The competitions of the 65th edition of DOK Leipzig have been finalised. Now that the nominations are in for the short and long animated and documentary films for the International Competitions, the German Competitions and the Competitions for the Audience Awards, the programme of films is complete. Competing for the Golden and Silver Doves this year are 74 films, 48 of which are being screened in Leipzig as international or world premieres.

The International Competition Long Documentary and Animated Film is showcasing 13 works from the documentary film sector. These include films by first-time directors as well as works by multiple award-winning filmmakers. The range of form extends from observational style to performative dramatisations to the creative appropriation of archived images. The selection includes productions from Argentina, Canada, the Philippines and Lebanon.

Three documentary debut films use different approaches to tell biographical stories in the context of social institutions. “The Dependents” by Sofía Brockenshire combines a portrait of her father, a well-travelled Canadian immigration official, with reflections on borders, privileges and dependencies. In “The Invisible Frontier”, Mariana Flores Villalba films Mexican military exercises on a deserted island in the Pacific – and in doing so addresses the violent conditions in her country far from the images seen on film. Joseph Mangat’s “Divine Factory” portrays a factory outside Manila that manufactures statues of saints as a microcosm of the economic, social and spiritual conditions in the Philippines. These debut films by Brockenshire, Villalba and Mangat will each celebrate their world premiere in Leipzig.

Several films in this competition are based on archival research. Two of them take a look at colonial power structures: “Tropic Fever” by Mahardika Yudha, Robin Hartanto Honggare and Perdana Roswaldy examines visual material relating to Dutch colonists in Indonesia and finds the colonial ideology rooted in the plantation. Although there have been Dutch productions on similar themes, such as “Mother Dao, the Turtlelike” (1995, Silver Dove), this is the first time an Indonesian feature film has appropriated these images. Meanwhile, in her latest film, “Ciné-Guerrillas: Scenes from the Labudović Reels”, Mila Turajlić, to whom this year’s DOK Leipzig Homage is dedicated, draws on footage taken by Josip Broz Tito’s favourite cameraman, whose work during the Algerian War was a foreign policy mission by Yugoslavia.

The French production “A Hawk as Big as a Horse”, which Sasha Kulak presented at DOK Industry in 2021, will be screened as a world premiere. This film portrays a transgender ornithologist named Lydia who in a performative way transforms her surroundings on the outskirts of Moscow into something resembling the universe of “Twin Peaks”. The Canadian entry “A Night Song” by Félix Lamarche, also a world premiere, examines the controversial subject of assisted suicide. Also in competition: the latest works by Nikolaus Geyrhalter (“Matter Out of Place”), Corine Shawi (“Perhaps What I Fear Does Not Exist”) and Hernán Fernández (“Landscapes”).

The International Competition Short Documentary and Animated Film features a total of 24 works, of which eleven are animated and 13 are documentaries. Animation artists such as Priit Tender from Estonia and Elizabeth Hobbs from the UK, both veterans of DOK Leipzig, are returning this year to present the visual comedy of the genre. The documentary entries take us from the remote tracks of a motor-driven backup train in Colombia to a three-generation household experiencing the lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic in New York City.

Several short films reflect debates on authorship and truth as these relate to the creation of digital images. Claudia Larcher, for example, had an artificial intelligence create a film using analogue images. Gala Hernández López, meanwhile, focuses on gender stereotypes and the algorithmically influenced attention economics of what’s known as the incel scene.

“The films at this year’s festival confront us with genuine social realities, but they also teach us that documentary images must be approached with scepticism,” says festival director Christoph Terhechte. “: At a time when deep fakes are circulating online, DOK Leipzig regards itself as a platform that enables a critical discussion of the way images are being created and the forms of truth that are resulting from this.”

In the German Competition Long Documentary and Animated Film, “Uncanny Me” engages with this examination of how reality is depicted. In Katharina Pethke’s film, a young woman decides to have a deceptively real avatar made of herself for her work as a model – thus raising questions of morality and individuality. Sarah, the protagonist in “The Homes We Carry” (director: Brenda Akele Jorde), also reflects on her identity as the daughter of a German mother and a Mozambican father who was one of 20,000 contract workers in the GDR in the 1980s. When the Wall fell, he had to return to his home country and leave his family behind in Germany.

Also taking part in the German Competition is one of the three latest films by Heinz Emigholz, all of which are being screened at DOK Leipzig. “Slaughterhouses of Modernity” critiques German history by examining Argentinian, Bolivian and German architecture. Other competition entries include Tilman König’s portrait of his father, a former youth pastor from Jena whose stance against the far right was a source of controversy (“Pastor Lothar Stops”), Pepe Danquart’s “Daniel Richter” about the well-known painter and the latest film by Rainer Komers, which follows a man from Gelsenkirchen to his chosen country of residence, Japan (“Miyama, Kyoto Prefecture”).

