On November 14, the 63rd edition of DOK Leipzig ended with the last of the festival films on demand.

A total of 47.615  visitors took advantage of the hybrid edition of the festival — in person in Leipzig and on the Web. Of these, 5.002 visitors attended cinema screenings. This year’s venues included the festival cinemas, the Grassimuseum and the East Wing of the main railway station. 674 people visited DOK Neuland, the festival’s extended reality exhibition, where they could explore VR installations, 360° films and a sound installation.

The festival’s online offerings included film screenings, discussions with filmmakers and industry offerings such as the DOK Co-Pro Market.

Taking stock, festival director Christoph Terhechte says: “This edition of the festival was a big adventure for us. Organising a festival under these new circumstances meant a huge adjustment for the entire team as well as for all the filmmakers, partners and service providers involved. However, the positive reactions of the visitors and the fantastic level of interest among the public tell us that this huge effort was worth it.”

The online audience, for example, submitted photos of private film screenings via social media, and there was a lot of positive and cordial feedback. “We would like to share this wonderful feedback with the filmmakers, who have lost much of their direct contact with the audience. You deserve special appreciation.”

Despite not being in the same place, the audience and the filmmakers had numerous opportunities to engage in dialogue. One of the challenges facing the hybrid edition was to bring together the cinema audience, the directors at home and the online audience for 12 live film talks. Numerous other live elements also connected the filmmakers and their audiences. “We were very moved by the receptiveness and attentiveness of everyone who took part in the discussions, and we are proud that the connection between online and offline audiences functioned so well,” says festival director Christoph Terhechte. Pre-recorded talks and pre-produced segments rounded out the programme.

Nearly 1,700 accredited professionals took advantage of the festival’s industry offerings at DOK Industry and were networked online across different time zones. The offerings included the DOK Co-Pro Market, the presentations of rough cuts at DOK Preview, the DOK Exchange conference and, for the first time, a series of podcasts on topics relating to the industry.

Looking back, DOK Industry director Brigid O’Shea says: “We thank everyone for their commitment to making this year’s DOK Industry programme a success. Turning up for meetings across time zones, delivering news about the hard production and distribution reality, new partnerships, honouring old commitments. This year was an enormous team effort. I thank all those who made their contributions to a successful week — in particular, the dedication and unending patience of the DOK team.”

This year’s edition of the festival also included the DOK im Knast and DOK Education programmes. For the first time, a training course for teachers on the use of documentary films in the classroom was held in collaboration with Vision Kino. The junior reporters of DOK Spotters were dedicated to covering the festival. Films were also screened in accessible venues this year.

A total of 150 films and XR works were shown during the 63rd edition of DOK Leipzig.

Christoph Terhechte concludes: “The team has seldom faced such a huge challenge, but we all learned an enormous amount in a short time. We will apply the know-how we’ve acquired to future editions of the festival.”

The award-winning films of the 63rd edition of DOK Leipzig have been chosen. This year, even after the week-long festival ends in cinemas, all of the films in competition can still be watched online.

The film “Downstream to Kinshasa” by Dieudo Hamadi has received the Golden Dove in the International Competition Long Documentary and Animated Film. This co-production from the Democratic Republic of Congo, France and Belgium focuses on war-disabled people from Kisangani in the DR Congo. In 2000, Ugandan and Rwandan troops battled each other there in what is known as the Six-Day War. After waiting in vain for almost twenty years, some of the civilian victims set off on a long journey to Kinshasa to demand compensation. Hamadi has presented his films at a number of prestigious film festivals.
The jury praised the filmmaker “for bringing intimacy and dignity to a Sisyphean struggle that is invisible in the broader world, here delivered to the screen with the clear trust of its protagonists and the commitment of the filmmaker”.
The 10,000-euro award is sponsored by Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk. Dr Ulrich Brochhagen, head of MDR’s department for history, documentaries and Eastern Europe, attended the award ceremony. The recipient of the Golden Dove in the International Competition Long Documentary and Animated Film is now eligible to be nominated for the annual ACADEMY AWARDS®, provided the Academy’s requirements are met.
“Downstream to Kinshasa” also received the Prize of the Interreligious Jury at DOK Leipzig.

The Silver Dove for best long documentary or animated film by an up-and-coming director in the International Competition Long Film has gone to the Argentinian production “The Poets Visit Juana Bignozzi”. The film was directed by writer and journalist Mercedes Halfon and by Laura Citarella, who is known internationally as the producer of “La Flor”. This documentary tells the story of a young poet who seeks to pass on the artistic legacy of Juana Bignozzi, a renowned poet. The jury emphasised “the inventive ways in which this film advances its search for a legacy even as its process unravels before our eyes,” noting “a freshness and energy that recall the French Nouvelle Vague”. The award was sponsored in conjunction with 6,000 euros from the broadcaster 3sat, which presented a video message at the award ceremony.

The Golden Dove in the German Competition Long Documentary and Animated Film in conjunction with 3,000 euros was presented to “Lift Like a Girl”, a joint Danish-Egyptian-German production by Mayye Zayed. The filmmaker follows Asmaa, aged 14 at the start, for four years. With the help of her coach, a former professional athlete, Asmaa makes her way to the top league in weightlifting in the streets of Alexandria. The jury’s statement reads: “Told with gentleness and love, this film draws on the collective memory of cinema. The protagonists’ struggle, the ceaseless lifting of the weights as a recurring leitmotif, becomes almost physically tangible for the audience. The camera is very close to the figures and at the same time a foreign body that never judges.”

The Golden Dove in the “Golden Section”, the newly introduced Competition for the Audience Award Long Documentary or Animated Film in conjunction with 3,000 euros has gone to the Czech production “A New Shift” by Jindřich Andrš. The director focuses on a miner who, after 21 years of employment, is retraining to become a programmer, because the mine was closed down for economic reasons. “A New Shift” has also been awarded the MDR Film Prize.

In the International Competition Short Documentary and Animated Film, the French-Nigerian co-production “Trouble Sleep” by Alain Kassanda, a rhythmic portrait of life in Ibadan, has been awarded a Golden Dove for best documentary film, while the Polish film “I’m Here” by Julia Orlik about a dying woman surrounded by her family has been awarded a Golden Dove for best animated film. Kassanda and Orlik have each received 3,000 euros in prize money. These winning films are also eligible for nomination for the annual ACADEMY AWARDS®, provided the Academy’s requirements are met.

The Silver Dove in the German Competition Short Documentary and Animated Film, in conjunction with 1,500 euros in prize money, has been awarded to “Erwin” by Jan Soldat, a Austrian-German co-production. In this film, the director offers a portrait of an aging man who spends most of his time in a mobile home in his front garden, indulging in erotic online encounters with men.

The Silver Dove in the newly introduced “Golden Section” Competition for the Audience Award Short Documentary and Animated Film, has gone to the animated film “Step Into the River” by Weijia Ma, a Chinese-French co-production that explores China’s one-child policy from the perspective of two young girls. The Silver Dove, which comes with 1,500 euros in prize money, was donated by the Leipziger Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Filmkunst e. V. The deputy chairman of its board of directors, Jens Kesseler, attended the award ceremony.

