Copenhagen Docs Fest CPH:DOX Unveils Bold Lineup With a Sharp Focus on Human Rights

variety.com:

Lise Pedersen As CPH:DOX gears up for its 2025 edition, organizers have unveiled an audacious program of more than 200 films with a sharp focus on human rights under the theme “Right Here, Right Now.” With 94 world premieres – 68 of them feature-length, the highest number in the festival’s history – CPH:DOX continues to expand its global footprint.

For the third consecutive year, all main competition titles are world premieres. While this is not a formal selection criterion, artistic director Niklas Engstrøm tells Variety, “The fact that top directors chose to premiere their films with us speaks volumes about how the festival has grown.” He adds that shifting the festival from November to March in 2017 strengthened its global standing, positioning it as the go-to European launchpad for U.S.

filmmakers after Sundance. Hot Sundance titles heading to CPH:DOX include “Mr Nobody against Putin,” “The Dating Game” and “Zodiac Killer Project.” Among the world premieres screening out of competition are Ai Weiwei’s “Animality,” Ian Cheney’s “Observer,” Hannah Papacek Harper’s “Lost for Words,” Jereme Watt’s “Everest Dark” and Nathan Grossman’s “Climate in Therapy.” The decision to spotlight human rights this year was not incidental: a recent survey reveals that over half of Danes could not name a single specific human right – a startling statistic in today’s volatile geopolitical landscape.

Engstrøm says human rights have always been integral to documentary filmmaking, but the increasing instability of global politics makes it ever more important to explore these issues beyond individual rights.