At the 2025 edition of CPH:DOX, extreme political tension in the U.S. and parts of Europe cast a cloud of uncertainty over the Copenhagen-based documentary film festival.
While nonfiction films that expose truth and challenge misinformation are arguably more vital than ever before, the current marketplace for political docs is dismal, especially in the U.S. One glimmer of hope is the box office success of “No Other Land,” which has surpassed $1.7 million domestically in America despite not having U.S. distribution.
Former Sundance Institute CEO Keri Putnam believes that Americans are keen to see more political fare like “Not Other Land” that is not available on mainstream streaming services.
“I truly believe that audiences are sick of being spoon-fed, algorithmic, mass-market content, sequels, whatever,” Putnam said during a CPH:DOX Summit panel.
As a fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center, Putnam released a report titled “U.S. Independent Film Audience & Landscape” late last year. The comprehensive study examined the current independent film landscape and found an untapped market of 40 million viewers hungry for independent film.
“Audiences want something authentic,” Putnam said. “Audiences want to watch something that actually engages with the world around us. One thing that I found in the research that I did last year was that the audiences who want this work really can’t find it. Even on YouTube, it’s sometimes hard to find individual pieces. There’s so much good innovation going on with specific platforms, small platforms, specific investments looking for ways to connect individual films with audiences, but when it’s hard for people to find the work some kind of brand or destination or umbrella is going to have to aggregate enough audiences, which I hope will be able to pay filmmakers and enable marketing.”
Oscar-nominated producer Ina Fichman has two docs – “Everest Dark” and “Coexistence, My Ass!” – at CPH:DOX. Both films are looking for distribution.
“It’s really tough now for all documentaries,” said Fichman. “There is no question that there is a climate of fear.”
Fichman, a Canadian-based producer, said that international coproductions are key in the current marketplace.
“There is money in the States but maybe not enough to fund an entire film,” Fichman told Variety. “The funders that I’m speaking to in the United States really appreciate when you come to the table and say, ‘By the way, I’m bringing a pre-sale from this territory and I’m bringing some tax credits from here.”
Misfits head of documentaries Lizzie Gillett is behind recent doc hits including “Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story,” “Merkel” and “The Territory.” She is in Copenhagen with her latest project, “Lowland Kids,” about climate refugees in the American South, which is seeking distribution.
“People understand that making an entire film and keeping all the rights and then hoping for a really big sale out of a festival is very unlikely now,” said Gillett. “People are recognizing that money in hand is worth a lot more than a big global SVOD sale.”
Gillett cited a doc she is currently producing titled “Jaripeo” as an example.
“The film team basically has three-quarters of their budget in place from pre-sales,” Gillett said. “Of course, they are aware that that will negate a big Netflix sale, but they can see that it’s much better and more pragmatic, and also good for the film to have different broadcasters on board. So, people are evolving on how they get their money. You have to just be more flexible and hustle more than ever before.”
Founder and CEO of Together Films, Sarah Mosses, is working on “Lowland Kids” alongside Gillett. She said, “Every film, but especially political films, should have a Plan A, Plan B, Plan C from day one. If the mission is to land at Sundance and sell, that is no longer happening. You have to have a direct-to-audience (B2C) strategy from day one.”
Dogwoof’s chief content officer, Oli Harbottle, argued that established distribution pathways are crucial in today’s marketplace.
“A lot of the industry got blinded by the documentary boom,” said Harbottle during a CPH:DOX panel discussion. “When the streamers came in, it was boom time, and that has reverted. But (Dogwoof) has been doing this for 20 years, and the territory-by-territory model is what one of our businesses was born out of, and it’s a well-entrenched model.”
In January, Dogwoof acquired international sales rights for “2000 Meters in Andriivka” by Ukrainian filmmaker and Pulitzer Prize-winning AP journalist Mstyslav Chernov, director of the 2024 Academy Award winner for best documentary “20 Days in Mariupol. “2000 Meters in Andriivka” is screening at CPH:DOX is a Frontline production.
“America does seem to be in a tricky spot, especially with the more political content, but a lot of the old established models are still in place and can be exhausted,” said Harbottle. “There are also new (distribution) models, such as Jolt.”
Meant to give a literal jolt to an indie film that might have been a success at festivals across the world but has not found traditional distribution, Jolt was conceived by the same team that birthed Impact Partners – a documentary funding company committed to social issue-driven films with one of the largest investment portfolios in the independent nonfiction sector.
The direct-to-consumer film distribution platform launched in March 2024 and most recently released “The Bibi Files,” a documentary about Benjamin Netanyahu. The film, directed by Alexis Bloom and produced by Alex Gibney, is currently screening at CPH:DOX.
Geralyn Dreyfous, Jolt co-founder and chief film officer, explained that the platform was conceived in part after a “very interesting conversation” she had with Netflix co-founder and former CEO Reed Hastings.
“Reed told me that the Netflix business model had outgrown independent cinema and that it was going to be very hard to buy more than 20% of anything (Impact Partners) made, or anything that he saw at Sundance,” Dreyfous said during a CPH:Summit panel. “His argument was that our audiences are too small and that the (Netflix) business model had outgrown our audiences, and somebody had to work on audience development. I said, ‘Well, how much is too small?’ And he said, ‘Two million.’ I asked, ‘What’s the floor?’ And he said, ‘200,000.’ So I was thinking, ‘Okay. If some of our films are being seen by 200,000 people on a platform available in over 190 countries, we really do need to grow our audience, but there’s also a business opportunity for the 200,000 to two million. So how do we build that?”
The result was Jolt, which is not an acquisition company. Instead of paying filmmakers, Jolt gives filmmakers a chance to screen on a platform where they can leverage the publicity that they received at a particular festival or festivals and continue to make their film available to audiences while trying to negotiate a distribution sale.
“We are still in the early stages,” said Dreyfous. “It hasn’t been easy, but we’re learning a lot.”
