Festival Review 2024
From 28/10 to 3/11, the audiences had the chance to find 209 films and XR works from 55 countries in venues all over Leipzig. In addition, one film per day was available online for 24 hours throughout Germany in the DOK Stream.
The 67th edition of the documentary and animated film festival DOK Leipzig was exceptionally well received by audiences and members of the film industry. The festival drew a total of 55,000 filmgoers this year – more than ever before. The films in the Audience Competition and in the short film reels as well as events such as Animation Night and Animation Perspectives were particularly well received.
We are also delighted with the great demand for the long animated films, the retrospective and the matinees. The free screenings at the main railway station were also extremely popular. Last but not least, our XR exhibition DOK Neuland attracted more than twice as many visitors as last year.
DOK Leipzig 2024 drew well over two thousand accredited professionals, who noticeably increased the popularity of the industry events, to network, to present new projects or to discover them
The network and inspiration programme DOK Exchange XR was extended from one to two days for the first time in order to offer more opportunities for the international community of XR creators, producers and distributors and offer more space to exchange ideas about new types of interactive and immersive storytelling.
The Industry Talks covered issues such as the archival politics of (neo-)colonialism, case studies on animated documentaries and the dividing line between documentary and fiction film.
In addition to the on-site events, accredited guests also had the opportunity to follow panel discussions and project presentations online via livestreams.
23 awards were presented, including the nine Golden and Silver Doves. The 10,000-euro Golden Dove Feature-Length Film in the International Competition Documentary Film went to Dominique Cabrera for her documentary “La Jetée, the Fifth Shot” (Switzerland, Canada). The Golden Dove for a feature-length animated film went to László Csáki for “Pelikan Blue” (Hungary).
As part of DOK Industry, five awards were given out to outstanding documentary film projects in development or in production. The awards were presented in cooperation with international partners.