The Golden and Silver Doves were presented in a hybrid award ceremony in a cinema auditorium which the juries and filmmakers joined remotely. The statuettes will be sent to the award-winners by post in the coming days.
For the first time, a panel of cinema enthusiasts representing the DOK Leipzig audience chose films that would receive a Golden Dove and a Silver Dove. This audience jury attended the award ceremony in the cinema.
The award ceremony for the Golden and Silver Doves was broadcast live on the Internet parallel to the physical event and remains available after the event on the festival website.

All of the award-winning films as well as the remaining films offered online will continue to be available on the Web after the week-long festival ends in cinemas. The final films of the festival will be shown online on 14 November.

The presentation of the partner awards was held in a strictly virtual environment. The recipients of the partner awards are:

Partner Awards for Documentary and Animated Films in the Competitions

DEFA Sponsoring Prize (4,000 euros): “Rift Finfinnee” by Daniel Kötter, Ethiopia, Germany 2020.

Goethe-Institut Documentary Film Prize (2,000 euros): “The Guardian” by Martina Priessner, Germany 2020.

MDR Film Prize (3,000 euros): “A New Shift” by Jindřich Andrš, Czech Republic 2020.

Prize of the Interreligious Jury (1,500 euros): “Downstream to Kinshasa” by Dieudo Hamadi, DR Congo, France, Belgium 2020.

ver.di Prize for Solidarity, Humanity and Fairness (2,500 euros): “80.000 Schnitzels” by Hannah Schweier, Germany 2020.

Young Eyes Film Award (2,000 euros): “Operation Moonbird” by Dustin Lose, Germany 2020.

International Critics Prize (FIPRESCI): “Vicenta” by Darío Doria, Argentina 2020.

Mephisto 97.6 Audience Award: “Bad Mood” by Loris Giuseppe Nese, Italy 2020.

Gedanken-Aufschluss: Long Film: “Robin’s Hood” by Jasmin Baumgartner, Austria 2020; Short Film: “Riven Threads” by Deborah Jeromin, Germany 2020.

DOK Industry awards

As part of the platform DOK Industry, three awards were presented during the festival week.

Development Prize for the Best Female Director of the Saxon State Minister for the Arts (5,000 euros): “XiXi” by Fan Wu (Taiwan, Philippines).
Honorary mention: “Bright Future” by Andra Popescu (Romania).

Zonta Club Leipzig Elster Female Talent Development Prize (1,000 euros): “The Daughter of the Volcano” by Jenifer de la Rosa (Spain, Colombia).

D-Facto Motion Works-in-Progress Prize (post-production grant of 10,000 euros): “Viral” by Udi Nir & Sagi Bornstein (Germany, Israel).

A total of 150 films and extended-reality projects were shown at the Leipzig venues during the week of the festival.
Furthermore, this is the first time that the festival has had an online component. All of the festival films can be watched online even after the close of the festival week, with the last of them available until 14 November.

Today, on Monday, 26 October 2020, the 63rd edition of DOK Leipzig began at 4 pm. The opening event, held without an audience, can be viewed on the festival website.

Alongside festival director Christoph Terhechte and the head of DOK Industry, Brigid O’Shea, speakers at the opening ceremony included Barbara Klepsch, the Saxon State Minister for Culture and Tourism, and Dr Skadi Jennicke, the mayor and cultural alderman of the City of Leipzig. The event was moderated by Knut Elstermann.

During the virtual opening ceremony, State Minister Barbara Klepsch presented the 5,000-euro Development Prize for the Best Female Director of the Saxon State Minister for the Arts. Director Fan Wu received the award for the film project “XiXi” (Taiwan, Philippines). A jury had decided in advance which film would receive the award. Projects selected for the DOK Co-Pro Market were eligible.

Addressing the audience by video, Barbara Klepsch emphasised the festival’s importance: “Now in its 63rd edition, DOK Leipzig is continuing a tradition that has contributed significantly to the festival’s worldwide renown. A considerable number and variety of programmes are among the aspects that distinguish this festival from other events.” Referring to the change in the way the festival is being staged, the State Minister said: “Even though the festival will not be conducted in the usual way, it is still catering to the need of many people to partake in cultural activities. Our ministry supports the preservation of the local cultural scene, particularly in this exceptional situation. Institutions like DOK Leipzig breathe life into this scene, which sends an important signal. For this, I offer you my most sincere thanks.”

In a video statement, Dr Skadi Jennicke, the City of Leipzig’s cultural alderman, honoured the commitment shown by the city’s cultural professionals during the pandemic: “Last year, when the Leipzig City Council chose you, Christoph Terhechte, to be the new director of DOK Leipzig, who could have imagined how 2020 would turn out and which loss we have to accept? I am deeply impressed when I see how cultural institutions are looking for ways to counteract this and keep cultural programmes afloat. I would like to thank all those who have gone down this path from the bottom of my heart. I salute the inventiveness, the perseverance, the manifest solidarity and the responsibility you have taken on.”

Christoph Terhechte announced at the start of the festival that the proceeds from ticket sales for online screenings would be passed on to the rights holders of the films in competition: “We wish to help films gain visibility, especially this year, when lots of filmmakers are facing a situation that threatens their very existence — even if this means that we cannot conduct a festival in the usual way. I would like to express my sincere thanks to all the filmmakers for the impressive works they’ve entrusted to us. Engaging with what we have seen and immersing ourselves in different perspectives will create bonds between us across the distance.” The festival director concluded: “Of course, we hope that everything will run as smoothly as possible and that everything will work out according to plan. I wish all of us an inspiring festival.”

Commenting on the deployment of this year’s industry offerings, DOK Industry director Brigid O’Shea said: “It has been an enormous challenge for us to put our bespoke international meeting place online in a way that is fair and accessible to all accredited guests. The learning curve has been enormous. We wish our guests productive and joyful days in our digital infrastructure, and feel like we’ve broken ground on an entirely new era of networking and business-making for animated and documentary filmmakers around the globe.”

All of the films can be seen in Leipzig cinemas until 1 November and will be available online for 14 days after their respective premieres. Free screenings at the main railway station are also part of the festival, as is the XR exhibition DOK Neuland. This year, DOK Leipzig is screening a total of 150 films and XR projects.

This year, all of the festival’s offerings for the film industry will be moved online.

As usual, there will be numerous talks and discussions relating to the programme of films and the documentary film industry. In the International Competition Long Documentary and Animated Film, live talks with the filmmakers will be held in the cinema auditorium following the respective premieres. Webcast technology will allow the directors to talk directly to both the cinema audience and viewers at home.

Pre-recorded film talks will also be available online. To get you in the mood for the festival programme, dok-leipzig.de also features introductions to the different programmes by the selection committee along with Director’s Short Cuts, short video greetings from the filmmakers.

The revised programme structure of the 63rd edition of DOK Leipzig goes hand in hand with new awards. Two of the Silver Doves, an award introduced this year, are funded by first-time sponsors of DOK Leipzig.

3sat is sponsoring the Silver Dove in conjunction with 6,000 euros for the best feature-length documentary or animated film by an up-and-coming director, thus reaffirming the broadcaster’s commitment to talented international directors.

The Friends of DOK Leipzig will also be sponsoring an award for the first time. The Leipziger Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Filmkunst e. V. is sponsoring the Silver Dove, worth 1,500 euros, in the Golden Section competition for the audience award for best short documentary and animated film. The award-winning films in the newly introduced Golden Section competitions will for the first time be chosen by people from Leipzig who have applied to sit on the jury.

