The DOK Leipzig programme is complete, and ticket sales can begin! For the 68th edition from 27 October to 2 November, we are presenting a total of 252 films and XR works from 55 countries.
“Most of the films sent to us in the post-pandemic period have dealt with family situations and inner thoughts. This year, however, numerous documentaries and animated films have returned to looking outward,” says festival director Christoph Terhechte. “They address the threat of environmental destruction, resistance to political violence, the fight against exploitation, and strategies for human resilience under extreme circumstances.”
As of today, the entire programme — including all screening times and venues — is available on our website. Tickets are now on sale.
Browse the programme and buy your cinema tickets now: Festival Programme
Our Competitions 2025
A total of 78 short and feature-length films are nominated for the Golden and Silver Doves, including 30 world premieres.
In the International Competition Documentary Film, nine feature-length and eleven short films are competing for the awards. They emphasise, among other things, the value of cultures at risk of being forgotten, or explore the destructive impact of humans on their habitat. Others address themes of sex education, intimacy and experiences of sexual abuse.
The International Competition Animated Film brings together five feature-length and 23 short films, offering a wide range of artistic approaches and animation techniques. Their stories revolve around more or less radical forms of activism, Indigenous communities, and philosophy. They reflect on experiences of war, probe power structures and the supernatural, explore intimacy and bodily transformation, and grapple with the complexities of being different.
In the German Competition Documentary Film, eight feature-length and twelve short films are in the running. They draw connections between Germany’s past and present or explore how the institution of school is used for state agenda. One film follows a Ugandan feminist who confronts the country’s oppose incumbent head of state using provocative means. The short films recount the experiences of refugees, offer sensitive portrayals of loneliness and emotional pain, and record memories: of disappearing rivers, of state-enforced violence and policies of assimilation.
The Audience Competition features ten feature-length films that premiered at major international festivals. They portray, among others, a small U.S. town that romanticises the history of slavery, follow three drag queens in Ukraine or the leader of an Indigenous community in Brazil. Other films accompany an Israeli comedian who has long worked for understanding between Palestinians and Israelis, or tell the story of a Danish artist who took money from a museum, regarding the stunt a performative work of art.
For more information, please read the press release on the competitions.
