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CPH:DOX 2027 · AI films guide

Can you submit an AI film to CPH:DOX?There is no AI rule. There is a documentary test.

The 2027 Rules and Regulations published by CPH:DOX contain no mention of AI or generative tools anywhere in their text. What they do specify is the festival's programming focus: documentaries and artists' films, with submissions accepted until the final deadline of 3 November 2026. For filmmakers working with generative tools, this regulatory silence carries specific implications worth understanding, particularly when it comes to preparing your screenplay using 熙熙's purpose-built workflow.
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  • Final deadline 3 November 2026
  • No AI clause anywhere
  • Any length, from 150 DKK
Lost Garden · Episode 1

Independent guide. 熙熙 does not organise CPH:DOX and is not affiliated with the Foundation of the Copenhagen Film Festivals. Rules read on 1 October 2026. Official rules and regulations

熙熙 offers two tiers for documentary creators today: free access to professional screenwriting tools, plus the 年度会员 at ¥168 一年 that generates a complete storyboard directly from your screenplay, streamlining the pre-production process for films targeting festivals like CPH:DOX.

Also available now: video generation of each shot, powered by Seedance, on the same 年度会员, with 3,000 张额度 一年.

The rules on one card

What CPH:DOX asks of any film.

CPH:DOX, formally known as the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, operates under the governance of the Foundation of the Copenhagen Film Festivals. The festival's official rules document is notably concise and contains zero references to AI, artificial intelligence, or generative tools. This absence of specific AI provisions means that films incorporating AI-assisted production methods are evaluated under the same ordinary rule set that governs all other submissions, with no special restrictions or disclosure requirements spelled out in the current regulations.
Festival
10 to 21 March 2027, Copenhagen
Final deadline
3 November 2026
Eligibility
Any duration, premiered after 1 April 2026
Entry fee
DKK 300 over 50 min, DKK 150 under
AI rule
None in the Rules and Regulations
Premiere
World premiere first in competition
Subtitles
English, even for English dialogue
Section
Chosen by the festival, not by you

Source documentation: the Rules and Regulations for Film Submissions (2027 edition) and the official submissions page hosted on cphdox.dk, both accessed and verified on 1 October 2026. The 2027 festival program includes an online edition scheduled to run from 18 March to 4 April 2027. Note that the festival retains the authority to amend or update its rules at any point.

What the rules say about AI

Silence on AI, and five things to read into it.

Because CPH:DOX has not adopted an AI-specific clause in its 2027 rules, there exists no quotable sentence addressing generative tools directly. What remains available for review is the positive substance of what the rules do explicitly state, how the festival has historically treated and programmed AI-adjacent work within its official selections, and the broader documentary filmmaking standard against which your submission will be assessed by the festival's selection committee.

  • What the rules say

    We read the 2027 Rules and Regulations for Film Submissions from section 1 to the conclusion on 1 October 2026. They contain no clause on AI, generative tools or synthetic images. They ask for no disclosure and set no limit. The only technology they name is the welcome given to VR, AR, mixed media and installations.

  • Silence is not a green light

    The conclusion says that entering means accepting the rules without condition, and that in unspecified cases the festival decides. An AI question the rules did not foresee is the festival’s call. A short email to submissions@cphdox.dk before you register costs nothing.

  • A documentary makes a claim

    For non-fiction, the reference most often cited is the Archival Producers Alliance guidelines of September 2024. They separate generative AI from machine learning used for logging or transcription, and ask for a cue sheet of every generated element and for clarity toward the audience. CPH:DOX has not adopted them, but they are the clearest yardstick, and worth meeting before anyone asks.

  • How the festival treats AI

    The 2026 programme put AI on screen as a subject: The AI Doc: How I Became an Apocaloptimist, Intelligence Rising, a war game on AI, and Molly vs the Machines. Nothing on that programme page presents a film as generated by AI. That is an observation, not a rule.

