magic and thriller whose visible language and soundscapes impressed us. A movie that blurs previous and current to handle points round urbanization, gentrification and the social panorama and troubled historical past of Spain. The movie with probably the most lovely title and title design, we award a particular point out to Who Witnessed the Temples Fall.

NEW:VISION

Winner: RAMALLAH, PALESTINE, DECEMBER 2018 by Juliette Le Monniyer

BE / 2025 / World Premiere

Particular point out: SCRAP by Noémie Lobry

FR / 2025 / World Premiere

The NEW:VISION Award (€5,000) celebrates artwork movies and boundary-pushing experiments.

The jury consisted of Mason Leaver-Yap, Jeppe Lange, and Marina Kožul.

Jury assertion: Winner: RAMALLAH, PALESTINE, DECEMBER 2018 “Penetrating a sunny pastoral panorama in single-take, Juliette Le Monnyer’s video takes us via an unfolding but unspecified second of battle. The shakey digicam pans as if scaling a ziggurat from afar. Dated from 2018, it is a doc of a just-past that refuses to offer a complete overview and but, in its partial nature, reveals a lot concerning the second we discover ourselves in — the timing of this movie’s launch: March 2025.

“Wavering hesitantly between the on a regular basis and the unknowable, it is a brief movie delivered with uncompromising conceptual rigor. It calls for questions on what we – as viewers, as filmmakers – are witnessing. What we select to concentrate on and when – what will we overlook, what will we withhold, when will we cease watching.”

Particular point out: SCRAP

“By means of an ingenious use of associations the movie weaves collectively childhood reminiscences, eerie scenes from pc video games, and glimpses of a post-apocalyptic future. Salvaging and cannibalizing parts of the approaching of age drama and the highway film style, we’ve been taken to look upon it with a unique eye.”

INTER:ACTIVE AWARD

Winner: ‘CONSTANTINOPOLIAD’ by Sister Sylvester & Nadah El Shazly

UK / Set up / 2025 / Worldwide Premiere

Particular Point out: THE GARDEN SAYS… by Uri Kranot, Michelle Kranot, Sara Topsøe

Jensen, Sarah John & Marieke Breyne

DK / XR Perfomance-Set up / 2025 / World Premiere

The award winner will obtain a profitable bundle together with two complimentary trade accreditations for Sunny Facet of the Doc, two full entry accreditations for the Trade Days of New Pictures Competition, 6 hours of authorized session on European IP legislation and a money prize of €1000.

The jury consisted of Irene Campolmi, David Adler, and Carl Emil Carlsen.

Jury assertion: “In a world of hyper-immersive applied sciences, the place interactivity typically calls for motion, headsets, or VR goggles, Costantinopoliad invitations us to do one thing much more radical: to take a seat nonetheless and pay attention.

“Costantinopoliad is not only a piece of storytelling; it’s an invite to discovery. It intertwines narrative with motion, making us really feel as if we’re the primary to bump into this archive, the primary to unearth Cavafy’s story, to breathe life into his phrases. The work radiates a uncommon curiosity and playfulness, slipping between the boundaries of literature, efficiency, and archaeology.

“But, simply as we settle into this deeply private expertise, an uncanny sensation creeps in. As we flip the pages, contact the stones, and immerse ourselves within the poet’s world, we turn out to be the protagonist, performers in an unfolding documentary. Our actions, our gestures, turn out to be a part of a cinematic language, synchronized with the voice-over that narrates a previous we are actually embodying.

“It’s with nice pleasure that we announce Costantinopoliad by Sister Sylvester & Nadah El Shazly because the recipient of this yr’s INTER:ACTIVE exhibition award. This work is not only anartwork—it’s an expertise, a portal, a dwelling archive.”

Particular Point out: “We’re delighted to increase an Honorable Point out to The Backyard Says… by Uri and Michelle Kranot, Sara Topsøe Jensen, Sarah John & Marieke Breynefor their lovely, thought-provoking, and deeply reflective set up.

“Centered on the aesthetic expertise of a digital backyard and the serendipity of likelihood encounters, this work dares to create an area the place interactions unfold organically—and it does so with outstanding success. The Backyard Says… is not only an setting however an invite—one which encourages return, exploration, and the continual chance of latest conferences. Thanks for providing us a heartfelt and private expertise, one which reminds us of the facility of connection and shared presence.”