‘The Flats,’ ‘Two Strangers Trying Not to Kill Each Other’ Pick Up Top Awards at CPH:DOX
variety.comLise Pedersen The ongoing war in Gaza was high on the agenda at the awards ceremony of CPH:DOX, Copenhagen’s international documentary film festival, with numerous filmmakers calling for a ceasefire in Gaza as they picked up their awards.
Opening the ceremony following a concert by the locally-based Middle East Peace Ensemble, artistic director Niklas Engstrøm told the crowd gathered in Copenhagen’s historic Kunsthal Charlottenborg, which is home to the fest throughout the 10-day event: “It felt right to start with this basic human message of hope and peace.” On the theme of conflicts past and present, Italian director Alessandra Celesia picked up the top Dox:Award for “The Flats,” a powerful, timely and haunting film about a community living in the shadow of the pain and trauma of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
Handing out the award, the jury, made up of Belfast Film Festival programmer and Variety critic Jessica Kiang, director and former Dox:Award winner Nataša Urban (“The Eclipse,” 2022), producer Monica Hellström, Marrakech International Film Festival artistic director Rémi Bohnhomme, and director Carla Gutiérrez (“Frida”), said: “Our main award recognizes not only creative and conceptual daring, but a filmmaker with the humility to realize when the story outgrows its framework, and the confidence to follow where it, and its fantastically vivid characters lead. “We live in a world of divisions, borders and locked gates.
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