Marxist Millionaires and Fungal Realms: The Top Films of CPH:DOX 2026

      A few weeks ago, I arrived in Copenhagen for this year’s CPH:DOX in the early evening, still somewhat disoriented from covering the Oscars the night prior. That evening, I intended to attend a screening of Stillz’s Barrio Triste—the latest offering from Harmony Korine’s EDGLRD productions and, honestly, as my colleague C.J. Prince aptly noted in his outstanding TIFF review, the most exhilarating film I’ve seen all year. However, with some time to kill before that audiovisual experience, I opted to indulge in a comforting bowl of noodles.

      My chosen spot was Slurp, a trendy eatery established in 2017 by Philipp Ineiter, among many local restaurateurs who moved on from René Redzepi’s Noma to launch their own establishments in the city. In the weeks leading up to my visit, that culinary scene had been somewhat tarnished by numerous allegations against Redzepi from former employees and interns, ranging from the disappointingly cliché throwing of insults, produce, and fists to more serious claims of sexual misconduct. These individuals finally found the courage to speak out after years of silence in the industry. Good for them.

      As I contemplated the ripple effects such revelations could have on a city now closely associated with its food culture (which is as essential to its tourism as it is to its identity), a bowl of rich, savory broth appeared, with a perfectly cooked clump of ramen lurking just beneath the surface. The delicious aromas reminded me of a film I had watched the previous day in preparation: Ian Purnell's Arctic Link, a mesmerizing documentary about deep-sea broadband cables (of which there are reportedly enough to circle the globe 32 times) and efforts to bring one to a remote Alaskan community.

      Purnell’s film takes viewers into this realm through a stylish visual compilation: images of ships, waves, and—thanks to Slurp—dark waters and lengthy tubes that align with my recent affinity for social media accounts showcasing intimidating shells and overloaded container ships. Having watched every title in this year’s DOX: AWARD selection, I found it to be the best in the lineup—though the jury disagreed, granting the main prize to Dongnan Chen’s Whispers in May, a beautifully captured coming-of-age story set in the Liangshan Mountains of Eastern China, which commendably blurs the lines between reality and fiction. The narrative follows three vivacious teenage girls in a small town as they travel to the next village to buy a dress for a rite-of-passage ceremony. It may stretch the definition of “hybrid non-fiction films”—precisely what events like CPH:DOX aim to explore.

      This year’s awards also recognized Nolwenn Hervé’s The Cord—an invigorating portrayal of a women’s health clinic in Venezuela and the commendable staff there, serving as a sort of accidental time capsule of life before the illegal capture of President Maduro back in January—and Nathan Grossman’s AMAZOMANIA, a captivating piece of revisionist history that begins with Swedish filmmaker Erling Söderström’s 1996 expedition to the remote Carubo tribe in the Amazon rainforest. It then propels into the present day, where Grossman meets with the director and persuades him to retrace the steps of his earlier film, both geographically and, as it soon becomes apparent, in a revisionist manner that leads to some uncomfortable realizations about his proudest achievement. It's a remarkably engaging work at times, echoing the early Herzog protagonists in Söderström’s Quixotic self-image, even if it doesn’t entirely cohere.

      A more localized and insightful perspective on the ecological wonders of Central America can be found in Otilia Portillo’s Daughters of the Forest – Mycelium Chronicles, a suitably psychedelic exploration (its sound design alone can ignite memories of wilder nights) of the fungal kingdom, which respects both the practical wisdom shared by older generations and the scientific methods of their younger counterparts—correctly positioning them as part of an ongoing dialogue. The ecosystem at risk in Jeanie Finlay’s excellent All Rivers Spill Their Stories to the Sea (specifically the local fishing industries in England's Northeast) may be worlds apart from the mushroom foragers in Portillo’s film, but its significance to the surrounding community is similarly existential. This makes Finlay’s heartfelt, quasi-Loachian examination of its destruction (following decades of Tory greed and shortsightedness) all the more harrowing.

      The festival's most sought-after ticket was for the European premiere of John Wilson’s The Story of Concrete, a film that encapsulates the cosmic anxieties and quirky humor from Wilson’s How to series, effectively turning it into a brilliant feature-length episode. It managed to bring down the roof of the city’s 650-seat Bremen theatre even before Wilson took the stage for an almost too-perfect Q&A with his spiritual predecessor Louis Theroux, who seamlessly shifted tones for his presentation of The Settlers