Although documentary cinema forms part of our very name, animated film has developed into an equally important element over the years – including outstanding new productions in the competition programmes, the audience favourites “Animation Perspectives” and “Animation Night” and a DOK Industry programme full of animation. Across all this, we are always exploring the boundaries of animation: from animated documentaries via experimental films all the way to the DOK Neuland extended reality exhibition.

Animation Perspectives

Describing states of being in a game aesthetic: On Festival Thursday, filmmakers Franz Impler und Anton Cla give insights into their creative process in conversation with curator André Eckardt and show 13 of their films. Glitches and erratic spatial coordinates, striking design and shiny colours form a habitat for quirky figures and their absurd, ambiguous stories.

Animation Night: Outta Space

This year’s Animation Night imagines outer space in moving images on the Festival Friday. The curatorial duo Franka Sachse and Ben Sassen invites you to leave Earth’s reality behind and to set off on a cosmic journey into a universe of experimental films and live film performances. They promise “a chamber of wonders full of analogue sound techniques; hissings, cracklings and rattlings.”

Animation at DOK Industry

Roundtable, workshop, panel discussion. Conversational and networking formats. Animated documentary films, animated films, and XR works packed with animation. DOK Industry focuses on animation as well! The whole industry programme is already online und ready to be browsed by you.

The film programme goes online on Thursday, 8 October. On that day, we kick of the ticket sales, too.