Anne Isensee is also returning to DOK Leipzig and to the German Competition Short Documentary and Animated Film with her latest work. As is Falk Schuster, who, with Mike Plitt, is presenting an animated short film about a man who was sent to a juvenile re-education facility because his mother had publicly criticised the socialist regime in East Germany. Sixteen of the 18 entries in the two competitions will premiere in Leipzig.

In the Competition for the Audience Award Long Documentary and Animated Film, Pamela Meyer-Arndt’s entry also deals with the consequences of opposing the GDR. “Rebels” portrays the three artists Gabriele Stötzer, Cornelia Schleime and Tina Bara, each of whom ran afoul of the state. In 2019, the year of Volodymyr Zelensky’s election victory, “Three Women” by Maksym Melnyk takes us to an isolated Ukrainian village near the EU border. Martyna Peszko’s “Revolution 21” observes a theatre ensemble consisting of enthusiastic actors with Down’s Syndrome. All three films are celebrating their world premiere at this year’s edition of the festival.

Other films in the competition tell of a community of outsiders in the US state of Arizona and of a group of young people who grapple on stage with the impact of the war in eastern Ukraine.

The Competition for the Audience Award Short Documentary and Animated Film features a total of ten works, including a portrait of the band Moderat and a cinematic diary from Kyiv in the spring of 2022.

Complementing the programme of films will be roundtable discussions on three topics. The DOK Talk “animation@DOK Leipzig – Conversations on a Film Genre” is dedicated to animated films in the current festival programme. “Conducting the Archive – Conversations on Footage” will look, among other things, at the power structures involved in the collection of documents. Last but not least, at the DOK Talk “Architecture Film Art – Heinz Emigholz in Conversation”, Ralph Eue will welcome one of Germany’s most celebrated documentary filmmakers and artists. Parallel to the festival and along with screenings of Emigholz’s numerous films, a selection of his drawings will be exhibited at the Techne Sphere Leipzig from 14 October to 1 November.

The festival is presenting a total of 255 films and extended reality (XR) experiences from 55 countries, including 67 feature films and 179 short films. The venerable Kinobar Prager Frühling theatre will be joining DOK Leipzig as a new festival cinema in the southern part of town.

With the publication of the programme of films, including all screening times, ticket sales for the 65th festival edition have started. The festival will also be screening some of the films free of charge in the East Hall of Leipzig Central Station and at the Polish Institute. In accordance with the current Coronavirus Protection Ordinance, DOK Leipzig is not currently imposing any restrictions on access to the festival events. However, it is strongly recommended that you wear a mask covering your nose and mouth at all times while in the venues.

All competition film lists: see PDF document

Online film programme including all dates & online ticket sale: DOK Leipzig programme

After taking DOK Industry online in 2020 and hosting a hybrid version in 2021, this year the focus is back to in-person participation. Events will be held primarily on location from 17-21 October, with complementary formats such as livestreams, recordings and podcasts to make the programme accessible online. Following the festival week, additional online networking will be available for two days.

DOK Leipzig supports the Ukrainian film industry this year with an initiative created in cooperation with Docudays UA. Ukrainian filmmakers will be offered a platform to present their films and network with international industry representatives, forging partnerships that will strengthen the future of the country’s talents. During a DOK Industry Talk, Igor Savychenko (Babylon 13) and Lucie Kon (BBC Storyville) will present "One Day in Ukraine" (directed by Volodymyr Tykhyy), a successful direct collaboration between Ukrainian producers and a leading European broadcaster. The production serves as a case study for the discussion of how future collaborations between major broadcasters and Ukrainian or other regional filmmakers can be designed to gain visibility for their perspectives among a wider audience. In solidarity with the Docudays UA team, whose 19th edition could not take place in Kyiv this March due to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia, DOK Leipzig will present the national competition as well as the festival's opening film.

With several films in the festival programme, a French-Canadian delegation of producers and a delegation from Toronto’s Hot Docs Festival, Canada’s documentary industry will also have a strong presence at Leipzig.

A second DOK Industry Talk will feature the Re-Present Media initiative, which works to promote personal stories by filmmakers from underrepresented groups in documentary and non-fiction media. The starting point for the discussion will be their study, "The Power of Personal Documentary Films”, which presents experiences of emerging documentary filmmakers of colour in the North American film industry. With this talk, DOK Industry aims to build a bridge to European filmmakers of colour who develop subjects from their own personal stories.

A new format is the DOK Archive Market. Representatives from important European archives and footage libraries will present their work and provide information about their collections, licensing costs and access modalities. British Pathé, Getty Images, Huntley Film Archives, SVT Archives and rbb media will all be present, among others. Participants can also sit down with archive researchers and producers for speed consultations on researching and licensing footage for their projects.

