The award-winning films of the 64th edition of DOK Leipzig have been chosen. The gala award ceremony for the Golden and Silver Doves was held on Saturday evening in front of a live audience at Leipzig’s CineStar.
International Competition Long Documentary and Animated Film
The Chinese documentary Father by Wei Deng has won the Golden Dove in the International Competition Long Documentary and Animated Film. The director’s first feature film is a portrait of generations about his father and grandfather that depicts tradition and change in Chinese society. The Golden Dove, which includes 10,000 euros, has been sponsored by Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk.
The Silver Dove for the best long documentary or animated film by an emerging director in the International Competition went to Karol Pałka for his first feature-length film, Bucolic. This Polish documentary observes a mother and her daughter in their secluded life in the countryside. The 6,000-euro award was sponsored by 3sat.
German Competition Long Documentary and Animated Film
In the German Competition Long Documentary and Animated Film, A Sound of My Own by Rebecca Zehr was awarded the Golden Dove. This documentary accompanies musician Marja Burchard, who followed in her father’s footsteps and became the bandleader of the legendary Krautrock collective Embryo. She carries on her father’s tradition while seeking her own musical path in a male-dominated industry. The 10,000-euro award was sponsored in part by Weltkino Filmverleih GmbH.
Competition for the Audience Award Long Documentary or Animated Film
The Golden Dove in the Competition for the Audience Award Long Documentary and Animated Film, which includes 3,000 euros, was awarded by the audience jury to Nikola Ilić and Corina Schwingruber Ilić for Dida. At the centre of the film is the filmmaker’s mother, Dida, who, due to a learning disability, has always been dependent on her mother, but longs for independence. A look at a family in transition.
International Competition Short Documentary and Animated Film
In the International Competition Short Documentary and Animated Film Abyssal by Alejandro Alonso, the documentary observation of a ship scrapyard in western Cuba, has been awarded a Golden Dove for best documentary film. The Golden Dove for best animated film went to Marta Pajek for Impossible Figures and Other Stories I, a complex exploration of transience, life and death. Alonso and Pajek have each received 3,000 euros in prize money.
German Competition Short Documentary and Animated Film
The Silver Dove in the German Competition Short Documentary and Animated Film, which includes 1,500 euros in prize money, went to Tang Han for her documentary Pink Mao, an analysis of the 100-yuan note, the largest denomination of Renminbi banknotes in the People’s Republic of China.
Competition for the Audience Award Short Documentary and Animated Film
The Silver Dove in the Competition for the Audience Award Short Documentary and Animated Film was awarded to Diana Cam Van Nguyen for her animated film Love, Dad, in which a young woman comes across a letter her father had written from prison 15 years prior. The award, which includes 1,500 euros, was sponsored by the Leipziger Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Filmkunst e.V.
An overview of all Award Winners, including Honorable Mentions, can be found here.
