Danish Dogme films are set for a new chapter, as Zentropa has reached an agreement with Netflix to bring five new Dogme 25 titles to Nordic audiences after their theatrical release. The deal connects one of Denmark’s most influential film movements with a streaming platform that has become central to how Nordic cinema reaches viewers beyond national borders.
Dogme 25 revives a Danish film movement three decades later
The new project, called Dogme 25, was founded in Copenhagen in spring 2025 by a collective of filmmakers. It comes 30 years after Dogme 95, the Danish movement that reshaped European cinema in the 1990s with its strict rules, low-budget discipline and focus on realism.
Dogme 95 was launched by Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg in 1995. Its “vow of chastity” rejected artificial lighting, genre conventions, non-diegetic music and other techniques seen as distancing cinema from reality. The movement quickly became one of Denmark’s most recognisable cultural exports, with films such as Festen (The Celebration) and Idioterne (The Idiots) helping to define a rawer and more immediate visual language.
Dogme 25 does not simply repeat the old formula. Its rules reflect a different cultural and technological moment. According to Zentropa, the new manifesto requires the screenplay to be original and written by the director by hand, bans the use of the internet in all creative processes, limits the crew behind the camera to ten people, and requires the film to be made within one year. At least half of each film must contain no dialogue.
The rules also address financing and production ethics. Filmmakers may only accept money when no counter-demand affects the content, and everything connected to production must be rented, borrowed, found or used. The final rule is deliberately existential: make the film as if it were the last one.
Netflix will stream all five new Dogme 25 films in the Nordics
Zentropa, the production company behind several of the original Dogme films, said it has entered into an agreement with Netflix in the Nordics for the five new Dogme 25 films. Under the deal, all titles will be released on Netflix in the Nordic region after their cinema distribution. They will later also be shown on DR, Denmark’s public broadcaster.
Producer Louise Vesth of Zentropa described Netflix’s participation, together with DR and Nordisk Film’s theatrical distribution, as a major step for Dogme 25, the films and film art. The agreement gives the project a hybrid path: a traditional cinema release first, followed by streaming distribution across the Nordic market.
For Netflix, the deal fits into a broader strategy of investing in Nordic content while relying on filmmakers with strong local identities. Jenny Stjernströmer Björk, vice president of Nordic content at Netflix, said the company was pleased to work with directors who challenge form and audience expectations. She added that some of the filmmakers had already worked with Netflix, and that the platform now looked forward to giving the films a life after cinemas.
The arrangement also highlights a wider shift in European cinema. Independent and auteur-led films increasingly depend on multiple distribution channels to reach audiences. In this case, Dogme 25 keeps the symbolic value of theatrical release while using Netflix to expand access across Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland.
Mr. Nawashi will be the first film in the new Dogme wave
The first new Dogme 25 film is already in production. Mr. Nawashi, written and directed by Isabella Eklöf, is expected to be released in 2027. The film is described as a love drama and stars Tanya Holm Andersen and Esben Smed.
Eklöf is one of the initiators of Dogme 25. She previously directed Holiday and Kalak, and has worked on international television series including Servant and Industry. Her involvement gives the new movement a clear link between Danish arthouse cinema and the global streaming-era production system.
The other filmmakers behind Dogme 25 are May el-Toukhy, Milad Alami, Annika Berg and Jesper Just. Together, they represent a generation of Danish and Nordic-based directors working across cinema, television and visual art.
Their decision to return to a rule-based model comes at a time when film production is increasingly shaped by digital tools, international financing and algorithm-driven platforms. By banning the internet from the creative process and limiting crew size, Dogme 25 appears to present itself as a counter-movement to speed, scale and digital dependence.
A Nordic cinema experiment with international relevance
The new wave of Danish Dogme films is likely to attract attention beyond Denmark because Dogme 95 remains one of the few European film manifestos to have had a lasting global impact. Its influence was not only aesthetic. It also showed that small countries could shape international cinema by using constraints as a form of artistic identity.
Dogme 25 now tests whether a similar idea can work in a very different media environment. The original movement emerged before streaming, smartphones and social media transformed both production and distribution. The new manifesto responds directly to that landscape, especially through its ban on internet use and its insistence on physical, limited and time-bound filmmaking.
Netflix’s role adds a further tension. A movement built on artistic restrictions will reach audiences through one of the world’s largest streaming platforms. That contrast may become part of the project’s appeal: Dogme 25 is both a rejection of some contemporary production habits and a recognition that Nordic cinema now circulates through global digital infrastructure.
For Denmark and the wider Nordic region, the project could renew interest in auteur cinema at a time when national film industries are balancing public funding, theatrical audiences and streaming partnerships. Whether Dogme 25 becomes a lasting movement or a focused artistic experiment will depend on the films themselves. But with Zentropa, DR, Nordisk Film and Netflix involved, the return of Dogme has already become a significant cultural event.