In a parallel programme of discussions and case studies, filmmakers will present their experiences of working with archival material. Dr. Adelheid Heftberger will lead a behind-the-scenes tour of the German Federal Archives in a keynote speech. A discussion on decolonizing archives introduces the perspectives of filmmakers from the global south on footage created by the colonial powers.

In addition, the newly founded GRAP (federal association of German Researchers and Archive Producers) will be launched officially at DOK Leipzig.

One case study will be devoted to Netflix's true-crime production "Gladbeck: The Hostage Crisis", which uses only original footage to tell the story of a notorious 1988 hostage situation in West Germany. Mark Edwards (Netflix / Director of Original Documentary Features), Yan Schoenefeld (Film Five / Producer), post supervisor Juan Galva and archive producers Janne Gärtner and Monika Preischl will provide insights into their work on the film from different perspectives. "Gladbeck: The Hostage Crisis" will be screened at the festival in advance. Representatives of the film team will be present for a Q&A.

A master class by Serbian documentary filmmaker Mila Turajlić concludes the DOK Archive Market and the DOK Talk "Conducting the Archive – Conversations on Footage" will bring the topic to a close.

Friday at DOK Industry will focus on animation. The DOK Talk "animation@DOK Leipzig – Conversations on a Film Genre" discusses the selection of animated films in this year's festival programme. Špela Čadež will present her methods and artistic techniques in a master class. AG Animationsfilm will address the question of the role festivals play for the overall success of short films, feature animation and even series. With "Animation Meets Doc", DOK Industry provides a networking opportunity for documentary filmmakers and animation artists. DOK Leipzig's film programme also features a series of programmes on the art of animation.

DOK Exchange will take place in hybrid form. At this year's conference, XR industry experts will give keynote speeches: Michael Nebeling (researcher and innovator of XR tools for safety and prototyping), Viviana Hochstätter (Creative Producer), Michaela Pňačeková (XR artist, producer, and researcher), Monika Masłoń (VR director, visual artist and art educator).They will talk about different areas of XR art, including expanding spatial imagination in the process of prototyping, healthy embodiment practices, the future of social VR, designing and curating emotional convergence of virtual and physical worlds, and finding alternative sources of financing for XR projects. At the online showcase, more than 20 experts will advise six innovative XR projects in the development phase.

The third season of the DOK Industry Podcast in collaboration with "What's Up with Docs" and the "Programmers of Color Collective" is released during the festival week. The episodes focus on representation and diversity in the documentary industry.

New this year is the DOK Film Market Lounge in the basement of the MdbK (Festival Centre). It offers a place for film viewing with one's own device, as well as encounters and meetings in a relaxed atmosphere.

Six prizes will be awarded at DOK Industry. For the first time, Unifrance will honour a French production or co-production at the DOK Co-Pro Market. The winner will be decided by the Co-Pro Jury and receive subtitles services (sponsored by TitraFilm) and a Unifrance membership for the French producer. The EWA Diverse Voices Award will honour a project by a female director who tells a story from a point of view thus far marginalised and underrepresented in the world of film (along with 1,000 euros and a year-long mentorship by DOK Leipzig). Further prizes are the Saxon Award for the Best Documentary Project by a Female Director (5,000 euros) and the Current Time TV Award for a project from Central or Eastern Europe (1,500 euros). One of the short film projects presented at DOK Short n’ Sweet will receive the Square Eyes Festival Consultation Award, which includes a tailor-made consultation on festival strategy. And our partner D-Facto Motion will once again award the D-Facto Motion Works-in-Progress Prize to one of the projects presented at the rough-cut presentations at DOK Preview Germany, providing post-production services valued at 10,000 euros.

The initiative to support Ukrainian filmmakers is funded as a special project "Docudays UA at DOK Leipzig" by Germany’s Federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media.

Thanks to support by the Ukrainian Institute and the Goethe-Institut and Goethe-Institut in Exile, additional filmmakers and delegations from Ukraine will be able to participate in the festival and the industry offerings in Leipzig.

Find the full programme here: DOK Industry Programme A-Z

All dates and events: DOK Industry Schedule

The Docudays UA International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival could not be held in Kyiv this past March due to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. Therefore, in a show of solidarity with the Docudays UA team, DOK Leipzig will be providing a venue for the 19th edition of that festival.

A programme called “Spotlight on: Docudays UA 2022” will present the four films selected for the DOCU/UKRAINE national competition along with the opening film “Boney Piles”. These works paint a nuanced portrait of the country, telling of property disputes in Kyiv and flea markets in Odesa, of first responders amid the pandemic in rural Transcarpathia, and also of the consequences of the war that has been going on in eastern Ukraine since 2014. The award-winning film “Plai. A Mountain Path” by Eva Dzhyshyashvili was honoured at the Kraków Film Festival in June. The competition jury included Stanislav Bytiutsky, Devika Girish and Daniel Abma, the latter of whom is also on the selection committee in Leipzig.