  • Reconstruction is the line to watch

    The same guidelines place generated images on a continuum with reenactment. They ask for extra care when AI alters footage of a real event, invents a historical scene or makes a real person say something. A visibly synthetic sequence, labelled as such, stays on the right side of that line. A synthetic image presented as archive does not.

Key dates

Thirty-three days to register.

The call opened on 15 May 2026 and <b>the first deadline has passed</b>. A film completed after 1 September can still register until 3 November.

  1. 1 Sep 2026

    First deadline, passed

    It applied to films completed before this date. A film finished afterwards uses the November deadline.

  2. 3 Nov 2026

    Final deadline

    Register with at least a synopsis and credits. A preview link is not needed yet, so a film still in the edit can be registered.

  3. 25 Nov 2026

    Preview links

    The festival must have your link by this date, sent to submissions@cphdox.dk. Work-in-progress versions are welcome.

  4. Mid-Feb 2027

    The answer

    Selected films are told at once, every other film by mid-February at the latest. Selected films deliver materials by 1 February and screening copies by 12 February.

  5. 10 to 21 Mar 2027

    The festival

    Seven competitions in the cinemas of Copenhagen and across Denmark, then the online festival from 18 March to 4 April.

Where it could land

Four doors, none you can pick.

You cannot apply to a section: the festival places the film. These four are where an AI-assisted work has a real chance of being read. Each card ends with how we would approach it.

  • 01

    NEW:VISION AWARD

    Experimental and artists’ films, shorts and features, with a 5,000 EUR prize.

    The natural home for a work in which the generated image is the subject. Treat AI as a medium with a point of view, not as a way to save on a shoot.

  • 02

    NEXT:WAVE AWARD

    Innovative films by emerging filmmakers and artists, features, with a 5,000 EUR prize.

    A first feature that invents a form can use generated material if the form is the argument. A conventional film with an AI patch will not stand out here.

  • 03

    INTER:ACTIVE AWARD

    Artworks in the Inter:active Exhibition, with a 1,400 EUR prize and a reduced fee of DKK 150.

    A generative installation or a branching piece belongs here, not in a film competition. Interactive works are exempt from the Danish premiere rule.

  • 04

    F:ACT AWARD

    Investigative and journalistic features, with a 5,000 EUR prize.

    The strictest ground. A synthetic image inside an investigation reads as a statement of fact. Use one only where it is labelled and where no real footage exists.

The 2026 programme

What the festival put on screen.

We read the 2026 programme page on 1 October 2026. In every passage that mentions AI, it is a subject, a debate or a research tool in another field, never the method used to make the film.

  1. 01

    AI is a subject first. The AI Doc: How I Became an Apocaloptimist follows a director as he asks what AI will do to the world. The film is about AI. It is not made by it.

  2. 02

    A speaker sits beside the film. Intelligence Rising was paired with a talk on AI and geopolitical decisions, and Molly vs the Machines with one on how Big Tech exploits attention.

  3. 03

    An argument beats a technique. None of these titles sells a tool. They defend a position on technology. A film made with AI needs a reason to exist beyond how it was made.

  4. 04

    The festival listens to its field. Its industry summit on 17 and 18 March 2026 held a session on documentary and AI, and presented DOX:AI, a co-design process with Doc Society, according to Modern Times Review.

Not a documentary, and honest about it

Lost Garden: a world nobody mistakes for real.

CPH:DOX selects documentaries and artists’ films, and this scene is neither. It is the Source Tree sequence from Lost Garden, episode 1, an animated fantasy by the 熙熙 team. We show it for one reason: nobody will take it for footage, which is the first rule of labelling synthetic images. The screenplay page, each shot as a storyboard frame and as the final image.

Logline. A small knight wakes up in a dead world and learns he is the last guardian of a seed that could bring the garden back.

Screenplay · episode 1 · the Source Tree

INT. HEART OF THE ROOTS - NIGHT

Living roots coil around LANTERN and pin him down. A voice stops them.

THE SOURCE TREE

Stop. He is my guest.

A colossal female figure woven from tangled roots and crowned with white lilies unfurls her arms protectively above the shadowed cavern space.

