At the industry awards of Copenhagen’s documentary festival CPH:DOX last night, the U.S. project “Untitled Edward Said Documentary” by Maiken Baird, whose credits include Netflix’s “Venus and Serena” and “Ghislaine Maxwell: Filthy Rich,” won the new Al Jazeera Documentary Channel Co-Production Award, with a cash prize of €10,000 ($10,800). The project is being produced by Alex Gibney, Paul Dallas and Sarah Mowaswes.
The Indian/U.S. project “Metropolis,” directed by Anupama Srinivasan and Anirban Dutta (Sundance winners for “Nocturnes”), was handed the $25,000 Sandbox Films Science Pitch Prize.
The two documentaries were among the most buzzed about titles looking for co-financing at this week’s CPH:DOX industry program, known as CPH:FORUM, which closes today.
Popular on Variety
Related Stories
The jury for the Al Jazeera Documentary Channel Co-Production Award consisted of Al Jazeera Documentary managing director Jamel Dallali, director Amber Fares, and Rasmus Steen, head of IMS Documentary Film.
Speaking about Baird’s project, the jury said: “At a time when Palestinians are being ethnically cleansed before our eyes, and the international community has done little to intervene, it is more important than ever to understand how history has shaped our present reality. In this context, the ideas of the protagonist – a singular figure who carried the Palestinian cause from the local to the global stage – are more vital now than ever.”
Picking up the award at Kunsthal Charlottenborg’s Social Cinema last night, Baird said she felt “overwhelmed” as she had received no support from U.S. financiers. “It’s been a desert from New York, so this support has given us hope in humanity. We want to bring ‘Untitled Edward Said Documentary’ to the world, because Edward Said deserves it and we need him!”
The archival documentary is a portrait of America’s most outspoken activist for Palestinian rights: Palestinian/American scholar Edward Said, from his childhood in 1930s Jerusalem to his death in New York in 2013. “I knew him as a family friend in the 1980s and he inspired me to attend Columbia University. He was a rock star professor [there], a power-man with charm, deep intellect and wisdom,” Baird said during her pitch.
As reported by Variety, the project was debated at an industry gathering about the drying out of financing to U.S. political docs and alternative sources of financing in Europe.
“Metropolis,” another project with an underlying politically-charged topic due the current U.S. administration’s defunding of science, was the favorite pick for Sandbox Films Science Award jurors Irem Couchouron, Silbersalz festival programmer, director/producer Pernille Rose Grønkjær, and Intuitive Pictures’ Ina Fichman.
Speaking about the film, about two unlikely heroes – a 65-year-old South Asian immigrant scientist and a gutsy Malaysian health worker, chasing mosquitoes in New York City to keep citizens safe – the jury said “it will certainly create a buzz.”
The jury added: “The winning film is a beautifully crafted immersive experience that can easily engage audiences all over the world. This documentary reverses the gaze by elevating the work and voices of scientists from unrepresented communities. Combining humor and human gentleness with scientific rigor, the film also highlights some of the most pressing issues of our time, immigration, healthcare and climate change, all through a very unique and creative lens.”
The project is being produced by Dutta and Ryan Krivoshey, head of newly formed Correspondent.
Among other cash heavy prizes, the Eurimages Outreach Award of €30,000 ($32,300) went to the VR360 + XR installation “Becoming Lucien” by Lucien Pin and Alex Haugmard, produced by France’s Thibault Eli.
On their motivation for choosing “Becoming Lucien,” the jury, including Screen Ireland’s Emma Scott, In-Doc programmer Gugi Gumilang and Northern Souls producer Marie Schmidt Olesen, said: “The project offers an exploration of gender identity through an intimate virtual reality experience that transforms personal narrative into a powerful tool for empathy and understanding. By creating a compassionate dialogue between the present self and the childhood past, the project provides an unprecedented window into the transgender experience, challenging societal misconceptions and fostering genuine human connection.”
“This is going to help us raise awareness on trans people. Right now, more than ever, trans rights matter,” said Pin, when collecting their award.
Meanwhile, the €20,000 ($21,500) Eurimages Outreach Award went to Francesca Tremulo and Eszter Várhidi for “A Sancturary of Stuff.” The jury, consisting of Eurimages’ Czech rep Elena Kotová, Warboys Films’ Rémi Grellety and United Nations Film’s Violeta Ayala, said about the Danish/Italia/Hungarian interactive work: “This is a project with a radical openness. A work that refuses the constraints of traditional storytelling and resists defining its audience.”