A longtime award sponsor at DOK Leipzig is Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, which among other things sponsors the 10,000-euro Golden Dove in the International Competition Long Documentary and Animated Film. MDR is also the exclusive media partner for radio and TV.

DOK Leipzig also presents numerous awards of partner organisations. A total of 22 awards are presented at DOK Leipzig, five of them as part of DOK Industry to promote film projects. Festival director Christoph Terhechte would like to thank all of DOK Leipzig’s partners and sponsors: “This year’s edition of our festival will be held under extraordinary conditions. Its realisation depends all the more on the funding, grants and contributions in kind from our partners and sponsors, whom we would like to thank warmly for their support.”

DOK Leipzig continues to receive generous funding this year. The main supporters are once again the city of Leipzig, which is also the proprietor of Leipziger Dok-Filmwochen GmbH. The Free State of Saxony has also been a main supporter of DOK Leipzig for many years. In addition, the Saxon Ministry for Science, Culture and Tourism allocates project funds for programmes of inclusion in order to facilitate the participation of everyone interested in film. This measure is co-financed by tax revenue according to the budget adopted by the Saxon State Parliament. A main supporter this year are once again the EU programme Creative Europe Media, the Central German Media Fund and the federal government’s Commissioner for Culture and Media: they all provide crucial support to the festival and its offerings for the film industry. Furthermore, the festival is able to count on the commitment of a large number of other supporters, sponsors and partners; all of them do their part to make everything that the festival offers a reality.

PŸUR is providing support on the technical side of the hybrid festival as a premium partner. The company will provide the Wi-Fi at festival venues and will offer crucial assistance to DOK Leipzig in the implementation of live streaming this year at the CineStar.

Big Cinema is again assisting the festival in processes of digitalisation and cinema playout and is in charge of the technical and organisational aspects of the film screenings in the East Wing (Osthalle) of the main railway station. ECE Promenaden Hauptbahnhof Leipzig is also facilitating the free film screenings in the East Wing. In addition to films in competition, the films that are part of a special programme called “Genius Loci: Train Stations, Films and Progress” will be presented exclusively in the East Wing of the main station. The Genius Loci programme of films on the subject of industrial heritage is supported by the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony. This measure is co-financed by tax revenues according to the budget approved by the Saxon State Parliament.

DOK Leipzig enjoys particular visibility around the city thanks to the cooperation of its regional printing partner, MaXxprint.

The German Foreign Office is a further sponsor of the festival, and ZDF has generously supported the festival for years.

The SLM (Saxon State Agency for Private Broadcasting and New Media) is once again a strategic partner, sponsoring the festival’s numerous offers for young talent. These include the offerings dedicated to up-and-coming talent that are part of the International Competition Long Documentary and Animated Film, the master class, the DOK Spotters, the school screenings and DOK Neuland. The Beuth University of Applied Sciences Berlin will be helping to make this year’s master class possible.

DOK Neuland has been supported by ARTE since its inception. Using new digital technologies for innovative storytelling is a major objective of the European culture channel. Partnering with DOK Neuland in the area of technology is Grover, a Berlin-based technology rental company that has been providing digital artists, filmmakers and designers flexible access to technical equipment since 2017. DOK Neuland also receives funding from MDR Media, the US Consulate in Leipzig and Sennheiser.

Further partners that support DOK Leipzig with financial and non-cash contributions are also instrumental to its success. The infobox next to the market square is made possible by modulbox mo systeme. For years, loyal partners of DOK Leipzig have included such companies as Computer Leipzig, Xchange Technology Rentals and CineStar. The ver.di union of film-industry workers has also long been a partner of DOK Leipzig.

DOK Leipzig is also pleased to cooperate with numerous partners in the area of content.

The media partners of DOK Leipzig 2020 are Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, Cineuropa and, for the first time, Screen International.

An overview of the awards, award sponsors and juries of DOK Leipzig can be found here: Awards & Jurys

International competitions and Camera Lucida section with world premieres by Ada Ushpiz, Shelly Silver, Boris Gerrets and Thunska Pansittivorakul | Live film talks on all full-length films in the International Competition

The films in the International Competitions have been finalised. The same goes for the new Camera Lucida section with unconventional films that are not in competition. This completes the programme of DOK Leipzig.

This year the festival will show a total of 150 films and XR works, including 43 world premieres, 11 international, 7 European and 36 German premieres.

A number of renowned filmmakers have entries in the International Competition Long Documentary and Animated Film, such as American artist Shelly Silver with the world premiere of her new work, “Girls/Museum”. Filmed at Leipzig’s fine arts museum, the Museum der bildenden Künste (MdbK), young girls aged seven to nineteen engage with works of art, most of which were produced by men. DOK Leipzig is also celebrating the world premiere of “Children” by Israeli director Ada Ushpiz. Her film asks why Palestinian minors participate in the Intifada against Israel. Ushpiz follows children and their families and witnesses tremendous pressure. Congolese director Dieudo Hamadi is represented with “Downstream to Kinshasa”. His film starts off in Kisangani and tells the story of people disabled by war who are struggling to receive compensation. Young directors are participating in the competitions with productions from Argentina, Russia and Lithuania.

The United States is one thematic focus of the films, which use various approaches to provide cinematic commentary on the state of the country. The subject of abortion is also dealt with in a controversial and expressive way in the Argentinian film “Vicenta”, which has its world premiere at DOK Leipzig.

“The international competitions of DOK Leipzig focus on the fruitful encounter between young people who are eager to experiment and those who have remained true to the curiosity and creativity they started out with,” says festival director Christoph Terhechte. “For the first time, therefore, the international jury in the competition for long films will award not only a Golden Dove, but also a Silver Dove, which is explicitly intended for the best film by an up-and-coming director.”

In the International Competition Short Film, the film “E14” offers an idiosyncratic examination of the lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic. “William Jefferson Wilderness” is another US film, one that deals with the legacy of former President Bill Clinton in an original way.

The newly established Camera Lucida section will present five unconventional films not in competition. The multiple award-winning Dutch director Boris Gerrets, who passed away in spring 2020, created the work “Lamentations of Judas”, which will have its world premiere at DOK Leipzig. For this cinematic essay, he travelled to South Africa, to an abandoned asbestos mining town on the edge of the Kalahari Desert. In his latest film, “Avalon”, Thunska Pansittivorakul, whose films have been shown at the Berlinale, in Rotterdam and elsewhere, assembles explicitly sexual film footage of himself and his lover, who is twenty years his junior, into a narrative about desire and passion.

“Our new Camera Lucida programme brings together captivating documentaries that challenge the conventions of cinema and confront reality in a particularly lucid way,” explains Christoph Terhechte.

The films in the International Competition Long Film will have their premiere in a live stream in addition to cinema screenings. Live film talks will also be held in cinemas and online. From the day after the premiere, the films will be available online for 14 days.

The other films in the DOK Leipzig programme will also be accompanied by talks and introductions, which will be available online. These include pre-recorded film talks as well as introductions by members of the festival’s selection committee and the “Director’s Short Cuts”, short cinematic messages from the directors, which they were free to structure. “In this way, we strive to allow filmmakers to participate in the festival even if they cannot come to Leipzig this year, and to convey as much of the festival atmosphere as possible to our audience online as well,” says Terhechte.

