CPH:DOX has announced the competition line-up for its 23rd edition, which will run from 11-22 March. The Danish documentary festival will present 74 films across six juried competition sections, broken down into 53 world, 17 international and four European premieres. Ahead of the full programme reveal on 18 February, the gathering has lifted the veil on its competitive slate, selected from among thousands of submissions from around the world. The complete programme will include approximately 200 titles, and will be accompanied by talks, debates and industry events engaging with urgent global issues.

Niklas Engstrøm, artistic director of CPH:DOX, comments, “We are living through a period in which the frameworks that once felt stable – political, moral and even cognitive ones – are shifting beneath our feet. Institutions are being tested, conflicts are intensifying, and new technologies are challenging our understanding of perception and agency. In such a moment, documentary cinema becomes more than observation; it becomes a space for sustained attention. The films in this year’s competition line-up resist simplification and speed. They insist on complexity, on ambiguity and on the dignity of lived experience.”

Mads K Mikkelsen, head of programme at CPH:DOX, adds, “Documentary is an art form, and we are immensely excited to present a competition line-up of highly contemporary films that critically and creatively reflect the troubled times we live in. The selection explores the possibilities of 21st-century cinema in a spirit of humanism, solidarity and poetry, with great trust in their audience. We are deeply grateful to all of the filmmakers and look forward to celebrating with them, and to seeing their films light up the screens.”

The festival’s flagship section, the DOX:AWARD, remains its most prestigious competition, offering a €10,000 prize sponsored by Politiken Fonden and reserved exclusively for world premieres. The 12 selected feature-length documentaries competing for the award are A Song Without Home by Rati Tsiteladze (Georgia/USA), Amazomania by Nathan Grossman (Sweden/Denmark/France), Arctic Link by Ian Purnell (Switzerland), Christiania by Karl Friis Forchhammer (Denmark), Daughters of the Forest: Mycelium Chronicles by Otilia Portillo (Mexico/USA), Little Sinner by Daro Hansen and Thomas Papapetros (Denmark), MARIINKA by Pieter-Jan De Pue (Belgium, also the opening film – see the news), Petrolheads by Emil Langballe (Denmark), Something Familiar by Rachel Taparjan (Romania/UK), The Cord by Nolwenn Hervé (France), The Sandbox by Kenya-Jade Pinto (Canada) and Whispers in May by Dongnan Chen (China/Netherlands/South Korea/Sweden).

The 2026 edition introduces a new distinction, with the FIPRESCI Award being presented for the first time at CPH:DOX. The prize, awarded by the International Federation of Film Critics, will be contested by the 12 films in the DOX:AWARD competition.

NEXT:WAVE, dedicated to emerging filmmakers and new cinematic voices, includes 14 titles, such as Becoming Ema by Patricia Drati (Denmark/Spain/Slovakia), Dream of Another Summer by Irene Bartolomé (Spain/Lebanon), If Luck Will Come by Camille Bildsøe (Denmark) and The Mother Age by Irene Kaltenborn (Norway). NORDIC:DOX, as its name suggests, presents a selection of the strongest documentaries from the Nordic region, including A Sweetness from Nowhere by Ester Bergsmark (Sweden/Norway), Almost Forever by Lia Hietala and Hannah Reinikainen (Sweden/Finland), Let Our Mountains Live by Håvard Bustnes (Norway/Finland), and The Secret Reading Club of Kabul by Shakiba Adil and Elina Hirvonen (Finland/Norway).

The F:ACT competition, supported by International Media Support and the Danish Union of Journalists, continues to bridge documentary filmmaking and investigative journalism with titles such as Atlas of Disappearance by Manuel Correa (Spain), Hell’s Army by Richard Rowley (Ukraine/Syria/Central African Republic/Lithuania/USA) and Techplomacy by Susanne Kovacs (Denmark). The HUMAN:RIGHTS competition, sponsored by the Danish Institute for Human Rights, features films addressing urgent human rights concerns, including Burning Voice by Anna Bruun Nørager (Denmark/Iraq), Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie by Alex Gibney (USA) and The Phantom Pain of Rojava by Maryam Embrahimi (Sweden/Norway).

Finally, NEW:VISION celebrates formally daring and experimental docs, with works such as Aerial by Aida Berisha (Denmark/Italy), Phantoms by Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Netherlands/Thailand), and The Park (Dancing on the Rubble of Empire) by Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah (UK).

All competition sections aside from DOX:AWARD carry a €5,000 prize. In addition, the Audience Award, endowed with €10,000 and sponsored by Danish public broadcaster DR, will once again allow festival-goers to vote for their favourite film. CPH:DOX will also host a selection of movies nominated for the 2026 Doc Alliance Award, in collaboration with the seven European festivals of the Doc Alliance network.

The international juries will be announced along with the full programme launch on 18 February.

The complete competition line-up is available to peruse here.