At the CPH:LAB awards earlier, “Becoming Lucien” also received the Newimages, Forum Des Images Award, and “A Sanctuary of Stuff” took the Sunny Side of the Doc Award, while the Onassis ONX Studio Award went to “The Place Beyond” by Elena Lyubarskaya and David Steiner.
Two other cash prize winners were selected among the 32 CPH:FORUM projects pitched between March 25-27.
The €3,000 ($3,200) Rise & Shine Award for a project with the best international potential went to Syria’s “House No7,” directed by Rama Abdi with producer Hazar Yazji.
The young Syrian women were unable to travel to CPH:DOX due to issues with their visas, however, their clip and video message charmed the jurors, who said: “In a post- [Syrian] war world where the conflict has faded from the headlines, the project reminds us that its aftermath still shapes lives in profound ways. Through the intimate struggle of three young women seeking freedom within the walls of their fragile sanctuary, it crafts a powerful tale of resilience, sisterhood, and the pursuit of normalcy in a place where even safety can become a prison.”
The jury for the Rise and Shine Award, director/producer Patricia Drati, Ji.hlava festival’s Jarmila Outratová and Lightbox Sales’ Anna Berthollet, also handed out the €5,500 ($5,300) Unifrance/Titra Film Award to the Tunisian/French project “The Salt of the South” by Rami Jarboui.
“With a distinctive cinematic language, the project weaves an urgent climate story through the intimate journey of a family whose bond with the sea transcends borders, revealing the lasting impact of colonial structures. Rooted in a local struggle with global resonance, it powerfully captures resilience in the face of ecological collapse and forced migration,” said the jury.
Meanwhile, the Millennium Docs Against Gravity went to Ukraine’s “Missing in Action” by Marharyta Melnychuk and Kateryna Holovko. The project was picked among the eight Change titles in development coming from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.
Vintage Year
In another vintage year for CPH:FORUM, many industry delegates praised the high quality and variety of projects pitched. Long-time attendee Debra Zimmerman from Women Makes Movies was pleased with the large number of films directed by women and great number of female-directed docs produced by men, “which is unusual as it’s normally the other way round.” She also highlighted the mix of films by newcomers and seasoned helmers.
Jane Mote from The Whickers Funding agency, underlined the geographical spread of the “excellent” projects, from “One Day in the Future” by China’s Hang Ji and Jiang Xuan-nian, which tackles same sex parenthood in China, to the U.K. project “In the Black Magic” by Julian Knox, which explores the complexities of Black life through myth, fantasy and speculative fiction.
Bente Roalsvig of the Fritt Ord Foundation in Oslo, which had invested in 13 CPH:DOX competition titles, including the Norwegian opener “Facing War” and Georgian Human:Rights contender “9-Month Contract,” was impressed by the ability of documentarians to capture the zeitgeist, ahead of time. “They work ahead, feel the moment, and their works are always relevant, urgent and engaging,” she said.
“The quality this year felt very high, both regarding the projects and the discussions in the room,” added CPHDOX managing director Katrine Kiilgaard, who said that 32 titles at the Forum is probably the maximum to initiate quality meetings over the six-day industry days.
Wrap
Commenting on overall figures, Mara Gourd-Mercado, head of industry and training, said CPH:INDUSTRY housed around 1,000 one to one meetings, on top of 120 people who were part of 20 delegations, and around 2,050 accredited guests.
This year’s major novelty – the one-day Summit, where politicians, innovators, researchers and doc professionals discussed today’s most pressing issues in the documentary world, went beyond expectations, according to Gourd-Mercado. The latter stressed the good mix of politicians, policy-makers and thinkers, such as Matthias Pfeffer, head of the Council for European Public Space, whose thought-provoking talk about the “absolutely unacceptable concentration of power” among tech giants was one of the highpoints of the annual event.
“We succeeded in having people who had a similar mindset and who could discuss indie media channels as human rights, shared values for democracy and for citizenship. That really came out clearly at the end of the day,” said Gourd-Mercado.
“As an industry platform, we follow trends and try to provide tools on how to weather challenges such as political, social, class divide and democracy under threat. We want to be at the front of what’s happening,” she added.
The festival had demonstrated its willingness to stay in front of world events during the event. On Tuesday, Kiilgaard read out a statement, ahead of the first day of the CPH:FORUM project presentations, about the arrest of Hamdan Ballal, co-director of Academy-Award winning doc “No Other Land,” which had its world premiere at CPH:DOX last year. It called for the release of Ballal, who had been attacked by armed settlers in the West Bank and arrested by Israeli authorities. He was later released. “This was from our part an important declaration of solidarity with our documentary community, which showed that our festival is a platform for dialogue,” Kiilgaard said.
