In a revival of the minimalist spirit first seen in Dogme 95, five Scandinavian filmmakers introduced Dogma 25 at a Cannes event hosted by Zentropa. Their aim: to counter the dominance of algorithm-driven content by making five features within a year using handwritten scripts and excluding internet-based tools from the creative process.
May el-Toukhy, whose Queen of Hearts served as Denmark’s 2019 Oscars submission, leads the collective. She joined Milad Alami (The Charmer), Annika Berg (Hurricane), Isabella Eklöf (Holiday) and visual artist Jesper Just to present a manifesto they called “a cultural uprising.” Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, co-founders of the original Dogme 95, offered their endorsement.
Ten Vows for a New Era
Scripts must be original and handwritten by the director.
At least half the film runs without dialogue.
Internet use is banned during all creative stages.
Funding must arrive with no creative conditions attached.
Crews may include no more than ten people behind the camera.
Shooting takes place on location.
No makeup or body manipulation beyond narrative necessity.
Props must be rented, borrowed, found or repurposed.
Projects must finish within one year.
Administrative email use is limited to logistics only.
El-Toukhy described rising costs and reduced budgets as a threat to arthouse filmmaking. “Prices climbed after the pandemic, yet production scales shrank. Risk disappears when funds grow scarce,” she said. “Mainstream borrows from independent film. If that source dries up, originality vanishes.”
Visual Storytelling at the Forefront
Berg stressed the need to break free from algorithmic influence. “We rely on the internet for inspiration, yet that ties us to platforms designed to shape our tastes,” she said. Eklöf, whose Holiday earned Denmark’s Bodil Award, has already plotted her first Dogma 25 feature about a sadomasochistic relationship told with naturalism. “I want to portray intimacy without sensationalism,” she explained.
Just welcomed the chance to explore filmmaking from the inside. “I often critique cinema from afar. Now I’ll test whether true art can emerge without digital crutches,” he said.
Heritage and Support
Dogme 95’s original ten rules spawned 212 certified films from 1995 onward, including Vinterberg’s The Celebration and von Trier’s The Idiots. Zentropa managing directors Louise Vesth and Sisse Graum Jørgensen secured base financing of DKK 10 million (about $1.5 million) per film. Partners include Nordisk Film, Danish broadcaster DR and the Danish Film Institute, with TrustNordisk handling international sales.
Vesth noted the challenge for investors: “They commit funds without seeing a script or altering content. That trust builds a direct link between financiers and filmmakers.” Tine Fischer of the Danish Film Institute called the manifesto “a bold reset at a time when technology threatens the human touch in cinema.”
First Films on the Horizon
Each member plans to begin shooting in the coming months. Alami, whose The Opponent premiered at Berlin Panorama 2023, said he hopes Dogma 25 inspires peers to reclaim authorship and surprise audiences. Members expect all five films to be in production by spring 2026.
