CPH:DOX Industry Winners & AI/Journalism Focus at 2024 Festival
More than €110,000 ($127,000) in awards were presented in Copenhagen Friday evening as CPH:DOX’s industry arm concluded, recognizing a slate of documentary projects grappling with themes of conflict, identity, and the evolving media landscape. “Everything Is Red and Grey,” directed by Shourideh C. Molavi and Shrouq Alaila and executive produced by Laura Poitras, secured both the Al Jazeera Documentary Channel Co-production Award and the Arte Award, marking a significant win for the film focused on Palestinian filmmakers in Gaza.
“Everything Is Red and Grey” follows a group of young filmmakers in Gaza as they navigate life and work in the wake of a friend’s death, according to festival organizers. Other winning projects included “Matrescence,” directed by Kathryn Ferguson and adapted from Lucy Jones’s book of the same name, described as a “genre-defying, cinematic documentary” exploring the transformations of pregnancy and early motherhood. Véréna Paravel’s “Cosmofonia,” featuring a soundtrack composed of previously unheard sounds, also received recognition, winning the Eurimages New Lab Innovation Award.
Several projects addressed contemporary geopolitical challenges. Halyna Lavrinets’s “My School Is Seized” won the Millennium Docs Against Gravity Award for its depiction of an 18-year-old escaping Russian occupation and exposing a school system allegedly designed to indoctrinate children. Łukasz Kowalski’s “My Father the Iceman” received the Rise and Shine Award, documenting the filmmaker’s confrontation with his father’s involvement in Poland’s far-right movement. Asmae El Moudir’s “Don’t Let the Sun Go Up On Me,” about Morocco’s “children of the moon,” was awarded the Eurimages New Lab Outreach Award.
This year’s CPH:INDUSTRY program placed particular emphasis on the impact of artificial intelligence and the challenges facing journalism, according to attendees. Doc Society co-director Beadie Finzi urged colleagues to proactively consider the implications of emerging technologies, stating, “We will not be ready for what comes next if we don’t look up and look ahead.” The festival’s approach to AI, characterized by a focus on questioning rather than seeking definitive answers, was praised by participants.
Concerns were raised about the potential for AI-generated content to erode public trust in documentary filmmaking and the concept of truth itself. Former Sundance Film Festival director and current Film Forum head Tabitha Jackson questioned how audiences will determine what is real in a post-truth media environment, asking, “If seeing is no longer believing, how do audiences decide what is real? What happens to precision, verification, and public service values in the post-truth world?”
The festival also explored the parallels between the struggles of documentary filmmaking and the crisis in journalism, with CPH:DOX head of industry and training Mara Gourd-Mercado noting the inherent connection between the two forms. “We understand there is a huge difference between reportage and documentary, but they feed into each other,” she said. “It was highly natural for us to kind of turn towards journalism and what happened to it to think of solutions for how to reshape our industry.”
Richard Rowley, director of “Hell’s Army,” warned that the decline of journalistic standards is linked to a broader trend toward authoritarianism, stating that “rules and guardrails have been stripped away.” However, Carole Cadwalladr, co-founder of The Nerve, offered a more optimistic outlook, reporting that her journalist-owned platform is now attracting readership comparable to, and sometimes exceeding, traditional news outlets. “Nobody is coming to save us,” she said. “We have to build our own life-rafts here. If you build it, they will come. People seek to understand what the fuck is going on in this world at the moment.”
A complete list of CPH:INDUSTRY winners includes: Sandbox Films Science Pitch Prize (“Matrescence”); Millennium Docs Against Gravity Award (“My School Is Seized”); Rise and Shine Award (“My Father the Iceman”); Unifrance Doc Award (“Children of the Moon Land”); Jacob Burns Film Center Award (“The Calling”); The Eurimages New Lab Outreach Award (“Don’t Let the Sun Go Up On Me”); The Eurimages New Lab Innovation Award (“Cosmofonia”); The Al Jazeera Documentary Channel Co-production Award and The ARTE Award (“Everything Is Red and Grey”); The Onassis ONX Award 2026 (“Still Point, Turning World”); The NewImages Festival Award (“Mourning Glory”); and The DOK Leipzig Award (“Mourning Glory”).