A total of 150 films and XR works will be shown to the public in nine different venues in Leipzig. DOK Leipzig will again offer free admission to some of the films in the East Wing (Osthalle) of Leipzig’s main railway station. Furthermore, almost all of the films in this year’s programme will be available online throughout Germany for two weeks.

The Golden Dove in the Competition Long Documentary and Animated Film in combination with €10,000 is sponsored by MDR. The Silver Dove in the Competition Long Documentary and Animated Film in combination with €6,000 will for the first time be sponsored by 3sat.

You’ll find a list of all the films in the international competitions and the Camera Lucida programme in the pdf.

You can find the complete programme with further details on all films and their screening dates at the festival here.

Images of DOK Leipzig, logos and further press material, including important figures and dates, can be found in our press download area.

The 63rd edition of DOK Leipzig will be held as a hybrid festival this year. In addition to cinema screenings for the Leipzig audience, a large part of the programme will be shown online throughout Germany. Film talks, podcasts and the industry events of DOK Industry will be available online. Accredited guests are able to view festival films online worldwide.

Would you like to be accredited for DOK Leipzig 2020? Please, register with a new account on myDOK by 18 October and use this form to apply for your online accreditation.

A new podcast series in collaboration with What's Up with Docs, the Programmers of Color Collective and Themba Bhebhe

The 2020 DOK Industry Programme focuses on the participation of under-represented filmmakers, opening doors and breaking down power structures that permeate the documentary film industry. The virtual offerings of Germany's leading platform for the sector are intended to advance sustainable models of filmmaking during destabilising times and break new ground in inclusive film production.

With regard to the organisation and curation of this year’s online edition, Head of DOK Industry Brigid O’Shea says: “My main concern was not to pick up DOK Industry Programme and put it in a Zoom call. Instead, we as a team salvaged as much recognisable, efficient and useful programming as we could, and then got comfortable with letting go of the rest. Then we turned our attention to what we want to change, and that is to begin the process of highlighting overlooked or underrepresented voices in the documentary community and how to open up new discussion and debate, while still offering the best access to the international creative documentary marketplace.”

For the online edition of the Industry Programme, O'Shea and her team are producing a new series of podcasts to amplify industry-relevant perspectives beyond the screen. Created in collaboration with What's Up with Docs, the Programmers of Color Collective and Themba Bhebhe (Film Industry Curator, UK and France), the series addresses issues such as the decolonisation of the film industry, discrimination against and resistance by indigenous filmmakers and filmmakers of colour, and story ownership.

When it comes to running the Industry Programme amid the current pandemic, O’Shea says: “Our festival to us represents joy and celebration, and finding ways to translate this into the digital space has been challenging. But we cannot ignore the reality around us. It is time to get serious about reshaping our industry to ensure its future.”

One stimulating discussion about this future will be the XR conference at DOK Exchange, with two of the keynote speeches delving deeper into the works that can be experienced at DOK Neuland. One will address the 360° film "Gimme One", in which ballroom dancers describe a reality where white-dominated, heteronormative patterns have no place. Producer Harry Silverlock will discuss the film’s theme of working with communities as allies with the protagonist Diva. Another speaker will be Anna Mauersberger, one of the makers of the VR installation "The Shape of Us", which can be experienced as a multiplayer work at DOK Neuland. She will discuss the possibility of using VR to reconnect people and nature. The event will be moderated by scientist and artist Rob Eagle.

This year, an award will once again be presented as part of the rough cut presentation DOK Preview Germany. Eight German film projects seeking international distribution partners have been invited to this event. Donated by the company D-Facto Motion, the DFM-Works-In-Progress Award includes a post-production grant worth 10,000 euros. The event will be moderated by managing director of German films Simone Baumann and producer Tanja Gregorieva-Waldhauer. Eight other projects will be invited to the rough cut presentation DOK Preview Training, held in cooperation with ten European training initiatives. Producer Heidi Fleisher and Pierre-Alexis Chevit from Cannes Docs will lead the event.

Another opportunity is DOK Short n’ Sweet, which revolves entirely around short films. Once again this year, filmmakers can pitch their documentary short film project to renowned editors and financiers here.

DOK Partner Presentations is also a chance to discover the latest documentaries looking for international partners and acquisition. These presentations will provide moderated feedback and are hosted by Chiledoc, the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, Doc Nomads, the Institute of Documentary Film (IDF), the International Emerging Filmmakers Talent Agency (IEFTA) and Polish Docs.

Additionally, there will be various virtual networking formats to suit accredited participants who want to exchange information with experts from different trades or those who simply want to meet other festival goers informally. Some of the virtual meetings will even take place with music thanks to the festival’s partners Polish Docs and ARTE.

All events, film presentations and podcasts will be accessible via the festival platform myDOK. There, accredited participants will also have the opportunity to network with other filmmakers via the DOK Industry Guide. 

The guest list, which continues to expand, provides a first insight into the accredited trade visitors and can be viewed on the festival website: DOK Leipzig guest list.
 

An overview on this year’s DOK Industry Programme can be found here.

DOK Preview Germany projects can be found here, and DOK Preview Training projects are here.

As always, the DOK Co-Pro Market will take place on the first two days of the festival, this time virtually as well. The participating projects have already been announced.

DOK Industry Programme is co-funded and supported by the Creative Europe MEDIA Programme of the European Union.

For the first time at DOK Leipzig, a Golden Dove in combination with €3,000 and a Silver Dove in combination with €1,500 will be awarded in the newly established competitions for the Audience Award for long and short films. Twenty documentaries and animated films from 12 countries will be screened in “The Golden Section” competitions, in cinemas and online. These include five world premieres, five international premieres, one European premiere and nine German premieres.

“We are happy that a panel of cinema enthusiasts representing the DOK Leipzig audience will be voting on films in competition this year,” says festival director Christoph Terhechte. “The title of the competitions, ‘The Golden Section’, evokes harmonious proportions and thus a well-rounded, multifaceted film programme. Here you’ll find films that stir emotions, that take a subjective look at global issues as well as at one’s personal surroundings, and that can be surprising, warm and humorous.”

Waiting to be discovered are films by established filmmakers, such as Todd Chandler from the United States and Nicola Graef, who has been a guest at DOK Leipzig on several occasions. The selection also includes films by numerous up-and-coming directors, such as Rocco Di Mento and Areum Parkkang from South Korea. Representing central Germany are animated filmmaker Falk Schuster, director Alina Cyranek and 3-D artist Franz Impler. Luca Lucchesi is included with a film produced by Wim Wenders.

The competition entries include cinematic narratives about loneliness in the big city of Berlin as well as reflections on fake news and gun violence in US schools. One of the films selected deals explicitly with the time of the lockdown amid the coronavirus pandemic. Other works follow a musical couple and their passion for Balkan music, take a close look at Diego Velázquez’s masterpiece “Las Meninas” and reveal the humorous side to animated film. There is also a portrait of a fervent football coach who is prone to excess. An autobiographical work is dedicated to the tragic and comic sides of the life of a filmmaker and young mother caught between travelling to festivals, feeling homesick and changing nappies.

