Dogma isn’t useless!
In a packed presser this afternoon on the Zentropa villa in Cannes, filmmakers Could el-Toukhy, Milad Alami, Annika Berg, Isabella Eklöf and Jesper Simply introduced that they’re launching a rebranded Dogma manifesto, styled as Dogma 25, to “defend the creative integrity of function movie and create area for uncompromising cinematic storytelling.”
The manifesto comprises 10 new dogmas, and the filmmakers mentioned they’ve taken a “new vow of chastity” to uphold the foundations, which they defined are influenced by three central themes: a return to the bodily actuality, aesthetic restrain and financial and geographic accountability. You possibly can learn the complete listing of dogmas beneath.
No. 1 on the listing compels every director to solely work on screenplays which might be unique and handwritten by the director. The listing calls for that the web is off limits in all artistic processes, and the filmmakers should solely settle for funding with no content-altering circumstances hooked up.
Dogma 25 arrives 30 years after the unique Dogma 95, which included Lars von Trier, Thomas Vinterberg, Søren Kragh-Jacobsen and Kristian Levring. Movies produced below the earlier manifesto embody such seminal European options as Festen (1998) and The Idiots (1998).
Of their new manifesto, the Dogma 25 group mentioned they “rejoice Dogma 95, the filmmakers who got here earlier than us, and people who will come after.”
“We stand collectively to defend creative freedom as a defend in opposition to pointlessness and powerlessness. Dogma 25 is a rescue mission and a cultural rebellion,” they wrote.
The manifesto’s preamble continues: “In a world the place formulaic movies primarily based on algorithms and synthetic visible expression are gaining traction, it’s our mission to face up for the flawed, distinct, and human imprint. We champion the uncompromising and unpredictable, and we struggle in opposition to the forces working to cut back cinematic artwork to an ultra-processed client product.”
In response, Vinterberg and von Trier added in a press release: “In ’95, we made movies within the certainty of peace. And created a revolt in opposition to conformity. In ’25, new dogmas are created, now in a world of battle and uncertainty. We want you the most effective of luck in your march towards reconquering Danish movie.”
El-Toukhy is a director and screenwriter finest recognized for her 2019 function Queen of Hearts, which debuted at Sundance. Alami is behind the 2023 function Opponent, which debuted at Berlin and was submitted as Sweden’s entry for the Worldwide Oscar. Berg is a filmmaker and visible artist. Her function Crew Hurricane (2017) received the Verona Movie Membership Award at Venice.
Eklöf made her directorial debut with the Sundance title movie Vacation (2018). She additionally directed Kalak (2023), which received the Particular Prize of the Jury at San Sebastian. She can be the co-writer of Ali Abbasi’s Border. Simply is a video artist and filmmaker. He represented Denmark on the fifty fifth Venice Biennale and has been the topic of quite a few solo exhibitions, together with Palais de Tokyo (Paris), Guggenheim (NYC), and Eye Filmmuseum (Amsterdam). His work is included in a number of everlasting public collections comparable to MoMA, The Met, and Tate Fashionable.
Manifesto:
DOGMA 25 is a collective of filmmakers based in Copenhagen within the spring of 2025. Our acknowledged objective is to protect the originality of cinema and the chance to create movie by itself phrases.
The function of the director has more and more been decreased to that of undertaking supervisor, the movie to a commodity, and the viewers to shoppers. Experimental apply is stifled by concern of risktaking, which suffocates creative exploration and silences distinctive voices. When movies are merely executed and never allowed to evolve organically, it places the artwork kind at risk of changing into useful, obedient and thereby irrelevant.
In a world the place formulaic movies primarily based on algorithms and synthetic visible expression are gaining traction, it’s our mission to face up for the flawed, distinct, and human imprint. We champion the uncompromising and unpredictable and we struggle the forces working to cut back cinematic artwork to an ultra-processed client good.
By cutting down manufacturing, we make sure that everybody on the crew has an intimate relationship with the movie and its message. This can improve mutual belief and a way of collective duty for the movie and for one another. It additionally permits us to safeguard the flexibleness that’s very important in making a artistic course of dynamic and intuitive, somewhat than purely government.
We rejoice DOGMA 95, all of the filmmakers who got here earlier than us, and people who will come after. We stand collectively to defend creative freedom as a defend in opposition to pointlessness and powerlessness. DOGMA 25 is a rescue mission and a cultural rebellion.
To guard and protect what we maintain expensive, we hereby undergo the unflinching and unbreakable algorithm referred to as: THE VOW OF CHASTITY.
THE VOW OF CHASTITY: I vow to undergo the next algorithm drawn up and confirmed by DOGMA 25:
1. The script have to be unique and handwritten by the director. We compel ourselves to write down the script by hand as a way to nurture the sort of instinct that flows most freely from the dream, channelled via the hand onto the paper.
2. At the least half the movie have to be with out dialogue. We insist on a cinematic method to filmmaking, as a result of we consider in visible storytelling and think about the viewers.
3. The web is off limits in all artistic processes. We commit to provide the movies counting on actual folks inside our bodily actuality – somewhat than in a digital one infused with algorithms.
4. We’ll solely settle for funding with no content material altering circumstances hooked up. We assume duty for maintaining budgets down so the crew retains remaining say in all creative choices.
5. Not more than 10 folks behind the digital camera. We decide to working in shut collaborations to construct belief and strengthen our shared imaginative and prescient.
6. The movie have to be shot the place the narrative takes place. Movie as an artwork kind turns into synthetic and generic once we painting a location in a false gentle.
7. We’re not allowed to make use of make-up or manipulate faces and our bodies except it’s a part of the narrative. Simply as we try to keep up the authenticity of the placement, we additionally need to painting the human physique and not using a filter. We rejoice it – warts and all.
8. All the things referring to the movie’s manufacturing have to be rented, borrowed, discovered, or used. We commit to creating movies utilizing objects that exist already and resign the ahistorical and self-destructive tradition of consumerism.
9. The movie have to be made in no multiple yr. We abstain from any prolonged processes that stand in the best way of artistic stream.
10. Create the movie as if it have been your final.