DOK Leipzig’s new “Panorama” section will open a window on the world of central and eastern European film, which is closely linked to the history of the festival. The short and long works screened in this section will range from the socialist past through the period of upheaval to the present day. They’ll include works by established filmmakers, such as Latvian-born animation artist Signe Baumane, as well as by talented up-and-coming documentary filmmakers, such as Otilia Babara from Moldova. Panorama will also include films from Croatia, Serbia, Poland, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Ukraine in its first year.

The “Camera Lucida” section will be screening, out of competition, seven exceptional works by renowned documentary filmmakers. Heinz Emigholz is featured here with two essayistic works on architecture in South America, parts 34 and 35 of his ongoing film series “Photography and Beyond”. Also included are a film collage about music by the French director Éric Baudelaire, Jumana Manna’s semi-documentary piece on the political issue of collecting herbs in the West Bank and a video correspondence between Chica Barbosa and Fernanda Pessoa, paying homage to female avant-garde directors.

The “Doc Alliance Award” selection will present three documentary films nominated from a competition held by the network of festivals to which DOK Leipzig and six other European documentary film festivals belong. The award-winning films were selected during the Cannes Film Festival in May 2022. “The Eclipse” by Nataša Urban received an honourable mention from the jury. “5 Dreamers and a Horse” by Vahagn Khachatryan and Aren Malakyan will also be screened in Leipzig, as will “The Pawnshop” by Łukasz Kowalski.

The new short film event “5x5 Shorts from the East” will be presented by DOK Leipzig in cooperation with its European partners the Kraków Film Foundation, the Czech Film Fund, the Slovak Film Institute, the Estonian Film Institute and the Croatian Audiovisual Centre. These five institutions from central and eastern Europe have each contributed five outstanding works from their collections in order to create a vibrant showcase of the short film genre. These 25 documentary and animated films will be screened free of charge at the Polish Institute on 22 October and can be seen on a “hop on, hop off” basis. By hosting this event during this year’s festival, DOK Leipzig is expanding its programme of events for everyone who enjoys cinema.

The entire selection of films in the sections described here can be found in the attached PDF version of this press release.

The 65th International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film opens on 17 October, 2022 with the German premiere of "No Dogs or Italians Allowed”. In the film, French director and screenwriter Alain Ughetto traces the lives of his grandparents from Northern Italy to their migration to France in the first half of the 20th century. It will be the second time that a long animated film has kicked off the festival.

In tragicomic style, the stop-motion animation portrays the tough conditions in a Piedmontese mountain village. There, the men of the family have to take seasonal work in the French Alps or fight in colonial and world wars, while the women and children do the field work. When the fascists come to power in Italy, the Ughettos decide to emigrate to the neighbouring country.

"With this imaginatively directed puppet animation, Alain Ughetto has created a warm-hearted memorial to his Italian grandparents Cesira and Luigi," said festival Director Christoph Terhechte. "The director finds himself in this family chronicle, recognises his predilection for working with his hands. Soon the film becomes a reflection on telling stories with what these hands shaped."

Within the narrative framework of "No Dogs or Italians Allowed”, Ughetto stages himself in dialogue with his grandmother, who is portrayed as a puppet figure. He also humorously reveals the design of his cinematic world: landscapes out of materials such as clay, cardboard, cotton, and even chestnuts and broccoli.

As an animator and screenwriter for more than 40 years, Ughetto has made stop-motion animation and a do-it-yourself aesthetic his trademarks. He began his career with animated shorts in the 1980s and won France’s César Award for "La boule" in 1985.

Ughetto's first feature-length film "Jasmine" (2013), a love story during the Islamic Revolution in Tehran, was nominated for the European Film Award in the Best Animated Feature Film category. "No Dogs or Italians Allowed" celebrated its world premiere in June 2022 at the prestigious Annecy International Animation Film Festival, where it received the Jury Award and the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution.

The opening ceremony of DOK Leipzig takes place on 17 October, 2022 at 7 pm at CineStar 8. There will also be a free public showing of "No Dogs or Italians Allowed" at 8:30 pm at Leipzig Central Station (Osthalle). The director Alain Ughetto will attend both of these screenings.

At this year's 18th DOK Co-Pro Market 34 documentary projects from 32 countries will have the opportunity to find international financing and co-production partners (see below for complete list). For the first time, a series is part of the selection. "The Sharp End of a Knife" by Godisamang Khunou (Mogale Pictures) features inmates of a women's prison in Johannesburg who are serving life sentences after defending themselves from their violent husbands.

A total of 262 projects were submitted. Notable among them were a number of strong entries from Georgia, three of which were ultimately selected. The French-Georgian production "Kartli" by Tamar Kalandadze and Julien Pebrel is co-produced by Habilis Productions and Sakdoc Film, the production company behind the successful films of Salomé Jashi. Dea Tcholokava will present "The Mud Princess" (17/07), and Gvantsa Meparishvili is looking for partners for her film "Boxes From Georgia" (Millimeter Film). In the latter film, the director accompanies volunteers at a humanitarian aid collection centre in Tbilisi that sends vital goods to Ukrainians affected by the Russian war of aggression.