Her eyes open. Blue, and vast.

THE SOURCE TREE

Welcome to you, Lantern Knight.

She lifts him in her palm, like a lamp.

THE SOURCE TREE

Do not be afraid. I will not harm you.

In the dark, a seed of light opens. Inside the flower, a sleeping child.

THE SOURCE TREE

You must find yours. Protect her.

CUT TO:

  1. A small lantern-helmed knight bound by thick roots in a ruined hall
    Storyboard frame of the trap shot, in grey
    01

    Medium · the trap

    Medium shot, Lantern bound by thick living roots in a ruined hall, glowing blue mushrooms on the floor, cold light

  2. A giant woman made of roots and white lilies spreads her many arms in a dark cavern
    Storyboard frame of the wide shot, in grey
    02

    Wide · the Source Tree

    Symmetrical wide shot, a giant woman made of roots, arms spread with many hands, white lilies, blue glyphs

  3. Extreme close-up of a giant pale face with piercing blue eyes
    Storyboard frame of the eyes close-up, in grey
    03

    Extreme close-up · the eyes

    Extreme close-up on the giant's face, piercing blue eyes opening, pale skin, soft light from below

  4. A tiny armored knight stands in the middle of a giant open hand
    Storyboard frame of the palm shot, in grey
    04

    High angle · the palm

    High angle, the tiny knight standing in the center of a giant open palm, stone floor far below

  5. A giant fingertip gently touches the chest of a small armored knight
    Storyboard frame of the touch close-up, in grey
    05

    Close-up · the touch

    Close-up, a giant fingertip gently touches the knight's armored chest, faceless helm, emotion through posture

  6. A sleeping pink-haired child curled inside a glowing blue flower
    Storyboard frame of the seed insert, in grey
    06

    Insert · the seed

    Top-down insert, a glowing pale blue flower opening, a sleeping child with pink hair curled inside

Lost Garden, episode 1 lasts 17 minutes. The 熙熙 team made this animated series with Seedance, and the AI London Festival named it a finalist. A documentary would use a sequence like this for a recreation or a dream, with a visual code that sets it apart from real footage. Press play and it starts on this scene.

The script

A 25 minute documentary in five movements.

Under 50 minutes the fee is halved, and CPH:DOX takes any length. A 25 minute film with one authored synthetic sequence is a structure a programmer can hold in mind. Plan a treatment and a narration, not a shot list.

  1. 0:00 to 2:00

    The question

    Open on something real: a place, a voice, a document. Say what the film wants to find out.

  2. 2:00 to 7:00

    The subject in its world

    Interviews, locations, evidence. The audience must trust you before anything synthetic appears.

  3. 7:00 to 17:00

    The gap

    Where no camera was present, the authored sequence goes here, framed so that nobody takes it for archive.

  4. 17:00 to 23:00

    The test

    Return to the real and set the reconstruction against what your subject says.

  5. 23:00 to 25:00

    What remains

    End on a fact, not on an effect.

Credit every synthetic element as you credit archive and music: the tool, its version and the person who wrote the prompts. The Archival Producers Alliance guidelines ask for it, and it costs nothing in the end credits.

Step by step

From today to the 3 November registration.

Registration requires only a synopsis and credits at submission, with the preview link permitted to arrive as late as 25 November. Invest those intervening weeks in determining which elements count as synthetic and how that synthesis will be disclosed to viewers and selection committees, rather than expanding the generated material itself.
  1. 01

    By 7 October

    Is this a CPH:DOX film?

    Write the film in three sentences. A documentary or an artist’s film belongs. Fiction with no claim on reality is better placed at one of the AI festivals.

  2. 02

    By 14 October

    List every synthetic element

    One line each: what it shows, why it is generated, the tool and version, and its timecode. This is your cue sheet, and the basis of the AI statement in your synopsis.

  3. 03

    By 21 October

    Board the authored sequences

    Treatment first, then a storyboard for the sequences you control. Interviews and observed scenes stay off the board. The writing is free in 熙熙 and the boards come with the 年度会员, ¥168 一年.