The Golden Dove for a Long Documentary or Animated Film and the Silver Dove for a Short Documentary or Animated Film in the “Golden Section” competitions will be awarded by seven film enthusiasts from around Leipzig who have applied to DOK Leipzig to be on the panel: Johanna Bender, Maurane Cugny, Hermann Klinghammer, Ahmad Masoud, Rico Mosig, Sabine Seliger and Anita Weiss. This year's award-winning films will be announced on the Sunday of the festival (1 November 2020).

The Silver Dove in the “Golden Section” competition for the Audience Award for Short Documentary and Animated Film in combination with €1,500 in prize money is donated by the Leipziger Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Filmkunst e. V., the Friends of DOK Leipzig.

Please find an overview of all films in the Audience Award competitions in the pdf file.

Resonating Spaces is the title of the 6th Extended Reality (XR) Exhibition that can be experienced as part of DOK Leipzig from 27 to 31 October. DOK Neuland is setting up nine works as a place of experience in the Museum of Fine Arts (MdbK). For the first time, individual works will also be presented at three additional locations — in the Grassimuseum für Völkerkunde, in the INTERIM of the Cinémathèque and in the foyer of the Schaubühne Lindenfels.

Festival director Christoph Terhechte says: “We are delighted that DOK Neuland will not only be shown at the MdbK, but will also be brought to the individual districts of Leipzig. We want to continue along this path so that a wider audience can experience these formats.”

Nine works in total will be exhibited, including seven VR experiences, a 360° film and a sound installation. One of the XR works is a multiplayer experience controlled by the visitors’ own hands via a camera built into the headset.

Lars Rummel, the curator of DOK Neuland, uses Resonating Spaces to reference sociologist Hartmut Rosa’s theory of resonance. This theory pursues the idea that the accelerating pace of life since the 18th century and the expansion of global reach via the digital realm have led to an alienated experience of the world in which the need for resonant, mutually effective relationships is not satisfied.

DOK Neuland takes up this idea and offers commentary on it: XR creates resonant spaces in a digital format. Lars Rummel says: “We are hijacking Rosa’s theory and formulating an assumption: XR media with their digital narrative strategies can also be resonating spaces. Even before the coronavirus pandemic, we only seemed to scroll endlessly, to empathize emotionally but without activation. However, access to information does not absolve us of social responsibility; rather, it starts there. With the current selection of works, we are providing experiential spaces that activate us emotionally and reveal a different underlying attitude. Let us together find alternatives to acceleration.”

The works selected this year deal with the relationship between open and closed systems, with access to and exclusion from society. They confront the audience with safe spaces, (digital) networks and reconnecting with nature, and allow glimpses into microcosms. They create experiential spaces other than clicking through. After all, as Lars Rummel says: “The world is interconnected, even digitally, but not everyone has the same kind of access. This exhibition will not change that, but it could be a starting point for our visitors.”

The nine works are arranged in three rooms with different themes.

In the first of these, which can be summed up under the dualistic heading “We and Society”, three works are represented. Five protagonists come together in the 360° film “Gimme One”, which deals with the international subculture of the ballroom dancing scene and sheds light on ideas of cultural appropriation and the necessity of safe spaces. The VR work “To Miss the Ending” is about an attempt to upload one’s own consciousness into a kind of cloud. Other protagonists are waiting there to share their memories and stories. The attempt fails; digital refuge leads to an increasing blurring of one’s own memories, which fade and merge with the system. “The Smallest of Worlds – A Social Landscape of Collected Privacy” is designed as a virtual archive that combines scans made by users. The place that was helpful in overcoming isolation can be scanned via mobile phone and thus become part of the archive. Anyone interested is invited via social media to upload pictures to thesmallestofworlds.com and thus become part of the work.

The adjacent room is used to group together works having the theme of “(Re)connecting with Nature”. The work “Ilios” by Marcel Karnapke and Mika Johnson deals with our relationship to each other, to the world, to the environment and to constant change in the midst of the current pandemic. “Hypha” was created in collaboration with a mushroom activist from Chile. The audience uses a controller to follow the development of a fungus from a spore to the complete mushroom, making clear its essential, yet unseen role in the development and shaping of our ecosystem. “The Shape of Us" uses the new Oculus Quest VR headset. The theme is the destructive influence that humans have on the environment. As a shared ritual, three people come together in parallel in this experience.

A third grouping is made under the heading “Perspective and Journey”. This is an epistemological process, the exploration of which leads to a kind of purification. This becomes tangible, for example, in the work “Locus Solus”, in which a researcher creates inventions in the absence of any moral precepts. He believes that death can be overcome by cloning the brain. “Gravity VR” simulates a supposed weightlessness. Without walls or floors, all objects fall into an immeasurable space. Finally, DOK Neuland also presents a sound installation, a work called “Der Dröhner”, which consists of a wooden crate that each person enters individually. The artist Karl Russell is on site to control the improvised sound collages, which he adapts to the mood of each individual — a kind of analogue VR work, since the story is created entirely in the mind in this whole-body experience.

Instead of being a closed cinema auditorium, DOK Neuland is an open experiential space. In collaboration with the artist Paula Gehrmann, a scenography has been created that suggests footpaths and thought paths for visiting the exhibition and that offers an aid to finding one’s physical location.

The nine works can be seen from 27 to 31 October with free admission and suitable hygiene precautions. Reservations are required. Tickets are available on site. Starting today, early-bird tickets can be booked online via Eventbrite. (dokneulandearlybird.eventbrite.com)

The exhibition in the MdbK and the Grassimuseum für Völkerkunde is open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. In the Cinémathèque INTERIM and the Schaubühne Lindenfels, it can be experienced daily from 3 to 8 p.m.

DOK Neuland has been supported by ARTE since its first edition. The European culture channel is committed to using new digital technologies for innovative storytelling. DOK Neuland has partnered with Grover, a Berlin-based technology rental company that has been offering digital artists, filmmakers and designers flexible access to technical equipment since 2017. DOK Neuland is supported by MDR Media. DOK Neuland is part of the DOK young talent programme and is carried out in cooperation with SLM, the Saxon State Authority for Commercial Broadcasting and New Media. As in previous years, the premises are being made available by MdbK. The Grassimuseum für Völkerkunde, the Cinémathèque Leipzig e.V. and the Schaubühne Lindenfels are also providing exhibition spaces. DOK Leipzig also thanks the US Consulate in Leipzig for its support and Sennheiser for the headphones.

An overview of all works in the exhibition can be found here: www.dok-leipzig.de/dok-neuland

Cinematic panoramas of the state of the world, defiant protagonists, visually engaging works and philosophical views of humanity and the environment: the films of the German competitions at DOK Leipzig have been finalised. 

“For the programme of the German Competitions, we’ve been able to draw from a variety of themes and perspectives on the world. Most of all, the range of cinematic styles is highly gratifying; it demonstrates the artistic possibilities of today’s documentary filmmaking. Young talent eager to experiment encounters established artists in the competitions,” festival director Christoph Terhechte says about the selection. “It doesn’t stop at a close look at Germany. A far-sighted cross-border vision of the world testifies to an intense curiosity about international locations and local stories outside of Germany. Some of the films are profoundly exploratory, some are panoramas of vast landscapes, some are strong portraits and explorations of family ties, and a few are simply hilarious.”

The selection committee has chosen a total of 17 productions for the German Competition Long Documentary and Animated Film and the German Competition Short Documentary and Animated Film. Among them are twelve world premieres, one European and four German premieres. In both competitions, the gender ratio of the directors is balanced. The other competitions of the festival, to be announced in the coming weeks, are also gender-balanced in terms of directors. 

