Dongnan Chen’s intimate film Whispers in May won the festival’s flagship DOX:AWARD; a broader list of winners spans investigative films, human rights stories and experimental work
The Copenhagen documentary festival CPH:DOX crowned Whispers in May by Dongnan Chen as its top film in 2026, awarding the work the prestigious DOX:AWARD. The jury celebrated the film’s blend of lyrical storytelling and grounded observation, highlighting how the director transformed small, everyday moments into a broader, almost mythical portrait of adolescence. The film follows a 14-year-old girl from a remote part of China on a rite-of-passage road trip, and its victory brings with it a €10,000 prize sponsored by Politiken Fonden. The director accepted the honor and acknowledged the visibility the film grants to its young subjects and their community.
The jury statement praised the film’s ability to weave formal cinematic devices with lived reality, noting that such work reveals hidden worlds without exploiting them. They used language that emphasized both the film’s imaginative scope and its documentary integrity, referring to a balance between the fable-like elements and the tangible markers of industrial and social forces. In practical terms, the panel said they were moved by the protagonist’s last days of childhood, a passage rendered with patience and detail. The award signals that CPH:DOX values documentaries that combine visual inventiveness with social attunement.
Dongnan Chen responded on stage, expressing gratitude for the recognition of the girls at the center of the story and for the creative team behind the film. Her acceptance highlights how festival platforms can amplify regional stories: Whispers in May is an international co-production spanning Hong Kong, the Netherlands, South Korea and Sweden and premiered in Copenhagen as part of a competitive selection that included 74 films. That lineup featured an ambitious slate of premieres: 53 world premieres, 17 international premieres and 4 European premieres, underlining CPH:DOX’s role in introducing new documentary voices to the global stage.
CPH:DOX distributed awards across several curated competitions. The newly introduced FIPRESCI Award, presented by the International Federation of Film Critics, went to Nathan Grossman’s Amazomania, a reflective examination of archival material from a 1996 expedition into the Amazon and the ethical questions such encounters raise. In the F:ACT AWARD — a section that explicitly bridges investigative reporting and filmmaking and is supported by International Media Support and the Danish Union of Journalists — the prize was given to Just Look Up by Emma Wall and Betsy Hershey, a film chronicling young climate activists and disruptive tactics to raise public alarm.
The jury handed special mentions to emerging filmmakers whose work demonstrated distinct voices: Nolwenn Hervé’s The Cord, a debut about maternal care and resilience in Venezuela; Stephen Maing and Eric Daniel Metzgar’s The Great Experiment, which probes ideological divides across the U.S.; and Tom Adjibi’s hybrid docu-satire This Is Not a French Film. These nods emphasize the festival’s appetite for films that combine personal testimony with broader social investigation, whether through intimate portraiture or formal playfulness.
Several specialized prizes recognized work across geography and form. Irene Bartolomé’s Dream of Another Summer won the NEXT:WAVE Award for its daring formal approach to Beirut’s post-explosion landscape. The NORDIC:DOX Award went to Shakiba Adil and Elina Hirvonen’s The Secret Reading Club of Kabul, a film about Afghan women risking punishment to study in secret. Maryam Ebrahimi’s The Phantom Pain of Rojava secured the HUMAN:RIGHTS AWARD, and Rico Wong’s experimental Compact Disc took the NEW:VISION Award for boundary-pushing artistry. The festival also honored immersive works: Sacha Wares’ multisensory VR project Inside: The Childhood of an Artist won the INTER:ACTIVE EXHIBITION AWARD.
Beyond recognition, many awards included cash sums that support filmmakers: the DOX:AWARD carries €10,000, while several competition prizes such as F:ACT, NEXT:WAVE, NORDIC:DOX, HUMAN:RIGHTS and NEW:VISION offer €5,000 each. These resources are intended to help directors develop future projects and to sustain independent documentary practice. The festival will also reveal the recipient of the Audience Award, sponsored by the public broadcaster DR, on March 26.