Maiken Baird’s Untitled Edward Said Documentary, about the Palestinian-American writer and activist, was among the winners at the Industry platform of CPH:DOX.
Baird’s film took the inaugural €10,000 Al Jazeera Documentary Channel Co-Production award, for a project in the Forum that highlights urgent matters of our times.
Scroll down for the full list of CPH:Industry winners
Said, who died in 2003, was a cultural critic who wrote books including 1978’s Orientalism, which critiqued how the Western world perceives the Orient. The film will be told using his voice and archival footage; and is produced by acclaimed US documentarian Alex Gibney, with Paul Dallas and Sarah Mowaswes.
Accepting the award, Baird said it was welcome due to the lack of support for the project in the US. “It’s been a desert in New York, we’ve had no support whatsoever for a year now doing this,” said Baird. “The support that we’ve had this week has given us hope in humanity.”
Several winners and presenters at the CPH:Industry awards spoke about the ongoing conflict in Gaza, in support of the Palestinian people. “At a time when Palestinians are being ethnically cleansed and the international community has done little to intervene, it is more important than ever to understand how history has shaped our present reality,” said Rasmus Steen, head of IMS Documentary Film and jury member for the Al Jazeera award.
Rami Jarboui’s The Salt of the South won the Unifrance/Titrafilm Doc Award for best French production or co-production in the Forum, with €5,500 in benefits.
Tunisian filmmaker Jarboui dedicated his award to Hamdan Ballal, co-director of Palestinian-Israeli documentary No Other Land, who was beaten by Israeli settlers and arrested by Israeli police this week (since released). “Now they are going after the storytellers,” said Jarboui. “So this is also for him.”
Conflict zones were prominent in several of the industry winners, including House No. 7, winner of the €3,000 Rise and Shine award for best Forum pitch project with international potetial and no sales agent attached. In selecting Rama Abdi’s Syria title, the jury credited “a powerful tale of resilience, sisterhood, and the pursuit of normalcy in a place where even safety can become a prison.”
The Millennium Docs Against Gravity award for a project in the Change industry strand went to Ukrainian title Missing In Action, about a former border guard searching for her missing brother, a combat medic who disappeared in Donetsk in 2023.
The CPH:Industry programme concludes today (Friday, March 28), with the festival winners presented this evening.
CPH:DOX Industry winners 2025
CPH:Forum awards
Sandbox Films Science Pitch prize – Metropolis (India-US), dirs. Anirban Dutta, Anupama Srinivasan; prod. Anirban Dutta
Al Jazeera Documentary Channel Co-Production award – Untitled Edward Said Documentary (US) dir. Maiken Baird, prods. Paul Dallas, Alex Gibney, Sarah Mowaswes
Rise and Shine award – House No. 7 (Syr) dir. Rama Abdi, prod. Hazar Yazji
Unifrance/Titrafilm Doc award – The Salt Of The South (Tun-Fr) dir. Rami Jarboui, prods. Ramzi Laamouri, Julian Coquet
Millennium Docs Against Gravity award – Missing In Action (Ukr) dirs. Marharyta Melnychuk, Kateryna Holovko; prod. Aliona Kachkan
CPH:Lab awards
Eurimages Outreach award – Becoming Lucien (Fr) dirs. Lucien Pin, Alex Haugmard; prod. Thibault Elie
Eurimages Innovation award – A Sanctuary Of Stuff (Den-It-Hun) dirs. Francesca Tremulo, Eszter Varhidi
Onassis ONX Studio award – The Place Beyond (Fr-Ger) dirs. Elena Lyubarskaya, David Steiner
Sunny Side of the Doc award – A Sanctuary Of Stuff (Den-It-Hun) dirs. Francesca Tremulo, Eszter Varhidi
Newimages – Forum Des Images award – Becoming Lucien (Fr) Lucien Pin, Alex Haugmard; prod. Thibault Elie
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