Chinese Teen Roadtrip Film ‘Whispers in May’ Wins at Copenhagen Documentary Festival CPH:DOX

Dongnan Chen’s “Whispers in May” won the main prize at CPH:DOX, Copenhagen’s documentary film festival, on Friday. The award, known as the Dox:Award, comes with a cash prize of €10,000 ($11,555).

In “Whispers in May,” 14-year-old Qihuo and her two best friends, who live in the remote Liangshan Mountains region of China, set out on a road trip to buy a skirt for her rite of passage.

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The jury said in a statement: “Telling mythical stories about hidden worlds is a gift. Giving breadth and depth to quotidian moments is a talent. Weaving cinematic forms while allowing reality to resonate is captivating. Ultimately, we were charmed by a young girl’s journey. Walking over the edge of the last days of childhood, this director has succeeded in sharing a modern-day fairytale that heeds monsters and factories, alike.”

A Special Mention went to Nolwenn Hervé’s “The Cord.” The film follows Carolina, who helps poor women secure basic maternity care in Venezuela. The jury said: “Giving room for a decent birth as a metaphor for resistance in a bodily form, this emerging voice captivated us with its humanity, tenacity and empathy.”

The Fipresci Award, which is presented by the International Federation of Film Critics, went to Nathan Grossman’s “Amazomania.” The film re-examines footage from a 1996 film by a Swedish journalist, who ventured deep into the Amazon to meet the Korubo tribe. The jury said: “We would like to recognize a film that brings a contemporary and thought-provoking perspective on an intrusive culture clash. It is a story of the loss of innocence, the complex colonial legacy of the human gaze, and the devastating impact of capitalism. In times inundated with images, the film shows the potential of revisiting, re-examining and hopefully, relearning.”

The F:Act Award, for a film that bridges filmmaking and investigative journalism, was won by “Just Look Up,” directed by Emma Wall and Betsy Hershey. The award comes with a cash prize of €5,000 ($5,779). The film centers on the young activist Michael Greenberg, the leader of the climate movement Climate Defiance.

The jury said: “A film about a subject that couldn’t be more urgent and important, but is often overlooked. It manages to be funny, uplifting and even hopeful. We are honored to give the award to the film for its well-crafted, beautifully observed story about a group of young people trying to save the world from self-inflicted destruction.”

A Special Mention went to “The Great Experiment,” directed by Stephen Maing and Eric Daniel Metzgar. The jury said: “A special mention goes to a remarkable artistic work capturing a historic turning point in the political landscape, affecting all of us. With cinematic precision and emotional depth, the film lays bare the profound divides within American society, becoming an essential witness – not only of this moment, but of the future it will inevitably shape.”

The Next:Wave Award, which spotlights emerging filmmakers and “new cinematic currents,” was picked up by Irene Bartholomé’s “Dream of Another Summer.” The film is described as “a dreamlike exploration of Beirut as a state of mind.”

The jury said: “The Next:Wave Award goes to a film that, through a rigorous formal approach and a conscious gaze, immerses us in a suspended space where the scars of the past, the awareness of the present, and the dreams of the future brush against one another. The city of Beirut is the epicenter of this meditative journey, but the film transcends the local and becomes an existential reflection on the fragility of the human condition.”

A Special Mention went to Tom Adjibi’s “This Is Not a French Film,” which is a docu-satire about a Belgian-Beninese director’s struggles to make his debut film. The jury said: “We would like to give a Special Mention to a film that kept surprising us from beginning to end with its playful form and charming narrative, unfolding in the intersection of fiction and documentary. This film highlights the complexity of identity and representation in a completely disarming and humorous manner, as a courageously clumsy filmmaker gathers a collective of friends and colleagues in an effort to confront their experience of racialization within the Belgian film industry.”

The Nordic:Dox Award, which honors standout documentaries from the Nordic region, went to Shakiba Adil and Elina Hirvonen’s “The Secret Reading Club of Kabul.” In Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, a group of young women risk their lives to form a secret reading circle. The award comes with a €5,000 ($5,779) prize.

The jury said: “This film exposes the brutal dismantling of women’s rights under an authoritarian regime. In doing so, it affirms the power of documentary cinema to make injustice visible and the voice of the oppressed heard. We are grateful for this piercing call coming from Afghan homes turned prisons. We hear you. You are not forgotten.”

A Special Mention went to “Homesick” by Taekyung Tanja In Wol Sørensen. The director pieces together her experience as an adopted child from South Korea growing up in a Danish family.

The jury said: “Through great precision and resilience the director creates an echo chamber where the voices of silenced children can circulate freely.”

The winner of the Human:Rights Award, which highlights stories that defend human rights, was won by Maryam Ebrahimi’s “The Phantom Pain of Rojava.” The film looks at the life of wounded Kurdish guerrilla soldiers living in northern Syria. The award comes with a cash prize of €5,000 ($5,779).

The jury said: “The winner in the human rights competition is a film that lyrically portrays the bond that exists between a group of brave, predominantly women fighters who find ways to see the beauty in the
evolving companionship that grew from their struggle. And while their human rights continue to be threatened by new developments in modern warfare, the director achieves the perfect balance between their continued precariousness and their ongoing model of dignity and dedication to their cause. The filmmaker weaves together the current fights for not only the land, but also for the women who inhabit the land.”

A Special Mention went to Poh Si Teng’s “American Doctor,” which follows three doctors as they struggle at a hospital in Gaza to save as many lives as possible.

The jury said: “The filmmaker shows an urgent account of a human rights violation that is still unfolding in front of our eyes. With its attention to the systematic killing of medical professionals and children in Gaza and its depiction of the lasting effects on those who work to ease the suffering of the victims.”

The New:Vision Award, which celebrates artists’ films and boundary-pushing cinematic experiments, was won by Rico Wong’s “Compact Disc.” In the film, the director and his friends look back at a shared youth shaped by imprisonment. The award comes with a cash prize of €5,000 ($5,779).

The jury said: “The film is a deeply moving intimate portrayal of a group of young friends who come together to revisit their involvement in the recent protests. The film utilizes a range of low-fi technologies to collectively reassemble their fragmented memories. Interrogation footage of their imprisonment is played from a compact disc on their laptop and refilmed by a handheld camera; the closeup camera lingers on their bodies – retelling the skin as a map with its own markings.

“Shot in close, dark spaces, the film turns its blurry images back on its subjects: mirroring, animating, layering – finding in the act of recollection not just a record of what was endured but a way of carrying it forward together. Among the film’s many qualities are its experimental use of lowtech pixelated media and genuine storytelling that allow for a range of emotions to surface without glossing over or drawing cathartic closure to an all too recent event and its present resonances.”

A Special Mention went to Tulapop Saenjaroen’s “Local Sensations,” which moves from room to room in “an exploration of location, architecture and monuments.” The jury said: “A genuinely surprising and beautifully crafted cinematic essay on how to avoid becoming a shrine. Shot on black-and-white 16mm and mixed together with digital footage and animation, the film reimagines the monument as something fluid and unfixed. An architectural film without buildings, it delves into and interconnects diverse poetic instances of Thai society while posing questions like: ‘What if a monument could question history rather than consecrate it?’”

The Inter:Active Exhibition Award and a 10,000 DKK ($1,547) cash prize went to Sacha Wares’ “Inside: The Childhood of an Artist,” which is an “evocative multisensory biography capturing the moment artist Judith Scott’s life changed forever.”

A Special Mention went to “Dark Rooms” by Mads Damsbo and Laurits Flensted-Jensen. It “invites intimate exploration across virtual spaces where real stories of sexual awakening ask us to confront taboos.”