The Oldest Person in the World

Source: CPH:FORUM

‘The Oldest Person in the World’

Danish documentary festival CPH:DOX has revealed the 35 projects set to be presented at CPH:FORUM, its financing and co-production event that will take place online-only from April 26-30.

Scroll down for full list of titles

The selection includes new projects from two-time Oscar nominee Lucy Walker (Waste Land), Sundance winners Mads Brügger (Cold Case Hammarskjöld) and Eugene Jarecki (The House I Live In), Berlin Crystal Bear winner Geneviève Dulude-De Celle (A Colony) and Venice Horizons winner Lech Kowalski (East Of Paradise).

Further notable filmmakers include Radu Ciorniciuc, whose Acasa, My Home won the cinematography award when it premiered at Sundance 2020. His next project, Tata/Father, is co-directed by Acasa screenwriter Lina Vdovîi and centres on a man who works in modern-day slavery conditions.

Another Oscar nominee in the selection is US filmmaker Sam Green, who was up for the Academy Award for best documentary in 2004 with The Weather Underground. His upcoming feature is The Oldest Person In The World, which acts as a follow-up to his 2014 Sundance doc The Measure Of All Things that explored Guinness World Record holders.

UK filmmaker Sophie Fiennes (sister of Ralph and Joseph Fiennes) is also in the project line up with The Pervert’s Guide To Utopias, the latest in her series that has includes 2006’s The Pervert’s Guide To Cinema and 2012’s The Pervert’s Guide To Ideology.

For the eighth consecutive year, the Forum projects are eligible for the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award of €20,000 ($24,000) for the event’s best pitch.

Due to the ongoing pandemic, CPH:FORUM will take place online, with projects highlighted in individually curated pitch setups and introduced to specific financing partners. A brand-new catch-up platform is also being developed to host follow-ups between producers, buyers and distributors in the months after the five-day event.

Decision-makers in virtual attendance will include streaming platforms Disney+, Netflix and Hulu; broadcasters such as ARTE, ZDF, BBC, CNN, National Geographic, POV and DR; studios Participant Media, Topic, Endeavour, and Sandbox Films; and organisations including Creative Capital, Sundance Institute, Creative Capital, Chicken and Egg Pictures, Freedom of Speech Foundation, and Blue Ice Docs.

The projects are by 43 filmmakers from 27 countries, with 46% directed by women, 43% by men and 11% co-directed by men and women. A total of 34% of the projects are from filmmakers of colour.

In addition, eight work-in-progress projects from Nordic producers and directors have also been selected and will present at the CPH:WIP event on April 27. Upcoming, nearly finished films from established Nordic production companies such as Final Cut for Real and Momento Film will be seeking gap financing or a launchpad for further distribution. The titles are curated in collaboration with the Nordic film institutes.

The WIP titles include The Life and Times of Omar Sharif, directed by Axel Petersén and Mark Lotfy. The Sweden-Egypt-UK co-production will offer a portrait of the late star of Doctor Zhivago and Lawrence Of Arabia. Petersén previously co-directed The Real Estate, which played in Competition at the Berlinale in 2018.

CPH:FORUM 2021 projects

A Little Story About An Immeasurable Problem (Fr)
Dir: Lech Kowalski

Before The Storm (Den)
Dirs: Juan Palacios, Sofie Husum Johannesen

Carropasajero (Col-Arg-Ger)
Dirs: Juan Pablo Polanco Carranza, Cesar Alejandro Jaimes León

Cold & Warm (Den)
Dirs: Jørgen Leth, Andreas Koefoed

De Anima (Ger)
Dir: Clara Jo

Dis-Ease (US)
Dir: Mariam Ghani

Double Trouble (Den)
Dir: Mads Brügger

Expedition 49 (Ukr-Fr-Pol)
Dir: Alisa Kovalenko

The Forest For The Trees (Scot-Fr-US)
Dir: Lucy Walker

For Love (UK-Rom)
Dirs: Martin Herring, Mike Lerner

H For Hoax: The Phantasmagorically True Story Of The Stone Age Tasadays (Phil-Ger)
Dir: Khavn De La Cruz

Handheld (US)
Dir: Rebekah Maysles

Les Jours (Days) (Can)
Dir: Geneviève Dulude-De Celles

Machine (US)
Dir: Dan Sickles

Marching In The Dark (Bel-India-Neth-Fr)
Dir: Kinshuk Surjan

Nocturnes (India-US-Bul)
Dirs: Anupama Srinivasan, Anirban Dutta

Perseverance Valley (Fr-Chile-Switz)
Dirs: Pauline Julier, Clément Postec

Preemptive Listening (UK)
Dir: Aura Satz

Rising Up At Night (Congo-Bel-Burk-Ger)
Dir: Nelson Makengo

Songs Of Earth (Nor)
Dir: Margreth Olin

Soundtrack To A Coup d’Etat (Bel)
Dir: Johan Grimonprez

Sudan Revolution Stories (Fr-Sudan)
Dir: Hind Meddeb

Tata/Father (Rom-It-Ger)
Dirs: Radu Ciorniciuc, Lina Vdovîi

The Broken Caliphate (Den-UK)
Dirs: Jess Kelly, Vanessa Bowles

The Elephant In The Room (Ger-US)
Dir: Eugene Jarecki

The End Of All (Den-Fr)
Dir: Sun Hee Engelstoft

The Oldest Person In The World (US)
Dir: Sam Green

The Pervert’s Guide To Utopias (Ire-UK-Slo)
Dir: Sophie Fiennes

The Wild Ones (UK)
Dir: Eva Weber

The Woman Who Cleaned The World (Swe)
Dir: Fia Stina Sandlund

Theft Of Fire (Pal-Can)
Dir: Amer Shomali

Tvind (Den)
Dirs: Max Kestner, Henrik Veileborg

Untitled (US)
Dir: Michael Premo

Untitled Dystopia Film (US)
Dir: Malika Zouhali-Worrall

Voices From Isolation (UK)
Dir: Sonita Gale

CPH:WIP 2021 projects

Band (Ice-Est)
Dir: Álfrún Örnólfsdóttir

Into The Ice (Den-Ger)
Dir: Lars Ostenfeld

Stories From The Debris (Swe)
Dir: Jennifer Rainsford

The Killing Of A Journalist (Den-US)
Dir: Matt Sarnecki

The Life And Times Of Omar Sharif (Swe-Egy-UK)
Dirs: Axel Petersén, Mark Lotfy

The Norwegian Headache (Nor)
Dir: Rune Denstad Langlo

The Sky Above Zenica (Den-Bos&Her-Ger)
Dirs: Nanna Frank Møller, Zlatko Pranjic

Twice Colonized (Greenland-Den-Can)
Dir: Lin Alluna