The Ukrainian production "A Bit of a Stranger" (Albatros Communicos) also looks at the impact of the war on the people there. Director Svitlana Lishchynska films her Russian-speaking family for over a year during Russia's attacks on their homeland: Mariupol and Ukraine. Her daughter and granddaughter eventually flee to London, leaving Svitlana‘s mother alone back in Kiev.

Other projects also reflect current, globally discussed topics. In "The Culprits" (Boogaloo Films), Marta Duran films young women discussing their decision to have an abortion as teenagers. Tuffi Films presents "In a Box" by Liinu Grönlund and Okku Nuutilainen, a film about the commitment of researchers and private citizens to save endangered frogs, reptiles and fish species from extinction. "Ojos de Agua, Free the Waters of Chile" (Dryades Films) follows two indigenous Chileans in their struggle to de-privatise water and enshrine its status as a common good in the constitution.

In terms of artistic approaches, the selected film projects are all unique and promising. A number of the titles are distinguished by their creative use of archival material. For "Becoming Omer Khairy" (Black Balance Artistic Production), Alyaa Musa uses personal and public archive to trace the mystical story of a Sudanese artists and his second identity as a young White Briton. In "Colosal" (Tavab, Movimiento Cine), Nayibe Tavares-Abel uses newspaper articles, VHS tapes, 16mm films, and objects to try to clarify whether her grandfather was actually involved in electoral fraud during the 1990 presidential elections in the Dominican Republic, while also dealing with a new fraud during the 2020 municipal elections. Sára Timár also embarks on a research trip within her own family sphere with "Under the Dance Floor" (Little Bus Production, Alter Ego Production). She explores the history of her family's house, which served the communist regime of the Hungarian People's Republic as a secret prison and place for violent interrogations in the 1950s.

Some of the producers or directors invited to the DOK Co-Pro Market have already shown films at the festival in the past. In "Superposition" (CORSO Film), Gesa Hollerbach ("All For The Countryside," 2019) explores the ambitious work of renowned scientists on Germany's first commercially viable quantum computer — a technological milestone that promises solutions to global problems, but may still fail to deliver. Bálint Révész ("Granny Project," 2017) is also back at the festival and will present his new project "Voice/Over" (Roughhouse Project). Filmmaker Jasmila Žbanić ("One Day in Sarajevo," 2015), known among others for the award-winning feature film "Quo vadis, Aida?," is participating in the Co-Pro Market with her project "Blum" (Deblokada, Produkcija Živa). Susanne Kim (director of “Imagine Swimming," 2016 and “Cabinets of Wonder," 2021) is represented with her new project "Becoming Kim" (Neufilm).

Part of the selection are also four promising projects that the DOK Industry Team scouted at regionally focused partner training initiatives and film markets. The four projects were awarded the DOK Leipzig Accelerator Prize: "Baltic UXO" (East Doc Platform), "A Hole in the Wall" (Doc Lab Poland Docs to Start), "Kange" (Durban FilmMart) and "In the Light of Darkness" (Docs by the Sea). A fifth project will be selected at the BDC Discoveries Workshop in late September.

The DOK Industry team was supported in the selection process by Anna Berthollet (CEO & Sales Agent at Lightdox), producer Derren Lawford (founder and CEO of DARE Pictures) and producer Heejung Oh (founder of Seesaw Pictures).

While last year, the DOK Co-Pro Market was held as a hybrid event, this year’s events will take place primarily on-site (17-18 October). In the run-up to the event, DOK Industry will once again offer an online meeting of the project representatives to prepare for the market and strengthen the sense of community.

Overview of all 34 projects: DOK Co-Pro Market

A variety of global and local protest movements have been instrumental in bringing the mounting climate crisis to the forefront of public debate.

In its 65th edition, DOK Leipzig will present two programmes of films that examine this climate activism, be it at traffic junctions in London (“Rebellion”, 2021), in the treetops of the Dannenröder Forest (“Barricade – Pictures of an Occupation”, 2021), in the Argentinian salt flats (“Oro Blanco”, 2018) or in the forests of the Philippine island of Palawan (“Delikado”, 2022). Starting off the film programme “Time to Act! Our House Is on Fire” will be a free preview screening of the documentary “Rebellion” on the Friday before the festival (14 October 2022, 7 pm, Cinémathèque Leipzig). The film portrays the environmentalist movement Extinction Rebellion.

The “Re-Visions” section complements this thematic emphasis. Titled “Sow the Wind and Reap the Storm”, it will explore the effects of the climate crisis on the Global South while revisiting two former festival films that have lost none of their topicality. “New Eldorado” (2004) tells of impending environmental degradation as well as forced resettlement resulting from gold mining in Romania. “Are You Listening!” (2012), which opened DOK Leipzig ten years ago, profiles the inhabitants of a village in Bangladesh that was destroyed by floods.

