The Doc Alliance Awards 2021 have been revealed on 13 July in Cannes. With these prizes, the European festival network honours the first and second films of emerging filmmakers.

This year’s award for Best Feature Film went for the first time to the category nomination by our festival: Congratulations to The Blunder of Love by Rocco Di Mento! The film competed for the Audience Award at DOK Leipzig 2020.

A film about shaky family truths

In his search through family archives, Rocco Di Mento unearths old 8mm home movies, an unpublished novel, various love letters and a whole host of long-suppressed feelings – a mixture that begins to develop a dynamic of its own. The issue becomes not just about the search for the love of one’s life, but also the question of what holds people together beyond their relationship status and degree of kinship.

The awards jury also praised the filmmaker’s “charming curiosity, that evolves into a genuine deconstruction of myth and a discrete revelation of family secrets and trauma and how it is passed on from generation to generation.”

You can get some first insights into the story of the film with the Director’s Short Cut Rocco Di Mento sent us for last year’s screenings. Watch it now on Vimeo!

A new award for short films

The first ever Doc Alliance Award – Best Short Film went to Tatiana Chistova for Bless You!, which was nominated by Millennium Docs Against Gravity. We congratulats the filmmaker, who also has been part of our festival programme with her film in 2020.

The winners Bless You! and The Blunder of Love alongside further nominated films are currently available on demand at dafilms.com – the streaming platform of Doc Alliance.

The award ceremony took place at Cannes Docs, the documentary-focused industry programme at Cannes Film Festival. In the frames of the event, Doc Alliance also presented its brand-new website where the festival network explains its year-round activities.

DOK Leipzig summer cinema is back! This year we’re featuring ten festival films at cinemas outdoors. From 10 to 28 August, former festival highlights will air at the park stage at Clara Zetkin Park, Luru Kino in der Spinnerei, and Westgarten Leipzig.

The entire summer cinema programme and more about the films can be found at DOK 365. Tickets will be available soon at the respective venues.

Hygiene and distance regulations are in place at each location. Please follow the rules and don’t forget to wear your mask.

We look forward to enjoying evenings at the movies with you. See you soon at the summer cinema!

Starting in 2008, the seven-member network of European documentary festivals Doc Alliance introduced an annual competition for feature-length films of emerging filmmakers – the Doc Alliance Award. This year, a new category for short films will be added to the award. Both prizes are endowed with 8.000 Euro. The winners, feature and short, will be announced on 13 July at Cannes Film Festival. as part of the Doc Day industry programme at Cannes Docs.

The nominees are ...

Each Doc Alliance festival chose one long and one short film from their programme. A jury comprised of seven international film critics decides on the winners.

Our programme team selected the feature-length documentary The Blunder of Love by Rocco Di Mento and the short film Elefantin by Marie Zrenner and Johanna Seggelke to compete for this year’s Doc Alliance Award.

Nominated for Best Feature Film

• A Black Jesus (DE), dir: Luca Lucchesi, nominated by Millenium Docs Against Gravity
• The Blunder of Love (DE), dir: Rocco Di Mento, nominated by DOK Leipzig
• Gabi, Between Ages 8-13 (SE, DK), dir: Engeli Broberg, nominated by CPH:DOX
• Looking for Horses (NL, BA, FR), dir: Stefan Pavlović, nominated by Visions du Réel
• Native Rock (ES), Regie: Macià Florit Campins, nominated by Doclisboa
• Traces of a Landscape (CZ, IT), dir: Petr Záruba, nominated by Ji.hlava IDFF
• Zaho Zay (AT, FR, MG), dir: Maéva Ranaïvojaona, Georg Tiller, nominated by FID Marseille

Nominated for Best Short Film

• Baroque Femina (Nr.7-11) (HU), dir: Péter Lichter, nominated by Ji.hlava IDFF
• Bless you! (PL, RU), dir: Tatiana Chistova, Maciej Hamela, nominated by Millenium Docs Against Gravity
• Elefantin (DE), dir: Marie Zrenner, Johanna Seggelke, nominated by DOK Leipzig
• Summer Night by the Beach (DK), dir: Kirsten Astrup, Maria Bordorff, nominated by CPH:DOX
• The Stillness Syndrome (CO, ES), dir: León Siminiani, nominated by Visions du Réel
• The Sun and the Looking Glass - for one easily forgets but the tree remembers (PS, BE), dir: Milena Desse, nominated by FID Marseille
• Terraforming (PT), dir: Ricardo Moreira, nominated by Doclisboa

Who are the jury members?

This year’s jury members are the film journalists Vasco Câmara, Kristoffer Hegnsvad, Sandra Onana, Ola Salwa, Pavel Sladký, Simone Späni and Carolin Weidner.

Watch the Doc Alliance Selection online

A selection of the nominated films will be available on demand at Doc Alliance’s platform, DAFilms.com, from 5 to 18 July, including our candidate The Blunder of Love and many more. Visit dafilms.com to watch the films.

We keep our fingers crossed for our nominees, and we are looking forward to celebrating the winners on 13 July!

Last year, we went hybrid – what’s to come this year? We are happy tp share some first insights into our programme with you:

We will return to big screens in the fall! For our 64th edition taking place from 25 to 31 October, we plan to air the complete film programme in selected Leipzig venues, and to celebrate a week of documentary and animated film with our audience on-site in Leipzig.

“This year's film programme is primarily intended to happen in the cinemas. With this, we are promoting a physical fresh start after a cultural dry spell,” festival director Christoph Terhechte says, adding that directors who visit Leipzig will discuss films in person with the audience in the movie theatres.

More to discover online: Welcome to the DOK Stream

After the festival week, our “DOK Stream” will launch online to serve those who wish to either deepen their festival experience or visit DOK Leipzig wholly online. The VoD film programme will feature a selection of festival films accessible to the German public during the first two weeks of November.

“Unlike in 2020, the online and offline film programme will not take place in parallel, because in 2021 we want to give priority to the cinemas. Nevertheless, we will include the best parts of last year’s hybrid offerings, as we assume that not all directors will be able to travel internationally,” Terhechte says. Our audience will once again have the option of viewing recordings of talks and other online formats to whet their appetites for the films.

DOK Industry goes hybrid

Taking the festival’s evolution a step further, the DOK Industry Programme for film professionals as hybrid will combine the best of both worlds, taking place in-person and online in 2021. “With a hybrid offering, we want to facilitate the industry's great desire to meet in person again, while ensuring that everyone can participate regardless of possible travel restrictions or other hurdles,” says Nadja Tennstedt, who took on leadership of DOK Industry's offerings this year.

The industry formats include the DOK Co-Pro Market, the short film pitch DOK Short n' Sweet, the rough-cut presentations DOK Preview, the DOK Film Market, the XR conference DOK Exchange, Meet the Experts, and talks. Partner presentations and podcasts will also be in the mix.

Please read more about our plans for DOK Leipzig 2021 in our Press Release.