With the dialogue format “Animation Perspectives” and the film series “Beyond Animation”, we invite you to discover different facets of animation at DOK Leipzig 2023.

“Animation Perspectives”: One workshop, two approaches to art

This year we could win the multiple award-winning animation artists Anne Isensee and Michelle Brand for our section “Animation Perspectives”. We are looking forward to the workshop discussion with them, when they introduce their work and vision to each other and the audience. Whether a “Megatrick”, a choreography of lifelines or suggestions on how to dance the compromise out of the world - worlds are taken apart and redrawn her. Save the date: 12 October, 21:00 at Passage Kinos.

“Beyond Animation”: Home as a safe place or a source of danger

“Home – Floor Plan, Elevation & Life” is the title under which the “Beyond Animation” film series will present animated film as the perfect medium for portraying “home” as an elusive place. “Home” is so much more than a place on a map.

To depict this “somewhere”, the artists behind the films in the “Beyond Animation” series use a variety of techniques. These range from digital matte paintings and cross-fading, to stop-motion, to hallucinatory and intoxicating images, which gleefully comb conventional associations against the grain.

“The architecture of ‘home’ is not functional but emotional,” André Eckhardt – curator of the series – concludes. “It is built upon imagination, misfortune and fortune.”

Read more about the art of animation at DOK Leipzig 2023 in our press release. Tickets will be available from 21 September.

The world premiere of Arndt Ginzel’s documentary “White Angel – The End of Marinka” will open our this year’s festival edition.

This film documents evacuation and rescue operations in the small town of Marinka in the Donetsk region from the spring to the autumn of 2022. The impressive close-up footage of the operations is from a GoPro camera worn by police officers who repeatedly drive around the town in a white van which the civilians call the “White Angel”. In the spring of 2023, Arndt Ginzel and his team returned to Ukraine and spoke with the rescuers and survivors about their traumatic experiences – and about the demise of their home town, which no longer exists.

“The survivors’ testimony speaks of loss, of pain and grief, but also of hopes and dreams,” comments festival director Christoph Terhechte. “More than a film about war, ‘White Angel – The End of Marinka’ is a document of humanity and a longing for peace.”

Our opening ceremony will take place on Sunday, 8 October 2023 at 7 pm in CineStar 4.

“White Angel – The End of Marinka” will be screened in cinemas on two days during the week of the festival. We will publish our programme including all dates on 21 September, when ticket sales will also start.

You can find more information about the opening film in our press release.

We are thrilled to welcome 35 new documentary film projects from 30 countries. At our DOK Co-Pro Market (9 and 10 October), they will meet potential co-production, financing and distribution partners.

Some of the selected projects tackle pressing issues of our time, while others contemplate the future and offer alternative visions of society. The selection features four animated documentary projects and three projects that expand the genre of true crime.

Part of the selection are also five promising projects that the DOK Industry Team scouted at trusted partner training initiatives and film markets: East Doc Platform, Durban FilmMart, CoPro Israel, BDC Discoveries and DOC LAB POLAND’s DOCS TO START.

The projects span across geographies, coming from Europe, the US, three South American countries, six Asian countries and six African countries, including one fixed co-production between Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal and Ivory Coast.

Some of the invited directors and producers have already shown their films at our festival in the past. Filmmakers from Leipzig Jonas Eisenschmidt and Constanze Wolpers are returning with their new project. Petit à Petit Production will also be back at the festival with a new project.

Check out the 35 projects here and find more information about the selection in our press release. Congratulations to the teams!

Call for Producers without a Project

Producers who are actively looking to co-produce new audio-visual works and have a relevant track record of international co-productions can still apply for participation in the DOK Co-Pro Market without a project. The deadline is 7 September. Read more and apply here

Phantom dachshunds, „Planet B“ and the daughter of a Shaolin master – our Kids DOK programmes this year show documentary and animated films for kids and teenagers told from young people’s point of view, stories that are on their level and tales from worlds unfamiliar to them.

Five programmes for five age groups

The youngest filmfans aged 4 and up can marvel at sea creatures fending off a ravenous seagull, the tumultuous journey of a giant crate and life on a farm in Senegal.

For the 6+ age group, there is a programme of animated films about arriving, saying goodbye and belonging, as well as a documentary about fighting spirit and perseverance.

Eight- to eleven-year-olds can expect four stories in which their peers encounter things in their everyday lives that move them, challenge them, and prompt them to reconsider: a career wish is abandoned, a dream is adapted to the circumstances, an unplanned adventure is surmounted.

The programme for ages 12+ tells of female skateboarders who face a ban in their city, of girls in boot camps and of others who are on a mission to bring fledging puffins back to a cliff so that they can learn to fly.

For everyone over 14, there is a film about enthusiastic clima activists against climate change and an upbeat animated film about the most beautiful aspects of solitude.

Tickets for Kids DOK will be available from 21 September. Daycare groups can already register with us. Read more hot to sign up with your group here.

DOK Education: Inspiring offers for teachers and schoolchildren

DOK Education gives schoolchildren and teachers the opportunity to become familiar with documentary and animated film as a form of cinematic expression.

The DOK Spotters workshop is aimed at young people between the ages of 14 and 20 who are interested in film journalism. At this year‘s Teachers Day, a full-day workshop for teachers the focus is on “Sick Girls” by Gitti Grüter. This striking festival film, which is having its world premiere at DOK Leipzig, is a very personal reflection on dealing with ADHD. DOK Leipzig is also organising a school screening of “Sick Girls” in late November.

Registration for both – DOK Spotters and Teachers Day – is now open!

More on DOK Education on our German website