New films from Oscar-nominated Lucy Walker, Sundance winners Mads Brügger and Eugene Jarecki, Berlinale multi-award winning Geneviève Dulude-De Celle and Venice-Orizzonti winner Lech Kowalski are among the 35 projects selected for the 2021 edition of CPH:FORUM, which runs April 26 to 30.

CPH:FORUM serves as the financing and coproduction event held within the Copenhagen-based documentary film festival, CPH:DOX, and seeks to facilitate the development and financing of “creative and visually strong” documentaries.

A total of 35 projects will be presented within the following five categories: “fictiononfiction”, cinema, fact, art and science.

The forum’s curated line-up showcases a diversity of topics, genres and artistic approaches as well as a diverse representation among the storytellers. This year’s event will highlight 43 filmmakers from 27 countries.

The diversity of directors is notable with 46% female directors and 43% male, while the remaining 11% are co-directing teams of men and women with 34% of the films made by people of color.

Titles include Lucy Walker’s The Forest for the Trees, Songs of Earth (pictured) from Norway’s Margreth Olin and The Killing of a Journalist from Matt Sarnecki.

Given the ongoing pandemic, the CPH:FORUM will be a fully digital event.

The selected projects will be highlighted in individually curated pitch setups and introduced to cherry-picked financing partners. A new catch-up platform is being developed to facilitate follow-ups between producers, buyers and distributors in the months to come.

“The pandemic has upended the global film industry, halted film production, closed cinemas, and moved festivals online. These disruptions have however only accelerated a transformation well underway. In the context of increasingly mono cultural mainstream space, CPH:DOX’s mission to nurture non-fiction as a wide variety of genres and artistic expressions has never been more relevant,” Katrine Kiilgaard, head of industry and deputy director at CPH:DOX, said in a statement. “Adapting to the new circumstances, we stand by our long standing commitment to connect professionals from across the fields of non-fiction, fiction, visual art, journalism and science to create a shared culture and foster a rich documentary community with a clear voice in civil society.”

Projects will be presented to decision makers representing such streaming platforms as Disney+, Netflix and Hulu, as well as broadcasters including ARTE, ZDF, BBC and CNN, among many others.

For the eighth year, CPH:DOX will present the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award of €20,000 (USD$24,000) for the event’s best project intended for copro. Also as part of CPH:FORUM, eight work-in-progress projects from high-profile Nordic producers and directors have been selected for presentation at the CPH:WIP event on April 27.

For a full list of CPH:FORUM projects visit the CPH:DOX site.