北欧纪录片电影节的宗旨是促进中国与北欧五国文化的交流和发展，繁荣记录片创作。
第一届北欧纪录片电影节是06年大山子国际艺术节视觉艺术单元的一部分。电影节展出了包括Lars von Trier获奥斯卡最佳纪录片提名的作品《五道电影难题》在内的九部北欧电影力作，每天两场，历时一个星期，赢得了观众积极的反响。影展探讨了记录片作为大众传播媒介的多种表达方式，展出了瑞典，丹麦和挪威近年出品的种类风格徊异的记录片。影展还重点介绍了国际大导演Lars von Trier的记录片宣言Dogumentary Manifesto。与中国观众一起讨论记录片宣言中以限定操控的方式来接近真实的努力。电影节得到了包括瑞典，挪威和丹麦大使馆，北欧各国电影协会以及所有导演的大力支持。据统计，参加电影节的电影爱好者，学生，普通观众加上记录片工作者近千人。
2007年，北欧纪录片节与绿色和平合作在798艺术节和迷笛音乐节上播放了瑞典电视台有史以来最大的记录片投资项目－《地球》。以求唤起更多的人对全球变化问题的关注。地球的导演之一约翰索德伯格访问了影展，瑞典大使林川亲自到场致词并观看了电影。
2008年北欧纪录片电影节计划把主题和焦点放在国际社会生活中的新闻事件和社会问题。探讨记录片作为大众传播媒体所承载的社会意义。作品有关全球化问题，有关战争与恐怖主义，移民和宗教，有关消费与人文环境问题等。我们推荐的影片包括了倍受国际媒体关注的挪威纪录片《USA vs Al Arian》和获IDFA伊文斯大奖的丹麦纪录片《修道院》等十几部影片。
Nordox is an annual meeting point for Nordic documentary films held in Beijing, China. The festival is recognized as a place to meet new, creative, cutting-edge contemporary documentary film from the Nordic countries where every year new themes and perspectives are explored. The festival attracts a high presence of Chinese as well as an international audience in Beijing.
Nordox was founded in 2006 as part of the Dashanzi International Art Festival on the grounds of 798 art district. The festival programme was set up as an exploration into the film language for documentary. With its 2006 selection Nordox aimed to transcend the boundaries of existing documentary film classification. The programme especially focused on director Lars von Trier’s Dogumentary Manifesto, this was chosen to set off a discussion about minimizing manipulation within documentary film production and whether or not this could bring us closer to reality. The festival received positive feedback from both audience and media. Over the course of the week the festival received an estimated 1000 festival visitors.
The 2007 version of Nordox took place at both the 798 Art Festival and the MIDI Music Festival, in co-operation with Greenpeace, Nordox showed one of the most ambitious projects in the history of the Swedish National Television Company – “The Planet”, as a call for more environmental awareness and action. The film was widely seen and well received by the Midi Festival and 798 Art Festival visitors.
International news cases and their social and political implications were a focus point for last year’s Nordox 2008 festival, this was set up as a platform to discuss the social and ethical value of documentary film art as a form of mass media. 2008 saw an extension of our programme with numerous director and filmmaker visits and Q&A discussions with an enthusiastic audience response. The festival was held inside UCCA, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art’s screening room, inside the 798 art district. UCCA founder Guy Ullens and the Swedish ambassador Mikael Lindström attended the opening.
