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It may be evolving into a genre, but I’m not sure that the becoming school of music documentary holds all that much promise. “Becoming Led Zeppelin,” released two months ago (after playing at the Venice Film Festival four years ago and then being rescued by Sony Pictures Classics and streamlined into zippier shape), has certainly been a resounding success. Marketed as an IMAX spectacular, it has made $10 million, and it’s a captivating Zep documentary, with one major qualifier: A story-of-the-band portrait that culminates in the release of “Led Zeppelin II,” the movie can’t help but leave you with a feeling of “Damn! Are we really not going to get to Led Zeppelin’s untitled fourth record ­— a.k.a. the ‘Stairway to Heaven’ album?” It’s obviously the band’s masterpiece, and the fact that the documentary stops short of including it feels like a perverse consequence of the becoming genre.

As Cph:dox gears up for its 2025 edition, organizers have unveiled an audacious program of more than 200 films with a sharp focus on human rights under the theme “Right Here, Right Now.”

With 94 world premieres – 68 of them feature-length, the highest number in the festival’s history – Cph:dox continues to expand its global footprint.

For the third consecutive year, all main competition titles are world premieres. While this is not a formal selection criterion, artistic director Niklas Engstrøm tells Variety, “The fact that top directors chose to premiere their films with us speaks volumes about how the festival has grown.” He adds that shifting the festival from November to March in 2017 strengthened its global standing, positioning it as the go-to European launchpad for U.S. filmmakers after Sundance.

Niklas Engstrom

Hot Sundance titles heading to Cph:Dox include “Mr Nobody against Putin,” “The Dating Game” and “Zodiac Killer Project.”

Among the world...

Madonna, the iconic Queen of Pop, is opening up about the profound impact her mother’s death had on her life, sharing intimate memories in the new Sky documentary Becoming Madonna. The 66-year-old singer, who lost her mother, Madonna Louise Ciccone, at the tender age of five, delves deep into how the tragedy shaped her emotional and psychological development. In a series of archival clips and…

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Sky Documentaries UK, Optomen and All3Media Intl. have revealed the trailer (above and below) for original feature documentary “Becoming Madonna,” which premieres on Dec. 30 on pay TV platform Sky in the U.K.

“Becoming Madonna” is an immersive and archive built film around recently uncovered audio tapes in which a young Madonna reflects on her life and career. The film shows the star as “we’ve never seen her before,” according to a statement, with rare footage, unseen photos and intimate recordings with those close to her during her rise to fame, some of whom have never spoken in a documentary before.

When Madonna arrived in New York City from Michigan with dreams of becoming a professional dancer, it was the start of an epic journey. The film charts the period 1978-1992 as Madonna transformed herself from insecure 19-year-old outsider to the most controversial pop star in the world,...