  4. 04

    By 28 October

    Design the label

    Choose how the audience will know: a frame, a change of ratio, a colour, a line in the narration. The code must repeat every time a synthetic image appears.

  5. 05

    By 3 November

    Register

    Create a CPH:DOX profile and enter the synopsis, the credits and your AI statement. The fee is DKK 150 under 50 minutes and DKK 300 above.

  6. 06

    By 25 November

    Send the preview link

    A work in progress is welcome. Say plainly which sequences are still to be generated, and keep the link live.

  7. 07

    December to February

    Prepare delivery

    English subtitles on every version, a DCP or a film print, and an online transfer. Materials are due on 1 February 2027 and screening copies on 12 February.

What gets a film out

Eight ways a film falls out.

The majority of these grounds for disqualification derive directly from the Rules and Regulations as published. Not one of them specifically addresses AI or synthetic media, yet any single violation is sufficient to disqualify an entry from consideration.

  • A premiere already spent

    A film shown in Denmark, on Danish television or on a VOD platform available from Denmark is not eligible without the festival’s authorisation. Interactive works are exempt.

  • Choosing a section

    You cannot apply to one, and the placement is entirely the festival’s. Write the synopsis for the programmers, not for an award.

  • No English subtitles

    Every film screens in its original language with English subtitles, English dialogue included. Optional or hardcoded subtitles are both accepted.

  • A generated image passed off as archive

    The one AI mistake that can sink a documentary. Never present a synthetic image as the record of a real event, place or person. Label it every time it appears.

  • A real voice or face, generated

    Making a real person say what they never said is the first case the Archival Producers Alliance singles out. Seek consent, and think hard about a subject who cannot give it.

  • Waiting for feedback

    The festival cannot respond with reviews or comments on individual films. A film that is not selected is told by mid-February at the latest, and nothing more.

  • The wrong delivery

    Screening formats are DCP, 35mm and 16mm. A DCP cannot arrive through Google Drive or Dropbox, and a physical copy needs the festival’s prior authorisation.

  • A withdrawal after January

    A confirmed film cannot be withdrawn after 1 January 2027. Do not accept an invitation while a streaming or broadcast deal is still open.

Why 熙熙

CPH:DOX wants a point of view. 熙熙 organises the work behind it.

熙熙 is built for authored film, and a documentary has authored parts: the treatment, the recreations, the sequences that stand for what no camera recorded. It does not shoot, interview or edit a documentary. It carries the parts you write.

  • A treatment that holds

    Write the treatment and the narration on the 免费档, in industry format, with outline and beats. A documentary’s structure is written before it is found, then rewritten.

  • A cue sheet from the project

    Each generated shot traces back to its scene, its storyboard frame and its prompt, because the pipelines are connected to the script. That is the raw material of the cue sheet the guidelines recommend.

  • Boards for what you author

    The storyboard turns the screenplay of a recreation into frames you can adjust, so you decide how synthetic material looks, and how it differs from real footage, before anything is made.

  • Start for free today

    Writing costs 免费 and never expires on the 免费档. The 年度会员, ¥168 一年, adds the storyboard and footage generation.

Real productions

International festival-recognized films have been written and produced with 熙熙.

熙熙 is already serving as a production workspace for genuine AI-driven film projects in active development, spanning everything from narrative cinematic shorts to episodic animated series pilots that have earned selection, nomination, and awards at international festivals around the world.

  • Video thumbnail for VOIDBORN

    VOIDBORN

    AI animated / cinematic short

    Festival recognition

    • 1st Place Silver

      Mondial Chroma Awards

    • 2nd Place 熙熙

      Mondial Chroma Awards

    • Award Winner

      Seoul International AI Film Festival

  • Video thumbnail for Les Fils du Vinnana

    Les Fils du Vinnana

    AI short film

    Festival recognition

    • Honorable Mention

      Top Quark Film Festival

    • People's Choice Nominee

      Illuminate Oneness of Humanity

    • Nominee

      ALTFF Supershort

  • Video thumbnail for Lost Garden

    Lost Garden

    AI animated series pilot

    Festival recognition

    • Finalist

      AI London Festival

See what creators are building

The pipeline

Write. Board. Produce.

