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Animation Perspectives
Filmstill Hidden Message
Hidden Message
Franz Impler
Strange animal-like creatures poke their heads out of neatly trimmed hedges and chant a bizarre hymn in unison. What a brief anarchic moment on such a lovely, bright day.
2025
Filmstill Hidden Message

Hidden Message

Hidden Message
Franz Impler
Animation Perspectives
Animated Film
Germany
2025
1 minute
without dialogue
Subtitles: 
None
No Premiere
A fluffy pink animal creature pokes its head out of a precisely trimmed green hedge column, singing a euphoric motif, its voice radiating the charm of a vintage synthesizer. Twin creatures with twin voices join from neighbouring hedges, an exhilarating beat resonates. An unhinged anthem with few beats, a brief anarchic moment on this lovely, bright day.

André Eckardt

Screenings & Tickets DOK Leipzig Logo

29.10.
#474
Passage Kinos Wintergarten
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29.10.2026
Passage Kinos Wintergarten
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Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Franz Impler
Producer
Franz Impler
Animation
Franz Impler
Animation Technique
3D Digital

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German Competition Documentary Film
Filmstill Hotel Utopia
Hotel Utopia
Julia Groteclaes
An abandoned luxury hotel at a Bulgarian ski resort is supposed to be converted into a co-living space for digital nomads: a business idea which doesn’t factor in the local population.
Filmstill Hotel Utopia

Hotel Utopia

Hotel Utopia
Julia Groteclaes
German Competition Documentary Film
Documentary Film
Germany
2026
86 minutes
English,
German,
Bulgarian
Subtitles: 
German, English
German subtitles
World premiere

They develop software, work as lifestyle coaches, own marketing agencies or an Amazon shop, travel around the world without paying for accommodation: digital nomads for whom a laptop on a suitcase is sometimes enough of a workplace. Some of their aspirations fall by the wayside in the process and become the project of an enterprising Munich-based developer: Mathias is courting rootless individualists and clever investors to become backers of a project that is to turn a deserted former luxury hotel in the Bulgarian mountains into a hip coworking space. He promises a sense of community, intense human connections and few taxes, an outdoor pool and a campfire idyll. While the nomads who dream of home are waiting for the utopia to become reality, the residents of the surrounding villages sense a new “Wind of Change” with some scepticism. A brilliant structural analysis of a business model that capitalises on modern longings and knows how to carve out the necessary space.

Jan Künemund

Screenings & Tickets DOK Leipzig Logo

27.10.
#212
CineStar 2
Hotel Utopia
During Checkout you can apply discounts, your accreditation or season passes
27.10.2026
CineStar 2
#212
Hotel Utopia
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30.10.
#581
UT Connewitz
Hotel Utopia
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30.10.2026
UT Connewitz
#581
Hotel Utopia
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01.11.
#7B3
Schauburg
Hotel Utopia
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01.11.2026
Schauburg
#7B3
Hotel Utopia
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Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Julia Groteclaes
Cinematographer
Sina Diehl
Editor
Wolfgang Purkhauser
Producer
Frank Carsten Walter, Manuel Rees, Hannah Buhr, Paradoks Film
Co-Producer
Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg
Sound
Resonanz Kollektiv
Sound Design
Resonanz Kollektiv
Score
Jonas Vogler

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Nominated for: MDR Film Prize, DEFA Sponsoring Prize, VER.DI Prize for Solidarity, Humanity and Fairness, film.land.sachsen Award
International Competition Documentary Film
Filmstill How to Catch a Butterfly
How to Catch a Butterfly
Kiriko Mechanicus
Racially motivated femicides. The director writes letters to the perpetrator in prison, blending projection with performance. A self-interrogation about the fetishisation of Asian women.
Filmstill How to Catch a Butterfly

How to Catch a Butterfly

How to Catch a Butterfly
Kiriko Mechanicus
International Competition Documentary Film
Documentary Film
Netherlands
2026
26 minutes
English,
Japanese
Subtitles: 
English
German premiere
What is behind the fetishisation of Asian women? This is the question which Kiriko Mechanicus uses to structure her intense, hyper-referential essay film, taking up a criminal case at the start: Robert Aaron Long shot and killed a series of women, primarily of Asian origin, in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2001. She starts writing letters to him in prison: “Maybe in some way you remind me of many of my ex-boyfriends.” By weaving together sexuality, projection and performance, the director sets off down an uncomfortable path, which simultaneously becomes a process of self-interrogation: to what extent did she slip into the role of the submissive Japanese woman in the past? Or “When was the last time I didn’t pretend to be your prey and you weren’t trying to hunt me down?” “How to Catch a Butterfly” examines the pins holding the director’s wings in place – and removes them in a charged act of self-empowerment.

Carolin Weidner

Contains mentions of murder, racism

Contains depictions of racism

Screenings & Tickets DOK Leipzig Logo

27.10.
#231
CineStar 5
Teil der Kompilation
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27.10.2026
CineStar 5
#231
Teil der Kompilation
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29.10.
#471
Passage Kinos Wintergarten
Teil der Kompilation
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29.10.2026
Passage Kinos Wintergarten
#471
Teil der Kompilation
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31.10.
#663
Passage Kinos Astoria
Teil der Kompilation
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31.10.2026
Passage Kinos Astoria
#663
Teil der Kompilation
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01.11.
#774
Passage Kinos Wintergarten
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01.11.2026
Passage Kinos Wintergarten
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Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Kiriko Mechanicus
Cinematographer
Kiriko Mechanicus
Editor
Marieke Schoenmakers
Producer
Ilja Roomans
Sound
Kiriko Mechanicus
Sound Design
Levi Cuijpers
Score
Anne Teikari

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World Sales
Ilja Roomans
DocMakers
ilja@docmakers.nl
Nominated for: Silver Dove