Lise Pedersen The Copenhagen Intl. Documentary Film Festival (CPH:DOX) has announced its full program, which includes some 200 new films and a whopping 76 world premieres.
A dozen documentaries are competing for the top prize in the main Dox:Award competition, a quarter of which were shot in Russia and Ukraine – a testimony to the organizers’ desire for the festival to reflect the times in which we live.“A documentary film festival is not only a celebration of cinema, it is also an opportunity to critically reflect on reality, to engage in democratic dialogue and to discuss how our views of the world have consequences,” artistic director Niklas Engstrøm says. “Right now, our thoughts are first and foremost with the people in Ukraine, a sovereign European state unlawfully invaded by an autocratic regime.
In Kyiv, the great festival Docudays UA was supposed to happen around the same time as CPH:DOX. That is no longer possible.” Among the films competing for the main award is Daniel Roher’s Sundance sensation “Navalny,” a fly-on-the-wall documentary thriller about the life of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in the aftermath of an attempt on his life.
Screening out of competition are critically acclaimed Sundance winner “A House Made of Splinters,” by Danish filmmaker Simon Lereng Wilmont, about an orphanage in the eastern part of Ukraine, and a last-minute addition to the lineup, “Novorossiya,” by Luca Gennari and Enrico Parenti, which will have its world premiere at the festival.
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