CPH:DOX, the documentary film festival based out of Copenhagen in Denmark, has revealed the jury winners for its 2025 edition. Audience Award prizes will be announced in April.
More than 90 feature films screened in Copenhagen this past week, including the European premiere of Sundance favorites like “The Perfect Neighbor,” directed by Geeta Gandbhir, whose bodycam-based documentary about a wrongful killing in Florida in 2023 is positioned as one of Netflix’s forthcoming top awards contenders this year. Also bowing in Copenhagen were Amy Berg’s music doc “It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley,” Amber Fares’ portrait of Israeli comedian Noam Shuster-Eliassi with “Coexistence, My Ass!” David Osit’s “Predators,” about the rise and fall of NBC’s controversial documentary TV series “To Catch a Predator,” also bowed at CPH:DOX and will be released by MTV later this year.
But CPH:DOX, which has been going since 2008 and is gradually becoming a first stop for documentary premieres ahead of festivals like Toronto’s Hot Docs and DOC NYC in New York and IDFA in Amsterdam in November, also world-premiered 56 titles. Twelve were eligible for the DOX:Award in the main competition, with jurors including Rikke Tambo Andersen (producer), Max Kestner (producer), Nicolas Rapold (journalist), Adele Tulli (director), and Raul Niño Zambrano (creative director of Sheffield DocFest).
The top prize went to Deming Chen’s “Always” from China, a strikingly photographed black-and-white portrait of an eight-year-old boy in the Hunan province who discovers a passion for poetry. (Serving on Danish magazine Ekko’s review grid this year, I quite liked the film, which is contemplative and shows the filmmaker’s affinity for forming closeness to his subjects and showing their family tragedies.) A special mention went to Monica Strømdahl’s “Flophouse America,” an honestly devastating portrait of a 12-year-old boy’s attempts to raise himself alongside his impoverished and alcoholic parents in a cramped hotel room. Only a European director could get so close with such little sentimentality to her American subjects — I expect this emotionally powerful documentary to find a home in the United States.
The F:ACT Award, with a jury led by Alexis Bloom, Mikala Krogh, and Steffi Niederzoll, went to Mstyslav Chernov’s “2000 Meters to Andriivka,” a Sundance premiere PBS has rights to. The intense you-are-there film is told entirely through bodycam footage of Ukrainian soldiers fighting on the frontlines of a particularly brutal counteroffensive against Russia. Chernov previously won the 2024 Best Documentary Feature Oscar for “20 Days in Mariupol,” a PBS Frontline-produced documentary about the war in Ukraine.
Ketevan Vashagashvili’s “9-Month Contract” won the Human:Rights Award, from a jury led by Mohamed Saïd Ouma, Tomáš Poštulka, and Birgitte Stærmose. It’s a portrait of the surrogate motherhood industry in Tbilisi and is looking for a U.S. distributor; Vashagashvili formed a close relationship with her subject, a desperate single mother from Georgia who sees no other way to give her teenage daughter a better life.
Other prizes handed out included the Nordic:DOX Award (“Walls,” about women seeking justice in Greenland), the Next:Wave Award (“Abode of Dawn,” about a recently dismantled but still traumatizing Christian cult in Siberia), and the New:Vision Award (Juliette Le Monnier’s Israeli-Palestine conflict documentary “Ramallah, Palestine, December 2018”).
See the full list of winners out of CPH:DOX below.
DOX:AWARD
Winner: ‘ALWAYS’ by Deming Chen / US, FR & CN / 2025 / World Premiere
Special Mention: ‘FLOPHOUSE AMERICA’ by Monica Strømdahl / NO, NL & US / 2025 / World Premiere
Sponsored by Politiken and Politiken-Fonden with a prize of €10,000, the DOX:AWARD is the festival’s main competition, honoring films with artistic quality, cultural relevance, and strong personal expression.
The jury consisted of Rikke Tambo Andersen, Max Kestner, Nicolas Rapold, Adele Tulli and Raul Niño Zambrano.
F:ACT AWARD
Winner: ‘2000 METERS TO ANDRIIVKA’ by Mstyslav Chernov / UA / 2025 / European Premiere
Special Mention: ‘THE PERFECT NEIGHBOR’ by Geeta Gandbhir / US / 2025 / International Premiere
Supported by International Media Support (IMS) and the Danish Union of Journalists with a prize of €5,000, the F:act Award competition recognizes films blending documentary and investigative journalism.
The jury consisted of Alexis Bloom, Mikala Krogh and Steffi Niederzoll.
HUMAN:RIGHTS AWARD
Winner: ‘9-MONTH CONTRACT’ by Ketevan Vashagashvili / GE, BG & DE / 2025 / World Premiere
Special Mention: ‘THE ENCAMPMENTS’ by Michael T. Workman & Kei Pritsker / US / 2025 / World Premiere
Awarded for the second consecutive year, the Human:Rights Award is sponsored by the Danish Institute for Human Rights with a prize of €5,000, and focuses on films dealing with human rights issues.
The jury consisted of Mohamed Saïd Ouma, Tomáš Poštulka and Birgitte Stærmose.
NORDIC:DOX AWARD
Winner: ‘WALLS – AKINNI INUK’ by Nina Paninnguaq Skydsbjerg & Sofie Rørdam / GL/ 2025 / World Premiere
Special Mention: ‘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 region.
The jury consisted of Butheina Kazim, Dario Oliveira and Roja Pakari.
NEXT:WAVE AWARD
Winner: ‘ABODE OF DAWN’ by Kristina Shtubert / DE / 2024 / International Premiere
Special Mention: ‘WHO WITNESSED THE TEMPLES FALL’ by Lucía Selva / SP / 2025 / World Premiere
The NEXT:WAVE Award (€5,000) highlights new and emerging filmmakers.
The jury consisted of Sissel Morell Dargis, Sona Karapoghosyan and María Palacios Cruz.
NEW:VISION
Winner: ‘RAMALLAH, PALESTINE, DECEMBER 2018’ by Juliette Le Monniyer / BE / 2025 / World Premiere
Special mention: ‘SCRAP’ by Noémie Lobry
FR / 2025 / World Premiere
The NEW:VISION Award (€5,000) celebrates art films and boundary-pushing experiments.
The jury consisted of Mason Leaver-Yap, Jeppe Lange and Marina Kožul.
INTER:ACTIVE AWARD
Winner: ‘CONSTANTINOPOLIAD’ by Sister Sylvester & Nadah El Shazly / UK / Installation / 2025 / International Premiere
Special Mention: ‘THE GARDEN SAYS…’ by Uri Kranot, Michelle Kranot, Sara Topsøe Jensen, Sarah John & Marieke Breyne / DK / XR Perfomance-Installation / 2025 / World Premiere
The award winner will receive a winning package including two complimentary industry accreditations for Sunny Side of the Doc, two full access accreditations for the Industry Days of New Images Festival, 6 hours of legal consultation on European IP law and a cash prize of €1000.
The jury consisted of Irene Campolmi, David Adler and Carl Emil Carlsen.
