The festival takes place in various cinemas across Leipzig. Some of our cinemas and screening venues are accessible without using stairs. Around half of our venues are fully accessible, with most offering designated wheelchair spaces. We strive to provide clear and readable signage to help visitors navigate the festival.

Our festival centre at the Museum der bildenden Künste (Katharinenstraße 10) is also fully accessible. A few weeks before the festival, we will publish a detailed accessibility guide here.

Visitors with disabilities can purchase tickets at a reduced price from the first degree of disability — no official disability ID required.

Wheelchair spaces can be booked both at our ticket counters and online via our webshop, with or without a companion. Wheelchair users also receive discounted tickets without needing to present a disability ID.

In collaboration with Diakonie Leipzig, we have previously offered an accompanying service for festival visitors with visual or physical disabilities. Information about this year’s service will be published here in October 2025.

Selected films in our programme are screened with audio description or extended subtitles – both of which are in German. Audio descriptions can be accessed via the Greta app on a smartphone, while subtitles are displayed directly on the screen.

In addition, selected film talks at the festival are interpreted into German Sign Language. We are currently unable to offer an accessible programme of films in English.

Why aren’t all films accessible?
 

Some of the films at DOK Leipzig have never before been screened in cinemas. Many are completed only a short time before the festival begins and have their premieres here. Others are retrieved from the archives and are decades old, so that accessible versions of most of them do not yet exist. The German audio descriptions and SDH versions found in our programme of accessible films are ones which have been created specifically for the festival.

At DOK Leipzig, we screen many films that have never been shown in cinemas before. Some are completed just before the festival and celebrate their premiere with us, while others come from archives and may be several decades old. Therefore accessible versions don‘t exist.

Since accessible versions are often unavailable, we create audio descriptions, subtitles, and SDH versions specifically for our accessible film programme.

A few films may contain light effects that may trigger reactions in people with photosensitivity. We indicate this with an icon (in form of a flash) in the printed programme, on the film’s webpage and in the online calendar.

We want all festival visitors to feel safe and welcome. Our Awareness Team supports anyone who has experienced discrimination or inappropriate behaviour.

Team members wear purple vests labeled "Awareness" and are available at set times in the festival centre, as well as via phone and email. Contact details and availability times will be published on this page in October 2025.

For visitors who need a low-stimulation retreat due to health reasons, we provide a Quiet Room. To access it, please contact the Awareness Team.

A few weeks before the festival, we will publish a detailed accessibility guide on our website. We also provide an accessible PDF listing all films available with audio descriptions and/or SDH.

In a working group made up of colleagues from different departments, we discuss strategies and establish guidelines for the organisation and our activities.

We also actively seek feedback from people with disabilities to improve our efforts. In 2025, test groups from dzb lesen will assess our website’s accessibility for visually impaired users through two rounds of testing.