This year’s Homage is dedicated to the renowned Serbian documentary filmmaker Mila Turajlić. Her works reflect on the history of Yugoslavia and the non-aligned states, which she explores along the intersection of national consciousness, personal memories and found footage. Employing diverse forms of artistic expression – from lecture performances to video art to essay films – she attempts to counteract the fading of the collective memory of her country of origin. The programme includes her internationally acclaimed productions “Cinema Komunisto” (2010) and “The Other Side of Everything” (2017), as well as the film “Innocence Unprotected” (1968) by the late Yugoslav director Dušan Makavejev, which is Turajlić’s carte blanche selection for this year’s festival. In her master class, she will discuss strategies of artistic research in filmmaking and her fascination with archives. Additionally, one of Mila Turajlić’s latest documentary films will be presented in this year’s International Competition.

A total of four film programmes, each multifaceted in terms of content and technique, will be dedicated to the art of animation. Alongside classical animation techniques and linear narratives, numerous experimental works dissolve the boundaries between animation, visual art, documentary film and performance art.

The programme “Slovenian Animation. The Conquest of Poetic Space” brings together outstanding contemporary short animated films from Slovenia. The focus is on works by the internationally renowned filmmaker Špela Čadež, including her puppet animation “Lovesick” (2007), the short shadow play “Last Minute” (2010) and the two cutout animations “Nighthawk” (2016) and “Steakhouse” (2021), as well as a puppet animation recap of the Netflix series “Orange Is the New Black”. The 3-D animation “The Box” (2017) by Dušan Kastelic, considered a master of this technique, and short films by the talented newcomers Leo Černic and Miha Reja are among the other works that will be screened. In a master class, Čadež will give insight into her distinctive style of eavesdropping on reality to lift stories and characters from it and create animated poetic spaces for them.

The starting point and centrepiece of the event “Dancing in the Dark. Hysteresis & Company” is “Hysteresis” (2021), the latest work by renowned animation artist Robert Seidel, which will be presented at Leipzig’s Schaubühne Lindenfels on 21 October. In a live performance, the movements of the queer Australian dancer Tsuki and the AI-based animation of Robert Seidel’s drawings will merge to the music of sound artist Markus Popp alias Oval. In straddling these different art forms, this experimental work creates room for diverse associations. An in-depth discussion with the audience will be devoted to the making of “Hysteresis”. The performance will be preceded by a programme curated by André Eckardt and Robert Seidel featuring films by other artists on the interrelation of body, movement and animation.

In the fourth edition of the “Animation Perspectives” dialogue setting, directors Veneta Androva and Tang Han will discuss their work as artists. The event includes a screening of two works from the previous two editions of DOK Leipzig: Veneta Androva’s fictional computer-animated vision of the future, “AIVA” (2020), in which the male mentality of an engineer absurdly seeks to program gender equality into the art market, and Tang Han’s Silver Dove-winning “Pink Mao” (2020), a humorous examination of the 100-yuan note. While maintaining an ironic distance, both artists examine roles in society and pose the question of how the term “animated film” may be understood. As fundamentally different as their artistic styles may be, parallels can be found in their basic interdisciplinary approach, which explores the boundaries of animation.

Last but not least, in the programme “Soul-Things. Through the Hells of Animation”, DOK Leipzig will present films that delight in the disturbing and the repressed. This programme was created around the short film “Thing” (2021) by animation artist Malte Stein, which was screened at the festival in 2021. In addition to this film, this series, curated by Malte Stein and André Eckardt, brings together twelve others that confront the viewers with their own vague anxieties. Time and again, the focus is on characters whose conflicts from childhood and youth reverberate in adult life. Included are: a music video by Björk, a film adaptation of a short story by Charles Bukowski, East Asian animation art and films by David Lynch and Jan Švankmajer.

DOK Leipzig would like to thank the Slovenian Cultural Information Centre in Berlin and the Slovenian Film Centre for supporting the film programme “Slovenian Animation. The Conquest of Poetic Space”.

The entire film selection of the programme presented here is available for download in the PDF of the press release.

This year’s DOK Leipzig Retrospective will focus on a neglected part of German film and television history: documentaries made by women in the German Democratic Republic (GDR).

“The Female Documentarists of the GDR” is curated by Carolin Weidner and Felix Mende with an awareness that only a few female directors from the former GDR have made it into documentary film lore. What did it mean to be a female documentary filmmaker in the GDR? What kind of films were made over the course of forty years?

The six programmes in the Retrospective include portraits of institutions, essays and observations of everyday life – including DEFA, university and TV productions dating from the founding of the GDR in 1949 to the year the Wall fell. “We spent a lot of time on taking stock at first,” says curator Carolin Weidner. “The book ‘She. DEFA Directors and Their Films’, edited by Cornelia Klauß and Ralf Schenk, was undoubtedly an important signpost here.”