  1. 熙熙 screenplay editor: acts, sequences and beats above the formatted script of The Yellow Umbrella

    01The screenplay, enriched

    An industry-standard screenplay editor, and more: a visual outline and beat editor, your writing inspirations (notes, photos, audio) kept next to the page, and an AI researcher to support your writing, not replace it.

  2. 熙熙 storyboard: shot S3 of The Yellow Umbrella with characters, shot settings and the script beside it

    02The storyboard, made easy

    Shot breakdown generated from your screenplay, manual control over every shot (frame, angle, movement, duration), and generative AI previsualization in one click.

  3. 熙熙 production canvas: shots S3 and S4 as connected nodes carrying their storyboard panels and prompts

    03AI production, with finesse

    Footage generation pipelines connected to your screenplay and storyboard. Optimized out of the box, fully editable workflow.

More festival guides

Guides for other festivals

Go further

Guides for documentary and festival films

FAQ

CPH:DOX and AI films, your questions

Can you submit an AI film to CPH:DOX? The 2027 Rules an
d Regulations contain no explicit prohibition against it, nor do they mandate disclosure of AI use. The rules remain silent on the question of AI altogether, leaving unspecified cases to festival discretion at the programming stage. CPH:DOX historically selects documentary works and artists' films for its lineup, which means a purely fictional AI-generated film would be an awkward thematic match. The final submission deadline f
alls on 3 November 2026. What is the deadline for CPH:DOX
2027? Films completed before 1 September 2026 faced that date as their cutoff, which has now passed, while films completed afterward may be submitted until 3 November 2026. On 3 November a synopsis and credits alone suffice for registration, with the preview link due to follow by 25 November. What does it cost to subm
it to CPH:DOX? The submission fee is DKK 300 (approximatel
y 40 EUR) for works exceeding 50 minutes in duration, and DKK 150 (approximately 20 EUR) for shorter films and interactive projects. Fee waivers are available for applicants from countries on the DAC list, covering up to two projects per production company; requests should be directed to submissions@cphdox.dk. Do I have to tell CPH:DOX my film uses AI? The publi
shed rules impose no such requirement. For a documentary submis
sion, voluntary disclosure is prudent: the Archival Producers Alliance guidelines explicitly recommend transparency toward production collaborators and toward audiences. State it clearly in your synopsis and include acknowledgment in the end credits. Which section will my film be in? Filmmakers cannot designate
a section or competition track when applying. Th
e festival programmers make that determination internally, and the event hosts seven distinct competitions, with prizes ranging from the 10,000 EUR DOX:AWARD down to the 1,400 EUR INTER:ACTIVE AWARD. Experimental and formally adventurous work is evaluated for inclusion in the NEW:VISION strand. Must my film be a
world premiere? Within the competitive sections,
the festival gives preference to world premieres, followed by international premieres and European premieres in descending order. The non-competitive sidebar sections require only a Danish premiere for eligibility. A film that has already been publicly exhibited in Denmark or made accessible on Danish VOD platforms is ineligible unless special authorisation is granted in adva
nce. Is there a jury I can read about? Each compe
tition is adjudicated by a specially appointed jury panel, with the exception of the Audience Award. The rules published on 1 October 2026 do not name individual jurors and provide no published criteria or scoring weights, so treat any external site claiming to list them as unreliable. Can I send a work in
progress? Yes, absolutely. Work-in-progress
versions are explicitly welcomed for preview purposes, and a film may be registered initially with nothing more than a synopsis and credits while the preview link is still being prepared. Be transparent in your materials about which elements remain under construction.

Register by 3 November. Start with the treatment.

Start the treatment at no cost. Board the sequences you author, and keep your cue sheet from the first prompt.
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