CPH:PIX Copenhagen International Film Festival (Closed)

Overview

CPH:PIX was Copenhagen's international fiction film festival. The festival permanently closed in 2022 after 12 editions. Copenhagen Film Festivals, the parent organization, shut down CPH:PIX citing lack of funding and increased competition from streaming platforms. The organization now concentrates its resources on CPH:DOX (Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival) and BUSTER (children and youth film festival). CPH:PIX 2021 was the final edition.

This entry is maintained as a historical reference. Filmmakers who previously submitted to or attended CPH:PIX should redirect their plans to CPH:DOX for documentary work or to BUSTER for children's and youth content. For fiction film submissions in the Nordic region, see the alternatives listed at the end of this entry.

What Filmmakers Should Know

CPH:PIX Is No Longer Operating

CPH:PIX does not accept submissions. The festival does not have an edition in 2026 or any future year. The website (cphpix.dk) may still exist in archival form but is not actively maintained. No staff are available for inquiries.

What Replaced CPH:PIX

Copenhagen Film Festivals consolidated its operations into two remaining festivals:

• CPH:DOX - Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, held annually in March. CPH:DOX has grown into one of the world's leading documentary festivals. Submissions for CPH:DOX 2027 open May 15, 2026. Entry fees are DKK 300 (approximately EUR 40) for films over 50 minutes and DKK 150 (approximately EUR 20) for films under 50 minutes. See the CPH:DOX submission page for current details.

• BUSTER - Copenhagen's film festival for children and youth. Fiction filmmaking is now integrated into BUSTER's programming as part of Copenhagen Film Festivals' strategy to build BUSTER into one of Europe's most important children's and youth film festivals.

Alternative Nordic Fiction Festivals

For fiction filmmakers who would have submitted to CPH:PIX, the following Nordic festivals accept fiction submissions:

• Goteborg Film Festival (Sweden, late January/early February) - the largest Nordic film festival, with a Nordic Competition and Dragon Award
• Tromso International Film Festival (Norway, January) - Aurora Prize competition
• Helsinki International Film Festival (Finland, September) - Love & Anarchy program
• CPH:DOX (Denmark, March) - if your film is a documentary or hybrid fiction/nonfiction

Key Sections (Historical)

CPH:PIX's programming structure during its active years included:

• International Competition - world fiction films competing for the New Talent Grand PIX Award. The competition was limited to debut features. The prize was EUR 50,000 (approximately USD 72,000 at the time), one of the larger debut-feature prizes in Europe.
• Danish Film Program - new Danish features
• New Danish Screen - emerging Danish filmmakers
• Documentary Program - nonfiction features (overlapping with CPH:DOX)
• Short Film Competition - competitive short programs
• Retrospectives and Special Programs - classic cinema and themed strands

The debut feature competition was CPH:PIX's defining program element. The festival limited its main competition to first-time directors, a programming choice that distinguished it from broader European festivals. The EUR 50,000 cash prize was intended to fund the winner's next project.

Major Awards (Historical)

• New Talent Grand PIX Award - EUR 50,000 for the best debut feature film
• Audience Award - EUR 15,000 for a film without Danish distribution
• Best Danish Film
• Short Film Awards - across multiple categories

The final New Talent Grand PIX Award winner in 2021 was the VR work Nattens Ende (Night's End).

Festival History

CPH:PIX was founded in 2008 by Jacob Neiiendam, who served as festival director from 2008 to 2018. The festival was created from the merger of two earlier Copenhagen film events: the NatFilm Festival and the Copenhagen International Film Festival. The merger combined the strengths of both predecessors into a single fiction-focused festival under the Copenhagen Film Festivals umbrella.

The festival's first decade was successful. Audience numbers grew, and the festival's profile sharpened around its debut feature competition. The New Talent Grand PIX Award attracted international attention as one of the largest cash prizes for first-time filmmakers in Europe. Distributors including Shudder, IFC Films, and XYZ Films attended the festival for acquisition purposes.

The festival's decline began before the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2019, after Neiiendam's departure, Copenhagen Film Festivals relaunched CPH:PIX as a compact weekend program of 20 films, a significant reduction from its previous format. The 2020 edition was cancelled entirely due to COVID-19. CPH:PIX returned in 2021 in a further compressed format: 40 films screened over 5 days.

In July 2022, the board and management of Copenhagen Film Festivals announced the permanent closure of CPH:PIX. The official statement cited difficult financial conditions over several years and the inability to attract sufficient new funding after the COVID-19 crisis. Board chairman Erik Stephensen stated that fiction film would be integrated into BUSTER going forward, while CPH:DOX would receive continued development.