Films by such noted documentarists as Helke Misselwitz (“Who’s Afraid of the Bogeyman”, 1989), Tamara Trampe (“Once I Was a Child”, 1986) and Petra Tschörtner (“Behind Windows”, 1984), all of whom remained active in their profession after German unification, are the better-known works in the Retrospective. Many of these films exhibit a personal approach, examining the experiences of individuals in the socialist system. They are devoted to such themes as work and art, childhood and motherhood. They explore the perspectives of women as well as the male-dominated world of the National People’s Army.

Female directors also made films, however, on which the dictatorship of the Socialist Party (SED) left a distinct mark, as co-curator Felix Mende points out: “Just like the men, women were enlisted to produce ideological self-affirmations, full of brigades, festivities, clear enemy stereotypes. Of course, even under such conditions, a few works were created whose perspective, though following the party line, show a certain idiosyncrasy and portray more than what was already known anyway.”

The Retrospective will therefore also present films that were made in support of the state (“Diary of a German Woman”, 1969) as well as works by such filmmakers as Dagnija Osite-Krüger (“Ablinga”, 1977) which have long been hidden from view. Film historians as well as some of the filmmakers who are still alive are expected to attend the events in this section.

The DEFA Matinee complements this programme by including the limited GDR œuvre of director Angelika Andrees, who is also featured in the Retrospective mentioned above. She belongs to a generation of female documentary filmmakers who experimented with aesthetic freedom at the Babelsberg Film Academy in the late 1970s. Under the heading “Angelika Andrees – The Empathetic Eye”, six short documentaries will be presented, including the film “Home” (1978) about young people in a reform school, which was co-directed with Petra Tschörtner and banned until 1990. Andrees’ works are sensitive portraits of outsiders in East German society and poetic vignettes depicting communal spaces from the “Friedrichstadtpalast” (1980) to the Alexanderplatz underground station (“Peace Posters”, 1983). Andrees left the GDR in 1985 and almost completely turned her back on cinema.

The Matinee Saxon State Archive also ties in with the Retrospective. The programme “Socialist Women’s Images – The Female GDR” showcases films by women that address women’s issues (“Frauen unserer Zeit”, 1969), environmental protection (“Wir und unsere Umwelt”, 1971) and filmmaking (“Tagebuch eines Schmalfilmers”, 1975) in the GDR. The satirical short film “Hilfe, ich bin eine Frau” (1981) formulates a feminist critique that pointedly contrasts the level of equality the state claimed to have achieved with the everyday lives of women in society.

DOK Leipzig would like to thank the Federal Foundation for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Eastern Germany, the DEFA Foundation and the Saxon State Archive for their funding and support of the film programmes.

The entire selection of films in the programmes profiled here can be found in the attached PDF version of this press release.

DOK Leipzig will host its 65th edition in local cinemas and venues once again — a decision that signals the festival’s continued commitment to bringing back cinema culture and shared festival experiences.

From 17 to 23 October, DOK Leipzig will screen new documentary and animated films from around the world, along with creative XR works and thematic film programmes. The team looks forward to welcoming numerous international filmmakers and guests to Leipzig, where works will be explored with audiences at film talks and master classes. Turning the focus back to on-site events is the festival’s response to the noticable desire for direct exchanges among visitors and industry professionals.

However, some of the online features will continue in a reduced format, including recorded film talks. Selected films will again be available on demand throughout Germany via "DOK Stream" following the festival, with this year’s lineup focusing on the award winners.

DOK Industry is also prioritising a return to physical attendance at events for film professionals. Some areas will still be accessible online, such as livestreams of project presentations and talks, along with two days of post-festival digital networking for participants.

As in previous years, this year's festival poster design was created by Leipzig graphic artist Stefan Ibrahim. It features the key to an old East German-style lock, which many audience members may still recognise. Further key imagery will be sprinkled throughout the festival’s in-person and online offerings for audiences to discover.

“We deliberately allowed for many interpretations with our design," festival director Christoph Terhechte says. "The films and works in our programme are united by their curiosity about the world. They open up new perspectives and previously unknown worlds, so to speak. But the key is also always a symbol of home — people who have to leave their homes often keep their apartment key as a symbol of connection to their home, their origins and past. As a festival with an East German history, we opted for a key style from the German Democratic Republic."

A number of festival themes have already been selected. DOK Leipzig will emphasise its long-standing connection to Eastern Europe with a programme of current feature-length films that offer insights into life in the region’s countries. The festival will also increase support for networking among documentary and animation filmmakers through new formats. Additionally, four of the programmes will explore the different artistic styles of animated film.

