We met up with Niklas Engstrøm, the artistic director of leading Danish documentary film festival CPH:DOX, to discuss the upcoming edition (13-24 March – see the news), which leads the gathering into its third decade of existence. Engstrøm discusses the increasing recognition of documentaries at major film festivals, the evolution of CPH:DOX to engage broader audiences and support emerging talents, and the curatorial approach to addressing complex geopolitical crises through film.

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Cineuropa: A documentary recently won the top prize at the Berlinale for the second time in a row. Is this a sign of the times, and what does it tell us?
Niklas Engstrøm: There are several noteworthy observations to consider. Firstly, it's become apparent that documentaries are not just being selected for the main competitions at some of the world's most prestigious festivals, but this is happening with increasing regularity. This is a trend of growing significance, as documentaries are now consistently being featured in the selections year after year at Venice and Berlin. As someone deeply passionate about documentary films, this development brings me immense joy. Moreover, it's not just about these films being selected; they are also winning awards. This, I believe, underscores the formidable impact of documentary filmmaking. Even when documentaries are a minority among numerous fiction films in a competition, they stand a strong chance of emerging victorious. This speaks to the inherent power of documentaries – something I've been convinced of since we began CPH:DOX 21 years ago.

Last year, at the 20th-anniversary edition, you mentioned you were not planning any revolutions, but rather evolutions [see the interview]. So what evolutions have you got in store at the dawn of the festival’s third decade?
Our festival's evolutionary approach has led to significant changes, notably expanding from a Copenhagen-based event to a nationwide initiative, DOX:DANMARK, engaging local communities across Denmark to cultivate a documentary culture. Additionally, we've launched a club initiative, KLUB:DOX, to deepen audience engagement with documentaries through access to films, festival tickets and exclusive screenings. On the industry side, we introduced INTRO:DOX to support emerging talent and are developing new initiatives to enhance the festival's role in the documentary market, led by our new head of industry, Mara Gourd-Mercado. These efforts aim to significantly boost our market influence over the next five years.

The festival is tackling “Body Politics” as its central theme [see the news]. Could you walk us through the process of selecting this topic and why it resonates with contemporary societal conversations?
Each year, we curate our festival around a central theme, and this year, we've chosen to explore the body and our collective understanding of it. We've delved into questions surrounding how society perceives the “normal body” and whether we've constructed an environment that marginalises those who don't fit within this rather strict definition. These were the initial questions that spurred our discussion on this theme. Our aim is to examine the body through the lens of its many complex issues, approaching it from the festival's three diverse angles: scientific, political and artistic. In doing so, we highlight the body as a central arena for many of the debates and conflicts occurring in our society today, effectively turning it into a battleground.

With the “Conflicted” theme, CPH:DOX is addressing some of the most pressing geopolitical crises of our time. Can you discuss the curatorial challenges involved in selecting films under this theme?
There's much to be said on this topic. When discussing sensitive issues like the Israel-Palestine conflict, which has escalated significantly since the attack by Hamas on Israeli civilians on 7 October and the subsequent violent response from the Israeli army, it's crucial to approach it with nuance. This conflict has not only become a horrendous war, but also a topic of intense debate. To me, as the director of a documentary festival like CPH:DOX, it's clear we must engage with such subjects, fostering discussion through films and debates. The tragedy unfolding in Gaza is heart-wrenching, yet the overarching Israel-Palestine conflict is laden with complexity, embodying a multitude of narratives and painful stories from both sides.

Why did you decide to introduce the HUMAN:RIGHTS AWARD?
In light of the harrowing events transpiring globally, such as the atrocities in Gaza, Ukraine, Nagorno-Karabakh and numerous other locations, we felt compelled to introduce a human rights award. This decision led us to collaborate with the Institute of Human Rights here in Denmark, an initiative they were very supportive of. Our goal was to curate a selection of films that address human rights violations from a diverse array of perspectives. It was crucial for us to feature compelling films from the conflict zones mentioned, such as Palestine and Ukraine, leading to our inclusion of Tal Barda’s I Shall Not Hate and Ivan Sautkin’s A Poem for Little People. However, our ambition extended beyond these conflicts, aiming to shed light on a broader spectrum of human rights issues with the inclusion of pictures like Yance Ford's Power and Ellen Ugelstad’s The Recovery Channel.

In recent times, Danish audiovisual content has been in huge demand, especially series.
Indeed, there have been numerous compelling examples of the internationalisation of the Danish documentary industry, which has notably advanced, especially in conjunction with our festival. And I think it’s fair to say that the internationalisation really took off when the festival emerged as an international industry and market event one-and-a-half decades ago. This shift significantly boosted collaboration between Danish documentary film producers and filmmakers from around the globe. Joshua Oppenheimer stands out as a prime example of this collaboration, having worked with Danish producers on several projects. Another notable figure is Feras Fayyad, who has produced several films in Syria with Danish partners. This year's programme includes further evidence of this global interaction, with Signe Byrge Sørensen – a producer for Joshua Oppenheimer and his upcoming fiction film – collaborating with a young British duo on our main competition entry Two Strangers Trying Not to Kill Each Other.