Some of the films deal with pressing issues of our time, such as the approaching end of nuclear power generation in Germany and the question of permanent storage, the urbanisation of African societies using the example of Addis Ababa, and the perilous flight across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe of people seeking refuge. The latter topic is of current political relevance, as the Sea-Watch reconnaissance aircraft Moonbird, from which the film “Operation Moonbird” was filmed above the Mediterranean Sea, was grounded by the Italian government this month. This is hindering the continuation of the reconnaissance and rescue mission.

Other works encourage reflection on identity, prejudice and discrimination. For example, problematic aspects of the German fascination with North America’s indigenous population, the so-called “Indians”, and the cultural appropriation associated with this are discussed. A satirical look at the art business calls existing gender roles into question. Stories of emancipation and empowerment emerge for young Egyptian women who lift weights and a Syrian Orthodox nun who asserts her identity in a Muslim environment.

Some of the directors participating this year have previously had films screened at DOK Leipzig. Andreas Voigt, for example, returns to Leipzig with a film about people in the border area between Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic. In 2015 he opened the festival with his long-term observation “Alles andere zeigt die Zeit”. Carsten Rau was last represented in Leipzig in 2014 with his very popular film “Willkommen auf Deutsch”. Martina Priessner attended the festival’s industry platform, DOK Industry, last year with her current production: her film was one of the rough cuts presented at DOK Preview Germany. And animated filmmaker Anne Isensee received the Golden Dove in Leipzig 2017 for her film "Megatrick".

This year’s award-winning films will be presented on the Sunday of the festival (1 November 2020). The films in the German Competition Long Film are nominated for a Golden Dove, the films in the German Competition Short Film for a Silver Dove. Members of the jury are film editor and filmmaker Bettina Böhler, actress Anne Ratte-Polle and Alex Moussa Sawadogo, artistic director of the Afrikamera festival.

Some of the films are also nominated for partner awards: the DEFA Sponsoring Prize, the Goethe-Institut Documentary Film Prize, the Ver.di Prize for Solidarity, Humanity and Fairness, the MDR Film Prize, the Gedanken-Aufschluss Prize, the Young Eyes Film Award and the Mephisto 97.6 Audience Award.

A list of all the films nominated in the German Competitions can be found in the pdf file.

The juries of the 63rd edition of the festival include such filmmakers and artists as Bettina Böhler, Anne Ratte-Polle, Volker Koepp and Alfredo Jaar.

Bettina Böhler, along with Anne Ratte-Polle and Alex Moussa Sawadogo, will determine the winners of the Golden and Silver Doves in the German Competitions at DOK Leipzig. As an editor, Böhler works with such renowned directors as Christian Petzold, Margarethe von Trotta, Angela Schanelec and Valeska Grisebach. She has also realised projects with Christoph Schlingensief. Her documentary film about the director, “Schlingensief: A Voice That Shook the Silence” (“Schlingensief - In das Schweigen hineinschreien”), was released in 2020. Anne Ratte-Polle is one of Germany’s best-known actresses. In 2019, she had the leading role in İlker Çatak’s relationship drama “I Was, I Am, I Will Be” (“Es gilt das gesprochene Wort”) and was nominated for a German Film Award in the category “Best Actress”. Alex Moussa Sawadogo is the artistic director of the Afrikamera film festival in Berlin as well as the founder of the Ouaga Film Lab in Burkina Faso. As an expert on contemporary African film, he has been involved with various film festivals, including those in Cannes and Locarno.

The documentary film director Volker Koepp is also among the jurors of DOK Leipzig 2020. He and four other jury members will select the winners of the International Competition Long Documentary and Animated Film. For decades, Koepp has dedicated his films to eastern Germany and eastern Europe and the people living there. The winners of the Golden and Silver Dove will also be chosen by the well-known film scholar and critic B. Ruby Rich, whose focus is on independent cinema, Latin American films, documentaries, queer cinema and feminist films, and by the Chilean artist Alfredo Jaar, whose installations combine photography, architecture and theatre and are exhibited worldwide. The jury will also include the renowned Cameroonian-born cultural producer Koyo Kouoh, who has been a curator of numerous international exhibitions including the documenta, and the Brazilian filmmaker and visual artist Fernanda Pessoa, whose film “Arid Zone” received an honourable mention in DOK Leipzig’s Next Masters Competition in 2019.

The short animated and documentary films in the International Competition will be judged by a jury that will include the Moroccan director Randa Maroufi. Her documentary film “Ceuta’s Gate” was shown in this same competition at DOK Leipzig in 2019. Annegret Richter will also be voting to determine the competition’s winning films. Currently the managing director of AG animated film, she was previously the programme manager in charge of animated films at DOK Leipzig. This is also not the first time that filmmaker Kelvin Kyung Kun Park will be taking part in the Leipzig festival. In 2019 he presented his film “Army” in the Next Masters Competition.

The jury for “The Golden Section” audience awards will consist of film fans who have applied to DOK Leipzig to be on the jury. Deciding the winners in the categories of feature-length documentary or animated film and short documentary or animated film will be Johanna Bender, Maurane Cugny, Hermann Klinghammer, Ahmad Masoud, Rico Mosig, Sabine Seliger and Anita Weiß.

With the exception of the jury for the new “Golden Section” competitions, all jury members will view the films online and discuss what they’ve seen with their colleagues in virtual spaces. A total of ten juries will select the award-winning films at this year’s festival.

The awards of the 63rd edition of DOK Leipzig will be presented in two different events this year. The partner awards will be presented on the afternoon of the festival Sunday (1 November), while the award ceremony of the Golden and Silver Doves will be held that same evening. Both events will be streamed on the Internet and will be accessible to accredited persons and the public.

DOK Leipzig 2020 will be held from 26 October to 1 November in cinemas as well as online. Around 140 films will be screened this year.

For the 16th time, film projects that are still in the development phase are being given the opportunity to find co-production and financing partners at the DOK Co-Pro Market. Filmmakers submitted more than 300 projects this year, of which 36 projects from 33 countries were ultimately selected.

“2020 — what a complicated year in so many ways! We are so proud of the 36 projects selected for the DOK Co-Pro Market and grateful that despite the many challenges, filmmakers and producers are still pushing to create new works that challenge not only the world around us, but also storytelling and the genre more generally,” says DOK Industry head Brigid O’Shea. “Inequality, a lack of diversity and a lack of storytelling sovereignty have snapped into razor-sharp focus during this time of crisis, and we won’t be ignoring this in our programming.”

Many of the selected projects question the status quo in society. Climate change and its effects, protest and revolution as well as stories from underrepresented communities have just as much of a place here as family stories. The motifs include timeless content such as love and sexuality, trauma and violence, the ways in which artists’ lives are shaped and how they find their identity, and sport and dance.

This year, the DOK Industry Team was assisted in the selection of projects by industry programmer Selin Murat, who is the director of that part of the Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM) and Alex Tondowski, whose production company Tondowski Films (Germany) has already won several awards.

The DOK Co-Pro Market will again be held on the first two days of the festival. Over 250 industry representatives will meet potential partners on 26 and 27 October. This year, the 900 individual meetings will be moved online and organised across all time zones. In order to prepare the participants for the new situation in the best possible way, there will be a workshop on online pitching prior to the DOK Co-Pro Market.

