Although documentary cinema forms part of DOK Leipzig’s very name, animated film has developed into an equally important element of the film festival over the years. Each year, the competition programmes bring together outstanding new productions, while the formats “Animation Perspectives” and “Animation Night” have become audience favourites in the meantime. This year’s industry programme is equally full of animation, which doesn’t just serve to hone the festival’s programming line, but also to establish DOK Industry as a meeting point for the international animated film community. Across all these parts of the festival, DOK Leipzig is always exploring the boundaries of animation: from animated documentaries via experimental films all the way to the DOK Neuland extended reality exhibition.
Animation Perspectives #8
Describing states of being in a game aesthetic: at this year’s Animation Perspectives, Leipzig animated filmmaker Franz Impler and Belgian media artist Anton Cla will be meeting on stage and giving the audience insights into their creative process. This conversation format will be taking place in 2026 for the eight time already. It combines a film programme of selected works by the filmmakers and a discussion between the two of them, curator André Eckardt and the cinemagoers.
“Franz Impler and Anton Cla create spaces that work according to their own unique rules. Both toy with the restrictions of early gaming animation – including unpredictable spatial coordinates and glitches. They describe states of being and thus prompt viewers to reflect on themselves and the question of their own agency”, commented Eckardt. “While Anton Cla animates strange forms and darkly magical realms, Franz Impler tells stories in glowing colours, full of surprising humour and unexpected punchlines”, he continued.
Both filmmakers have already shown films in the DOK Leipzig competitions: Anton Cla in 2023 with his graduation film“Cyclepaths” (International Competition Animated Film) and Franz Impler in 2020 with “Out of Bounds” (Competition for the Audience Award for Short Documentaries and Animated Films). A further eleven short films will be shown alongside these two titles at Animation Perspectives #8.
Animation Night: Outta Space
This year’s Animation Night: Outta Space imagines outer space in moving images. Curated by Ben Sassen and Franka Sachse, the programme invites audiences to leave Earth’s reality behind and to set off on a cosmic journey into a universe of experimental films and live film performances. The Animation Night traditionally takes place at the Schaubühne Lindenfels on the Friday of the festival week at 8pm.
“Over the course of its history, science fiction cinema has made use of animation and animated effects as the most important tools to depict outer space, extraterrestrial worlds and far-off galaxies. This is no big surprise, as animation can to a certain extent create an entire cosmos from an empty space. Animation shows particular strength when no visual material is available”, remarked Franka Sachse. In addition, co-curator Ben Sassen emphasised the close links between animated and experimental film: “Many of the works showing were made in visual arts contexts and were not originally intended for the big screen. But it’s precisely there, where several of them can now be seen for the very first time in this dimension, that they exert a pull that’s difficult to resist.”
The programme traces the representation of outer space in animated and experimental film from 1966 to 2026 and is conceived as a round trip: from the Earth to the Moon (“Moon Flight”), onwards to distant planets (“Green Planet”) and back again (“Cosmonauts”). “World” by American artist and director Jordan Belson will also be shown, whose oeuvre also includes over 30 abstract films which have been described as “cosmic cinema”.
After the film programme, sound artist Kay Kalytta and animated filmmaker Alberto Couceiro will be showing their most recent work “Proyecciones Cósmicas”. This live performance draws on stop motion animation, 16mm projectors, film loops, modular live synthesis and a small orchestra of cassettes and radios. The two artists refer to it a “film concert” and the curatorial duo promises “a chamber of wonders full of analogue sound techniques; hissings, cracklings and rattlings.”
Hommage Animated Film
DOK Leipzig’s dual programming structure is once again reflected in the Documentary Film Hommage and the Animated Film Hommage, which pay tribute to the long-standing contributions of filmmakers in both fields at this year’s festival too. The latter honours the Norwegian animated film studio Trollfilm, which specialises in multiplane cut-out animation. Operating out of a converted barn within reach of several national parks, Trollfilm has spent more than 30 years using mostly hand-crafted animation to conjure up a world that radiates empathy and brims with magical optimism. The studio also engages with such big themes as domestic violence, intergenerational trauma and war at the same time. In addition to the two film programmes, a public masterclass with Trollfilm founder Anita Killi also forms part of the hommage and will be moderated by curator Marie Ketzscher. More information can be found in the corresponding press release.
DOK Neuland
Held under the theme “Landslide”, DOK Neuland, the public extended reality (XR) and expanded filmmaking exhibition, maps collapse across eight compelling works, revealing its many facets, fractures, and promises. Curated by Dana Melaver, the works span a range of themes and narrative approaches, from man-made tensions with nature, to homes lost to climate change and violence, to departures from certainty and new beginnings. The lineup boasts diverse forms, with three works making use of animation techniques: the VR documentary “The World Came Flooding In”, the interactive work “Nothing to see here” and the mixed-media installation “The Room of a Thousand Voices”. More information can be found in the corresponding press release.
Animation at DOK Industry
The industry programme is also full of animation. A bundle of four events is taking place at the Zeitgeschichtliches Forum Leipzig on 29.10. for accredited guests. Organised in collaboration with the Animation Production Days Stuttgart, the round table “Adult Animation in Europe” brings together creators, producers and industry experts to discuss the status quo and future of animation for adults. In the afternoon, the panel discussion “From the Niche into the Spotlight – Pathways to Greater Visibility for European Animation” by the AG Animationsfilm takes the visibility of European animated films as its theme. It is followed by the DOK Industry Talk “KEY FRAMES 2026: Animation erzählt Gegenwart”, which takes place in German. With the KEY FRAMES funding programme, MDR and MDM have enabled seven animated shorts to be made in central Germany that tackle current themes in society. The event takes a look at how the programme came about as well as the collaboration between the TV channel, funding bodies and producers. It’s followed in turn by the networking format “Industry Connections: Animation Meets Doc”, whose name says it all: animators get the chance to meet documentary filmmakers interested in the creative potential of animation techniques.
In addition, the Animation Lab DOK Leipzig is taking place for the fourth time already in collaboration with CEE Animation. The three-day workshop for producers working on their first animated documentaries is headed by experienced producer Jean-François Le Corre (Vivement Lundi!) and the multidisciplinary artist Uri Kranot (Tindrum). Further, both an animated feature film and several animated documentary films are part of the DOK Co-Pro Market. Finally, the Industry programme for interactive and immersive storytelling, DOK Exchange, reflects how animation is expanding from traditional techniques into interactive, spatial, data-driven and generative forms. It ranges from traditional handcrafted animation used in the interactive console game „Bub“ (Prototyping Zone), to 3D animation translated into spatial and interactive XR environments in „Becoming Lucien“ (Protoyping Zone) and point-cloud animation and AI-assisted reconstructive animation in „Anatomy of a Massacre“ and „Dreams Under Siege“ (Showcase), where images, footage or data are transformed into spatial and moving visual reconstructions. More information can be found in the corresponding press release.
Overview of the formats Animation Perspectives and Animation Night: Film Lists 2026
Press images available to download: Film stills
