EFP European Film Promotion and CPH:DOX 2026 team up once again for EUROPE! Docs, a second-year initiative spotlighting outstanding European documentaries and expanding their visibility and market access in North America.
EUROPE! Docs centres around an exclusive online showcase taking place ahead of the festival, designed to generate early buzz and industry attention, and jointly curated by EFP and the CPH:DOX programming team. The showcase presents U.S. buyers and distributors with six carefully selected European documentaries from this year’s CPH:DOX line-up. All films are world premieres and screened in the festival’s flagship competition section, DOX:AWARD. Each film has been hand-picked to highlight the diversity and creative strength of contemporary European documentary filmmaking.
“Continuing our collaboration with CPH:DOX is a real pleasure,” says Sonja Heinen, Managing Director of EFP. “In its second year, EUROPE! Docs provides a unique platform connecting European filmmakers directly with key North American industry players. By showcasing carefully selected films ahead of the festival, we create early visibility and open the door to new partnerships, reinforcing our commitment to bringing European cinema further and making a real impact in the US market.”
Mara Gourd-Mercado, Head of Industry & Training at CPH:DOX, says: “We’re very happy to continue building EUROPE! Docs together with EFP in 2026. The initiative adds real value to CPH:MARKET by giving outstanding European documentaries early exposure to U.S. buyers and decision-makers, while creating space for meaningful exchange around the films. It’s an important step in strengthening international pathways for European non-fiction and further underlines CPH:INDUSTRY as a key meeting point for the global documentary sector. We’re looking forward to another strong and inspiring showcase.”
Resurfaced decades after it was shot, Nathan Grossman’s Amazomania (Sweden, France, Denmark 2026) revisits footage from a 1996 expedition to document the isolated Korubo people triggering a renewed examination of that first contact and the implications that followed.
Honoured with the Kompagnon-Fellowships Prize (Berlinale Talent 2020), Arctic Link (Switzerland, 2026) is Ian Purnell’s hybrid documentary and visual essay, moving between a fibre-optic cable-laying vessel and a remote Alaskan community where hopes for connection collide with fears of dystopian change made possible by the realities of climate change.
Told from the inside, Karl Friis Forchhammer’s Christiania (Denmark, 2026) traces 50 years of Copenhagen’s famed experiment in freedom and consensus democracy, where radical creativity and idealism exist alongside violence, drugs, internal conflict, and mounting pressure from the outside world.
Venezuela: In a broken health system where life hangs by a thread, Carolina rises as a maternity warrior. Drawing strength from her past, she relentlessly preserves the vital cord between pregnant women and their babies. The Cord by Nolwenn Hervé (France 2026) received the IDFA Forum Award for Best Rough Cut Project for its raw emotional power and intimate approach.
Shot on 16mm, Pieter-Jan De Pue’s Mariinka (Belgium 2026), selected as the opening film of CPH:DOX 2026, is a long-term documentary following several young Ukrainians whose lives have been shaped by more than a decade of war in the Donbas where survival, belonging, and national loyalty can fracture even family ties.
Developed by British-Romanian filmmaker Rachel Close, Something Familiar (Romania, UK, 2026) winner of the Cineuropa Marketing Award and first place in the Romanian CNC Development Fund in 2022 begins as she helps a fellow adoptee search for her birth mother, before launching her own search for missing sisters and confronting a family legacy of abuse and exploitation in an attempt to write a new script for the future.
In addition to the showcase, EUROPE! Docs includes a dedicated press and promotion campaign, featuring an exclusive online press event with leading industry media, as well as tailor-made industry preparation for participating filmmakers, offering guidance on U.S. market strategies and targeted introductions. On-site at the festival the programme also offers an in-person networking event at CPH:FORUM, facilitating valuable face-to-face connections between European filmmakers and North American decision-makers.
EUROPE! Docs is made possible thanks to the support of Creative Europe – the MEDIA Programme of the European Union, Danish Film Institute, Flanders Image (Belgium), Romanian Film Development, Swedish Film Institute, SWISS FILMS and Unifrance. Media partners are Variety, Screen International, Cineuropa, Business Doc Europe and Modern Time Review.
About CPH:DOX
CPH:DOX - Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, is among the largest documentary film festivals in the world, supporting independent and innovative filmmaking and presenting the best and brightest in contemporary non-fiction cinema. The festival is widely respected for challenging the documentary genre through crossovers with other art forms and for advancing art as an active voice in civil society. Annually presenting approximately 200 films, CPH:DOX welcomes more than 150,000 attendees and over 2,000 industry professionals from across documentary film, visual arts, journalism, and science.
