The ceremony for the festival awards – the Golden and Silver Doves – was held on 14 October with a live audience at Leipzig’s Schaubühne Lindenfels. We congratulate all winners!

International Competition Documentary Film

The Golden Dove Feature-Length Film in the International Competition went to Peter Mettler, our 2023 Homage guest, for “While the Green Grass Grows”. The 10,000-euro Golden Dove is sponsored by Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk.

The Silver Dove for the best feature-length documentary by an up-and-coming director, was awarded to Hovhannes Ishkhanyan for the Armenian-French production “Beauty and the Lawyer”. The 6,000 euro award is sponsored by 3sat.

The Golden Dove Short Film, endowed with 3,000 euros, went to Bo Wang for “An Asian Ghost Story” (Netherlands, Hong Kong).

The Silver Dove Short Film, which includes 1,500 euros for the best short documentary by an up-and-coming director, sponsored by the Sächsische Landesanstalt für privaten Rundfunk und neue Medien (Saxon State Institute for Private Broadcasting and New Media, SLM), went to “30 Kilometres per Second” by Jani Peltonen (Finland).

International Competition Animated Film

In the International Competition Animated Film, the newly created Golden Dove Feature-Length Film, endowed with 3,000 euros, went to Xu Jingwei for “No Changes Have Taken in Our Life” (China), the story of a musician who tries in vain to find work after graduating from university.

The Golden Dove Short Film in conjunction with 1,500 euros, sponsored by the Deutsches Institut für Animationsfilm e. V., was awarded to Barbara Rupik for “Such Miracles Do Happen” (Poland). 

German Competition Documentary Film

The Golden Dove Feature-Length Film in the German Competition went to “One Hundred Four” by Jonathan Schörnig, a real-time documentation of a rescue at sea on the Mediterranean. This 10,000-euro award is donated by Doris Apell-Kölmel and Michael Kölmel.

The Golden Dove Short Film, in conjunction with 1,500 euros, was awarded to Franzis Kabisch for “getty abortions” (Germany, Austria).

Audience Competition

This year’s winner of the Golden Dove in the Audience Competition is selected by the jury members Billie Bauermeister, Fritz Czaplinski, Anna Eulitz, Charlotte Hennrich and Annegret Weiß. They honoured Asmae El Moudir for her documentary film “The Mother of All Lies” (Morocco, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar). The Audience Award is endowed with 3,000 euros, granted pro rata by Leipziger Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Filmkunst e. V..

See all winners, awards and read more about the juries here.