The industry programme of leading documentary festival CPH:DOX, starts in earnest in Copenhagen today (March 24) with the launch of the inaugural Roughcut strand focusing on projects near completion to meet the demands of the market.
Roughcut replaces the Works-In-Progress programme.
“Roughcut is clearer, these are projects that are ready to hit the market, that are looking for that premiere, theatrical distribution. And not so much about the gap financing,” says Mara Gourd-Mercardo, head of industry and training at the festival, who has brought in the innovation for her second year in the role.
“Reading evaluations from previous years, there wasn’t enough difference between the late-stage project we would have in the forum, and the work-in-progress. People didn’t know which one to go in.”
The strand presents five non-fiction projects that are at post-production or rough-cut stage, with at least 80% of material already shot.
Projects include The Alarmist, about Stav Shaffir, Israel’s youngest ever member of parliament and her struggle against the extremist orthodox government; and Bulgarian political thriller The Sinner, about a boxer-turned-vigilante during the rise of the far right across Europe.
The new strand aims to augment business activity at CPH:Industry which has run alongside CPH:DOX since 2007. The projects selected are ones that can bring “distributors and sales agents in the room – they will find something there for them,” says Gourd-Mercado.
In another first, European distributors association Europa Distribution is holding a workshop at CPH: Industry. “[Roughcut] is a way for us to have projects that could also be of interest to them,” says Gourd-Mercado.
With the long-standing Forum financing and co-production market pitching 32 projects this year, it is all part of the festival’s desire to make CPH:DOX a home for the full journey of a documentary film.
“We love to see projects come back to us in the programme, because it feeds into an ecosystem,” says Gourd-Mercado. Titles include an untitled feature showing life through the eyes of a horse, from Margreth Olin; and Landfall, the new film from Notes On Blindness co-director Peter Middleton.
Industry move
While CPH:DOX renowned for its cosy, convival vibe, the industry activity, including one-to-one meetings and daily informal drinks, has moved to the larger Odd Fellow Palace venue this year, having outgrown the previous space at the Kunsthal Charlottenborg, which will remain a festival hub.
“It’s a beautiful building, but it was a bit too tight for people to circulate and network in a meaningful way,” says Gourd-Mercado of the Kunsthal. “Previously it was a bit here and there. Now we’re saying, if you have a market badge, you go to Odd Fellow and you’ll find space to have even formal meetings.”
While online meetings remain available after the festival for executives who can’t make it to Copenhagen the majority of the pandemic-time online festival has been removed. (CPH:DOX was one of the first festivals in 2020 to create an online iteration.)
“The resources that we put in to doing it online, compared to who actually used it, did not compare,” says Katrine Kiilgaard, managing director of festival parent body Copenhagen Film Festivals.
Kiilgaard has high hopes for another innovation at the 2025 event: the CPH:Summit on March 24 that will bring together politicians, thought leaders and audiovisual professionals for discussions on the future of the industry.
“It has been a dream of mine for a while to put on a gathering of not only the usual suspects,” says Kiilgaard of the event which is being run in partnership with the Danish Producers Association.
“For the past year, the wish to make such a gathering grew with the political shifts,” Killgaard continues. It became “more urgent to gather and talk about how we are securing our independent media ecology, and where does documentary film stand in this. There’s a real need to unite and lobby for culture to be an essential part of the civic discussion.”
The Summit will open with an address from Danish minister for culture Jakob Engel-Schmidt, followed by sessions on the state of information in Europe, adapting to disruption, and media accessibility as a human right.
CPH:Industry takes place from March 23-28.
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