In addition to the individual meetings, the DOK Industry team will offer an accompanying online programme that will open up space for discussion and debate and include events on the topics of distribution, co-production and co-financing.

“The digital edition of the DOK Co-Pro Market gives the event the opportunity to try new things, including greatly increasing the number of producers without projects who can participate in the Open Programme and in the meetings with projects,” says O’Shea. “The goal of this is to create a new, strong and diverse network of producers collaborating internationally and to create new kinds of support networks through the crisis. To link documentary professionals around the world despite the restrictions has been one of the main challenges to overcome. We also are very excited to still welcome producers without projects and producer delegations, in particular from Chile, Poland and our partner IEFTA.” It is still possible to apply as a producer without a project at DOK Leipzig by 25 September.

As last year, four awards will be presented in the context of the DOK Co-Pro Market.

For the second time, a prize from the Saxon State Minister for the Arts is awarded to an outstanding documentary film project by a woman director. The 5,000 euro prize has been donated by the Saxon Ministry of Science and Art and will be presented at the festival opening on 26 October.

The Zonta Club Leipzig Elster, which promotes women in professional life, will as usual award the Zonta Club Leipzig Elster Female Talent Development Prize, a scholarship of 1,000 euros.

The European Women's Audiovisual Network (EWA) is also continuing its partnership with DOK Leipzig. Together with EWA, the festival will award a development prize of 1,000 euros to a documentary filmmaker who participates in the Circle Women Doc Accelerator training programme. In addition to the prize money, the filmmaker will receive guidance in the further development of her film.

Once again, the Current Time TV and DOK Co-Pro Development Prize will be awarded to a documentary film project from eastern or central Europe. It is endowed with 2,000 US dollars and is awarded by DOK Leipzig and the Russian-language channel Current Time TV.

“We are looking forward to greeting everyone online and promise you an efficient, relevant and effective experience,” says Brigid O’Shea in closing.

A total of six curated Special Programmes will be presented at DOK Leipzig this year. The programmes offer insight into the history of the festival and film in general, focus on the work of outstanding directors and explore the intersection of media art and animation. This year, in the spirit of the hybrid festival, the programmes will be shown to the public in cinemas and will be accessible online throughout Germany. 

This year’s homage is dedicated to director, photographer and cinematographer Annik Leroy. Her meditative works situated between film, video art and installation invite us to reflect on European history and the human condition. In her latest film, “Tremor: Es ist immer Krieg”, she combines the ghostly voices of Ingeborg Bachmann, Pier Paolo Pasolini and Anna Freud with images of ruins. “Cell 719”, on the other hand, is a video project about Ulrike Meinhof and the psychology of terror. “Annik Leroy’s works are pervaded by the scars of history and yet are driven by a utopian energy,” says Ralph Eue, who curated the series. “Passionately, she explores how tradition and politics, psychology and environment shape people’s identity.” The homage comprises four films by the artist and can be seen both online and in Leipzig cinemas.

During the week of the festival, there will also be a master class in which Leroy will share her personal view of her work with the audience. This will be held online.

The “Animation Perspectives” programme is also structured as a dialogue. In a virtual setting, media artists Patrick Buhr and Aaron Jablonski will exchange ideas with the online festival audience about their animation miniatures and offer an exclusive peek at their working directories. Patrick Buhr’s works are fragmentary narratives, associative, playful and peppered with ironic humour. He combines hand drawing with 3-D animation. Aaron Jablonski, on the other hand, works closer to photographic reality, which makes his artistic interventions using augmented reality and digital errors all the more striking. As @exitsimulation he creates face filters for Instagram. Users slip into another identity with the help of animated masks that are at times bizarre.

“What impresses us about their work is the fascinating state of equilibrium between sketchy and complex design,” says curator André Eckardt. “Although Buhr and Jablonski follow very different paths in aesthetic terms, they share a creative openness to technical experiments.”

The “Re-Visions” programme looks back at the history of animated film at DOK Leipzig. Animated film has been part of the festival from the very beginning, and in 1995 it was given an important platform in the form of an independent competition. “Re-Visions” celebrates this anniversary with 25 films representing the most diverse animation techniques and narrative forms from the past 25 years of the festival. One programme is dedicated to the first year alone. Political satirical drawings can be seen here as well as the poetic side of this cinematic form — the puppet animation “100 Years of Cinema” is a declaration of love for the history of cinema. The Leipzig festival’s close ties to eastern Europe create a strong affinity to that major home of international animated film. Proof of this is the Polish entry “The Gentle Giant” by Marcin Podolec about a young poetry slammer. This entry stands for countless films at DOK Leipzig that conjoin the worlds of animation and documentary film. “Re-Visions” can be viewed on the cinema screen and online.

DOK Leipzig offers the complete range of animation and documentaries to even the youngest film fans. In the “Kids DOK” programmes, the festival presents documentary and animated films for audiences as young as age 5, 8, 10 and 14 — in cinemas as well as online. The protagonists of the documentary films are all children and adolescents who invite the audience to enter their worlds.

This year, Leipzig’s main railway station will not only be the venue for current productions, but will also show films on the theme of industrial heritage. Together with the Saxon State Archives, DOK Leipzig will present a programme about stations and railways that will take the audience back to the 1960s to 1980s with a bit of humorous nostalgia. Included is a film clip about the Mitropa company as well as films about Leipzig’s station forecourt and the Leipzig suburban railway. Amateur feature films, music and advertising films on the subject can also be discovered here.

The Leipzig region is also topic of another Special Programme. Together with the DEFA Foundation, the festival is screening Kurt Tetzlaff’s documentary film “Memories of a Landscape — to Manuela”, which was restored in 2018. In this 1983 film, the director followed the lives of a number of people south of Leipzig for several years, whose villages had to make way for lignite mining and were thus forced to say farewell and make a new start. Tetzlaff’s films received several awards in Leipzig and at other international festivals.

Tetzlaff’s film gives a taste of a more extensive programme with works by the director which was planned for 2020 but has had to be postponed to 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The film programme on the subject of industrial heritage is funded by the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony. This measure is co-financed by tax revenues on the basis of the budget adopted by the Saxon State Parliament.

DOK Leipzig would also like to thank the Saxon State Archive, the DEFA Foundation and the Promenaden Hauptbahnhof for their sponsorship and support of the Special Programmes.

This year, DOK Leipzig will present a reduced selection of about 120 films. All of them are to be screened in selected Leipzig venues, in compliance with hygiene regulations. Most of the films will also be available online throughout Germany. Furthermore, audiences in Leipzig will be able to attend the DOK Neuland interactive exhibition. These and other decisions have been made by Festival Director Christoph Terhechte and his team in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects.

In view of the uncertain situation, the festival will not be inviting any guests this year. However, the audience will be able to participate in the established film talks, in cinemas as well as online from their own homes. A variety of new online formats will facilitate communication between filmmakers and the audience. The competitions announced for the festival will remain in place, with only the introduction of a competition for long animated films being postponed until 2021. Some special programmes will be held in Leipzig cinemas as well as on the Internet in 2020.