The closure drew significant criticism in Danish media. The newspaper Information called it "a regrettable and stupid decision" on its leader page. Politiken's film editor Kristoffer Hegnsvad called the decision "shameful" and "a setback for Danish film culture." Critics noted that CPH:DOX had successfully pivoted to online screenings during the pandemic while CPH:PIX received less institutional support, suggesting the closure reflected a lack of interest in fiction film from Copenhagen Film Festivals' board rather than an absence of audience demand.

Denmark's broader cinema tradition - from Carl Theodor Dreyer through Lars von Trier, the Dogme 95 movement, and contemporary filmmakers including Susanne Bier, Thomas Vinterberg, and Nikolaj Arcel - gave CPH:PIX a domestic film culture of unusual international standing. The festival's closure means Denmark no longer has a dedicated international fiction film festival, a gap that Nordic regional festivals and CPH:DOX's expanding programming partially fill.

CPH:DOX Past Winners

Since CPH:DOX is the active successor festival for documentary submissions in Copenhagen, here are recent winners:

2026 (23rd edition):

• DOX:AWARD (EUR 10,000, Oscar-qualifying): Whispers in May (dir. Dongnan Chen, Hong Kong/Netherlands/South Korea/Sweden) - a hybrid documentary following three girls in rural China. World premiere.
• FIPRESCI Award: Amazomania (dir. Nathan Grossman, Sweden) - examining a 1996 expedition to contact the isolated Korubo tribe in Brazil.
• F:ACT Award: Just Look Up (dirs. Emma Wall, Betsy Hershey, US/Denmark) - about climate activist Michael Greenberg.
• NORDIC:DOX Award: The Secret Reading Club of Kabul (dirs. Shakiba Adil, Elina Hirvonen) - young Afghan women inspired by Anne Frank.
• Audience Award: Mariinka.

2025:

• DOX:AWARD: Always (dir. Deming Chen, US/France/China) - a poetic documentary about a boy poet in Hunan province. Also won at Jeonju, El Gouna, Camden, and DocsBarcelona.
• F:ACT Award: 2000 Meters to Andriivka (dir. Mstyslav Chernov) - from the Oscar-winning team behind 20 Days in Mariupol. Also won the Sundance Directing Award.
• F:ACT Special Mention: The Perfect Neighbor (dir. Geeta Gandbhir) - later acquired by Netflix and nominated for the Oscar.

CPH:DOX 2025 was the most attended edition in the festival's history, with over 150,000 audience members across Denmark.

CPH:DOX Notable Alumni Films and Where They Ended Up

• *Mr. Nobody Against Putin (2025, dirs. David Borenstein, Pavel Talankin) - Screened at CPH:DOX after its Sundance premiere. Won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature at the 98th Academy Awards, upsetting Netflix-backed The Perfect Neighbor*. Acquired by Kino Lorber for North America. DR Sales (Denmark) handled world sales. The film was produced with Danish funding, and the Oscar win coincided with CPH:DOX 2026's opening weekend.
• *2000 Meters to Andriivka (2025, dir. Mstyslav Chernov) - Won the F:ACT Award at CPH:DOX 2025. Directed by the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind 20 Days in Mariupol*. Distributed by PBS Distribution and Frontline. Also won at Sundance, Doc Aviv, and DocuDays UA.
• *Always* (2025, dir. Deming Chen) - Won the DOX:AWARD at CPH:DOX 2025. Went on to win Best Film at Jeonju International Film Festival, the Harrell Award at Camden, and the Golden Star at El Gouna. Screened at Hot Docs, Sydney, and DocsBarcelona.
• *Twice Colonized* (2023, dir. Lin Alluna) - CPH:DOX opening night selection. Acquired by Film Movement for US theatrical and home entertainment. Had an Oscar qualifying run for the 96th Academy Awards.

CPH:DOX Industry Reputation Notes

CPH:DOX has grown into one of the world's most important documentary festivals. The 2026 edition featured 74 competition films with 53 world premieres, selected from thousands of submissions. The DOX:AWARD is Oscar-qualifying, automatically placing the winner on the Academy Awards longlist.

Compared to IDFA (Amsterdam), which is the world's largest documentary festival, CPH:DOX has a stronger focus on hybrid and interdisciplinary documentary forms. IDFA's industry market (IDFA Forum) is larger, but CPH:DOX's CPH:FORUM pitching market and its integration with the conference program give it a distinctive cross-disciplinary approach.

Compared to Sheffield Doc Fest (UK), both combine screenings with industry events, but CPH:DOX operates at a larger scale with over 150,000 attendees versus Sheffield's approximately 25,000. CPH:DOX's PARA:DOX streaming platform also extends the festival's reach digitally in ways Sheffield does not.

Watch

See Also

For documentary submissions in Denmark, see CPH:DOX submission information. For Nordic film markets and distribution, see International Film Markets. For festival circuit planning, see Film Festival Strategy. To calculate the financial return of festival submissions, see the Festival Entry Fee ROI Calculator.