DOK Leipzig

At this year’s DOK Leipzig festival, two feature-length documentaries and one short animated film will be presented with audio description. This has been made possible with the support of Greta und Starks and Kinoblindgänger gemeinnützige GmbH.

Another 26 films will be shown with simple German subtitles. The majority of the screenings will take place at CineStar 2. 

In addition, one feature-length film and one short film will be presented together in a Relaxed Screening at CineStar 2. These screenings are designed to provide a more accessible and inviting cinema experience for people with different sensory needs. The auditorium remains softly lit, audience members can move around freely, and filmgoers can leave and re-enter the auditorium. There is no expectation of silence; audience reactions and other sounds are welcome.

Thanks to support from Diakonie Leipzig, a free companion service for blind and visually impaired people and wheelchair users will once again be available this year. Those wishing to use the service can contact Susann Hanske in advance on +49 (0)341 5612-1290 or send an email to fbti [dot] begleitung [at] diakonie-leipzig [dot] de (fbti[dot]begleitung[at]diakonie-leipzig[dot]de).

Accessibility at DOK Leipzig

DOK Leipzig has been showing films in accessible versions for many years. Until two years ago, these services were funded by the Free State of Saxony. This funding was completely cut for the 2025/26 two-year budget and not replaced. Since 2025, DOK Leipzig has therefore relied on filmmakers or sponsors to provide accessible versions of films. With its finances already under considerable strain, the festival is unable to draw on its own resources to cover the costs of SDH subtitles (for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing) and additional audio descriptions.

For comparison, in previous years, project funding from the Free State of Saxony enabled around 35 films per festival edition to be made accessible. It also meant that three to five Q&A sessions could be provided with sign-language interpretation.

Read more in our press release.

Patricio Guzmán passed away on 15 September 2026 at the age of 85. The Chilean documentary filmmaker was a frequent guest at DOK Leipzig, most recently with his film “Nostalgia de la luz”, which opened the festival in 2010.

Over the course of decades, Patricio Guzmán documented Chile’s political history and, in his films, recorded the human rights abuses committed under the dictatorship. In the 1970s, he directed the trilogy “The Battle of Chile”, which is now regarded as a milestone in political documentary filmmaking and which also received the International Jury’s Special Prize in Leipzig in 1976.

His first film, “El primer año”, will screen as part of our retrospective this year. In it, Patricio Guzmán examines the first year under Allende’s popular government. Chile’s working class celebrated the victory, but the right wing did everything in its power to sabotage the transition to a fairer society.

Our thoughts are with the family of Patricio Guzmán, with his friends and his colleagues.

DOK Leipzig welcomes the juries for its 69th edition, formed by esteemed filmmakers, artists, and industry experts, to celebrate this year’s finest works in documentary and animated film. 

Seven Golden Doves and two Silver Doves will be awarded to films across four competitions on 1 November. 

German and International Competitions

The jury for this year’s International Competition Documentary Film features Raul Niño Zambrano, Ivan Ramljak, and Diana El Jeiroudi. They will award a Golden Dove to the best feature documentary and the best short documentary from the 9 nominated features and 13 nominated short films. A Silver Dove will also be presented to the best feature documentary and the best short documentary by an up-and-coming director.

The jury for the International Competition Animated Film includes Waltraud Grausgruber, Edmunds Jansons, and Matea Radic, who will select the winner of a Golden Dove for best animated feature and best animated short film from the 5 nominated features and 19 nominated shorts.

This year’s jury for the German Competition Documentary Film comprises Stefanie Eckert, David Bernet, and Adele Kohout. They will pick the winners of a Golden Dove for best feature documentary and best short documentary from the 8 nominated features and 12 nominated short films.

Audience Competition

This year, the winner of a Golden Dove for best feature documentary in the Audience Competition will be decided in an online vote.

Read more about our jury members in the press release.

All jury members and awards

Festival director Ola Staszel is introducing a new section called “Fokus Ost”, which will bolster eastern German perspectives in documentary filmmaking. Eight of the total of ten documentaries will have their world premieres at the 69th edition of the festival, including this year’s opening film, Ina Borrmann’s “Good Evening, Beautiful”. 

This year‘s „Fokus Ost“ is curated by Grit Lemke, a filmmaker, author and former programming director at DOK Leipzig. The feature-length films tell, among other things, of the student protest in Rostock against the closure of the branch of the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts during the period of German reunification (“The Class of 1990”), the stories of two former contract workers from Vietnam who were employed in the GDR (“Uncle Thuận”) and a garden that becomes a bright spot within a concrete housing estate in Schwerin (“Garden of Hope”).

The Opening Film 2026

For „Good Evening, Beautiful“, the film’s director, Ina Borrmann, met several protagonists of a 1977 collection of interviews by Maxie Wander titled “Guten Morgen, du Schöne”, and interviewed them again. The feminist classic had left its mark on generations, and remains one of the most influential works in German literature. By speaking with radical candour about matters that are supposedly private, the film once again raises important questions about living in a patriarchy, questions that have lost none of their relevance since the book was first published. 

On 26 October, there will be a public screening of “Good evening, Beautiful” at 20:30 in the East Hall of Leipzig Central Station. Admission is free!

Four other films in this section will be entered in the German Documentary Film Competition and will be announced on 8 October.

DOK Talk on Eastern German Perspectives

The section will also include the DOK Talk “Eastern German Perspectives in Documentary Filmmaking” at the Volkshochschule Leipzig at 16:00 on 30 October, which is being organised in collaboration with the weekly newspaper “der Freitag”. In conversation with guests of this edition of the festival, we discuss questions such as: How are eastern Germany and the realities of life there represented in documentary films? What obstacles do filmmakers face? And which films make it onto the big screen, onto television and onto streaming platforms? 

Find out more about “Fokus Ost” and this year’s opening film in our press release.

More glimpses from this year’s programmes.

Discover the films screening as part of “Fokus Ost”