“Our aim is to present an artistically multifaceted hybrid festival that continues to thrive on audience participation, that is based on the idea of solidarity and that preserves the character of a film festival. We as a team have been giving a lot of thought to these aspects in recent weeks, and we will continue to do so,” Christoph Terhechte explains.

All of the films, whether in the cinemas or online, will celebrate their festival premiere at a set time and then be available on demand for a maximum of two weeks. “Retaining the character of a festival is important to us. We regard the streaming option as an extension of the cinema screenings. We wish to support filmmakers as effectively as possible,” the festival director says. Only in Germany will the films selected be accessible via the Internet, and there will be a limit on the number of tickets available per film. A charge will still be made for tickets offered online.

“The fact that filmmakers won’t be able to celebrate their premieres in person with audiences in Leipzig in 2020 is extremely painful,” Christoph Terhechte continues. “It’s all the more reason for us to establish a productive dialogue between filmmakers, the audience and our programme team.” Thus there will be a mixture of pre-recorded and live film talks. Additionally, there are plans to interlink online and offline offerings.

This year, the audience will also be asked to judge films. The prizes in the newly introduced Golden Section competition for long and short documentary and animated films will be awarded by a jury comprised of Leipzig audience members who will watch the films in a cinema on the big screen. The online audience will also be able to vote in all competition programmes. This year, however, the professional juries will judge the festival’s competitions from a distance.

Submissions are still being accepted for the 63rd edition of DOK Leipzig. Directors and artists may submit their films and interactive works to the festival by 7 July.

As previously announced, all of the industry offerings of DOK Industry 2020 will be held online. Documentary film projects may still be submitted for this year’s DOK Co-Pro Market by 1 August.

DOK Leipzig’s Industry Programme will be held online this year. Film professionals will have access to all of the key events of DOK Industry in late October. The DOK Co-Pro Market will be held in virtual form, as will the presentations of DOK Preview, the DOK Short n’ Sweet short film pitch, the DOK Interactive Conference, networking events and talks.

This decision is a clear reaction to the pandemic and associated travel restrictions and hygiene measures. Simultaneously these new circumstances provide impetus to rethink how Germany's main industry platform for documentary film is organised and creates room for innovation on a sustainable basis, explains Head of DOK Industry Brigid O’Shea: “Our work as we know it, and by extension, the work of the whole audiovisual sector, will never be the same again. We are acutely aware of the challenges facing film professionals in these times. Nonetheless, we look forward to writing a new chapter in the future of film markets: greener, more efficient, more inclusive. We still have many challenges to overcome to fulfil this vision. We will be releasing more and more information as the festival approaches about how accredited guests can join us for this digital edition.”

The focus will be on finding creative ways of implementing industry mechanisms for financing, distribution and networking within the documentary and animated film industry, and on bringing the atmosphere of DOK Industry events to the Web: “We will work hard to maintain that which makes DOK Industry unique and a leading market for creative documentaries: relaxed and cosy, small-scale, targeted and time-efficient. Our focus will continue to be on the highest-quality projects and decision-makers.”

Dialogue and collaboration within the film industry is particularly important in these uncertain times. In the coming weeks, the festival will begin offering a series of online seminars that will give filmmakers the opportunity to get to know the team at DOK Leipzig and inform themselves about submitting films and projects to DOK Leipzig.

The Call for Projects for the 16th DOK Co-Pro Market is already underway. Filmmakers looking for co-production and financing partners for their documentary film projects may continue to make submissions until 1 August 2020. “This edition will have a particular focus on the future: to analyse co-production models and the international distribution chain in particular and to place professionals at the heart of our endeavours,” says Brigid O’Shea.

Festival director Christoph Terhechte adds: “DOK Leipzig will be putting forward a versatile and innovative hybrid version of its programme in 2020, which will combine online activities and presentations on location in cinemas in Leipzig. In 2021, we plan to welcome filmmakers back to Leipzig in person. In the coming weeks, we will also be announcing corresponding new features of the film programme.”

For the first time, DOK Leipzig will have its own competition for feature-length animated films. A three-member jury will decide during the festival who will be awarded the Golden Dove. “In recent years, there have been excellent, artistic animated films that are suited to DOK Leipzig and that have the potential to find an enthusiastic audience here,” explains Christoph Terhechte, who assumed the position of managing and artistic director of DOK Leipzig in January 2020. In order to establish the festival as a platform for feature-length animated films, the programme team will be scouting out and inviting to Leipzig more and more feature-length animations in addition to short animated films.

The prestigious International Competition Long Film will, in the meantime, be expanded. The jury will also be enlarged from 3 to 5 persons. In addition to the Golden Dove, the jury members will award a Silver Dove for a feature-length documentary by an up-and-coming director. As part of this move, the Next Masters Competitions that have been held until now will be combined with the international competitions for feature-length and short films. “Promoting young talent is one of DOK Leipzig’s main priorities. Up-and-coming filmmakers as well as established directors should each be given their place in our international competitions,” says Terhechte.

The elaborate International Programme and the Late Harvest section will in future be combined and provided with new audience awards for short and feature-length films. Moreover, the section will be streamlined significantly.

The changes to the programme have the goal of creating a clear programme structure and avoiding overlaps between sections. “DOK Leipzig has developed rapidly in recent years, yet has always remained a laid-back place for watching films, discussing them and expanding one’s professional networks,” Terhechte states. “Following the steady growth of the festival programme in recent years, we will not least be focusing on consolidating in 2020.”

In this vein, this year’s programme of films will include some 200 works — compared to the more than 300 that were shown during each of the previous editions of the festival. Attendance at individual showings is expected to remain the same due to more repeat showings of the festival films. The special programmes, such as retrospectives and homages, will remain integral components of the festival, and collaborations with regional and national initiatives such as the DEFA Foundation and the Saxon State Archives are to continue. DOK Neuland, the exhibition of interactive and immersive works, will also continue.

“We wish to maintain the festival’s high standards of quality, seek out new forms of cinema at all times and offer a bountiful programme to audiences at DOK Leipzig. At the same time, we are working on not overburdening our audiences with the abundance of offers, but rather on presenting clearly defined programmes from which audiences can select,” the new festival director expounds.

DOK Leipzig will be held from 26 October to 1 November this year. Since 3 March, documentary and animated films of any length as well as interactive works can be submitted to the 63rd edition of DOK Leipzig.

Here’s an overview of the six competitions at DOK Leipzig 2020:

• International Competition Long Documentary Film (long documentary films from 41 min)

The five-member international jury for this competition awards a Golden Dove for a long documentary, and a Silver Dove for a long documentary by an up-and-coming director (with up to three directorial works after completing their education).

• International Competition Long Animated Film (long animated films from 41 min) 

The three-member international jury for this competition awards a Golden Dove for a long animated film.

• International Competition Short Documentary and Animated Film (short documentary and animated films up to 40 min) 

The three-member international jury for this competition awards one Golden Dove each for a short documentary and a short animated film.

• German Competition Long Documentary Film (long documentary films from 41 min)
• German Competition Short Documentary and Animation Film (Short documentary and animated films up to 40 min)

The three-member jury of these two competitions awards a Golden Dove for a German long documentary film and a Silver Dove for a German short documentary or animated film.

• Audience Competition Long and Short Documentary and Animated Film for the Leipzig Audience Award (documentary and animated films of all lengths) 

The prizes for long and short documentaries or animated films will be determined by audience vote following public screenings during the festival.