This year’s Retrospective will focus on documentary works by female filmmakers from the GDR. The Homage is dedicated to renowned Serbian documentary filmmaker Mila Turajlić, whose work explores the historical significance of moving images. Two other programmes feature films that address the climate crisis, resource scarcity and environmental activism.

From today through 15 July, festival fans can secure Early Dove accreditation at a discounted rate for access to film screenings, talks with inspiring guests and industry events.

Free tickets for film screenings are available to anyone who takes part in DOK Leipzig's audience survey. The festival wants to get to know viewers better by gathering feedback from past and future visitors. The English version of the survey is available from 20 June via dok-leipzig.de.

Films and XR works can still be submitted until 1 July. The deadline for the DOK Co-Pro Market is 21 July.

Download the poster design: Press Download

Information on Early Dove Accreditation:  Accreditation

Information on Submissions for DOK Leipzig 2022 and DOK Co-Pro Market: Submission

The films competing for this year's Doc Alliance Awards have been announced. Each of the seven European documentary film festivals that make up the Doc Alliance network has nominated one short and one feature-length documentary film from its past programme. The Doc Alliance Awards support emerging talents in European documentary film. Only the directors' debut or second feature-length films are nominated for the Best Feature Film category.

DOK Leipzig nominated the feature-length film "Nasim" and the short film "Light Years". In "Nasim", filmmakers Ole Jacobs and Arne Büttner follow the Afghan Nasim and her family in the Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos. The observational documentary shows with great empathy the daily life of the mother of two who time and again manages to deal impressively with the challenges of this unacceptable and extreme situation. "Nasim" was part of the German Competition at DOK Leipzig 2021 and was honoured with the DEFA Sponsoring Prize, ver.di Prize for Solidarity, Humanity and Fairness. "Light Years" by Monika Proba was shown in the International Competition Short Film at DOK Leipzig last year. The protagonists of the film Witali and Łukasz have graduated from the Orthodox seminary and would now have to start a family or become monks to take up priesthood. But the two friends prefer to live for the moment, to muse, philosophize and sing. The empathetic film follows the two men between religious obligations, family expectations and their tender friendship.

The 15th Doc Alliance Awards will be presented on 24 May in Cannes as part of the Marché du Film industry programme. The winning films will be decided by a jury of seven international film critics and film professionals, also selected by network’s festivals. This year’s jury members are journalists Esther Buss (Jungle World, Filmdienst, Der Tagesspiegel), Frederik Bojer Bové (POV.International), Teresa Vieira (Antena 3, Cineuropa), Nepheli Gambade (Critikat), Michał Walkiewicz (Filmweb) and Leila Basma (dok.revue) as well as Nicolas Wadimoff (filmmaker, Head of the Cinema Department at HEAD – Genève).

Since 2008, a feature-length documentary has annually been honoured with the Doc Alliance Award and since 2021 an additional award has been given to a short film. The prizes are endowed with 8,000 EUR each for the filmmakers to spend on their next project. In addition, each of the festivals in the network shows at least 3 films from the selection at its next edition.

Members of the Doc Alliance network include: CPH:DOX, Doclisboa, Millennium Docs Against Gravity FF, DOK Leipzig, FIDMarseille, Ji.hlava IDFF and Visions du Réel.

Overview of the nominated feature-length films:

• 5 Dreamers and a Horse, Armenia/ Germany/ Switzerland/ Denmark/ Georgia, Directors: Aren Malakyan and Vahagn Khachatryan, nominated by Visions du Réel
• A Night of Knowing Nothing, France/ India, Director: Payal Kapadia, nominated by FIDMarseille
• The Eclipse, Norway, Director: Nataša Urban, nominated by CPH:DOX
• Kapr Code, Czech Republic/ Slovakia, Director: Lucie Králová, nominated by Ji.hlava IDFF
• Nasim, Germany, Directors: Ole Jacobs and Arne Büttner, nominated by DOK Leipzig
• The Pawnshop, Poland, Director: Łukasz Kowalski, nominated by Millenium Docs Against Gravity
• Yoon, Portugal, Directors: Pedro Figueiredo Neto and Ricardo Falcão, nominated by Doclisboa

Overview of the nominated short films:

• Abyss, Denmark, Director: Jeppe Lange, nominated by CPH:DOX
• Aralkum, Uzbekistan/ Germany, Directors: Daniel Asadi Faezi and Mila Zhluktenko, nominated by Visions du Réel
• Beautiful Solution, Czech Republic, Director: Eliška Cílková, nominated by Ji.hlava IDFF
• Joanna d'Arc, Poland, Director: Aleksander Szamałek, nominated by Millenium Docs Against Gravity
• Light Years, Poland, Director: Monika Proba, nominated by DOK Leipzig
• In the Billowing Night, France, Director: Erika Etangsalé, nominated by FIDMarseille
• Peace, Portugal, Directors: José Oliveira and Marta Ramos, nominated by Doclisboa

More information about the nominated films: Doc Alliance Nominations