This year's winners of the Doc Alliance Award 2025 were announced today at the Doc Day Lunch during the Marché du Film in Cannes!

Best Feature Film:

The prize for Best Feature Film of €5,000 goes to “The Shards” (“Oskolky”, Georgia/Germany) by Masha Chernaya. A powerful and personal film about farewells, loss, and the courage to capture a fragile world through the camera lens. The jury praised the film for its “striking ability to merge personal and collective mourning.”

Best Short Film:

The €3,000 prize for Best Short Film goes to “We Had Fun Yesterday” (Belgium) by Marion Guillard. A sensitive and distinctive work that brings together conventional ideas of femininity, body image, and Marion's experiences as a wildlife filmmaker. The short film had its world premiere with us in 2024.

The jury highlighted its “narrative full of surprises interweaving personal quests of identity and family relations with views of being a filmmaker.”

More information is available in our press release.

We warmly congratulate the winners!

Watch now:

Four of this year’s nominated films — including “Grey Zone,” “Shuruuk,” “23:23,” and “Bamssi” — are now available to watch on DAfilms.com.

We’re excited to launch two calls for producers today! 

DOK Co-Pro Market

Join us for two days of networking and co-financing: The DOK Co-Pro Market connects producers with potential co-production partners, broadcasters, funders and distributors to co-finance and collaborate on new creative documentary projects. In 850+ one-on-one meetings, we match 35 selected projects with potential partners from the international industry. 

DOK Co-Pro Market will take place 27–28 October as part of DOK Industry in Leipzig. 

The deadline for entries is 15 July. We’re thrilled to receive your new projects!

All about the DOK Co-Pro Market

Animation Lab

This three-day workshop in collaboration with CEE Animation is designed for professional producers who are developing their first animated documentary and are eager to explore the international landscape of the animation industry.

The workshop will consist of group work, personal and project presentations, lectures, direct one-to-one expert consultations and networking events. We will address topics such as filmnarrative, film development and pre-production, distribution and creative aspects of animated documentaries development.

The Animation Lab will take place on-site during DOK Leipzig from 27–29 October. Lab participants are encouraged to take advantage of DOK Industry’s Animation and XR programmes. The application deadline is 1 July.

All about the Animation Lab

It’s that time again: On 20 May, the Doc Alliance Award will be presented in Cannes, as part of the Marché du Film. Two documentary films by emerging European talents will be honored. The award comes with 5,000€ for Best Feature and 3,000€ for Best Short.

The seven European festivals that form the Doc Alliance network — together with guest festival Punto de Vista — have nominated a total of 16 feature-length and short documentaries from their recent programmes. Each festival selects one feature and one short film.

Our DOK Leipzig nominees are Moria Six (feature) and We Had Fun Yesterday (short) — fingers crossed for both teams!

Best Feature Nominees:
 

• „An Oscillating Shadow“ (Una sombra oscilante), Argentina/ Chile/ France, director: Celeste Rojas Mugica, nominated by FIDMarseille

• „Aurora“, Brazil/ Portugal/ France, director: João Vieira Torres, nominated by Visions du Réel

• „A Want in Her“, Ireland/ UK/ Netherlands, director: Myrid Carten, nominated by Millennium Docs Against Gravity

• „Flophouse America“, Norway, director: Monica Strømdahl, nominated by CPH:DOX

• „Grey Zone“ (Šedá Zóna), Slovakia, director: Daniela Meressa Rusnoková, nominated by Ji.hlava IDFF

• „Moria Six“, Germany, director: Jennifer Mallmann, nominated by DOK Leipzig

• „The Shards“ (Oskolky), Georgia/ Germany, director: Masha Chernaya, nominated by Doclisboa

• „Volver a casa tan tarde“, Spain, director: Celia Viada Caso, nominated by Punto de Vista

Best Short Nominees:
 

• 23:23 (Život jedna báseň, není peříčko), Czech Republic, director: Kateřina Dudová, nominated by Ji.hlava IDFF

• Bamssi, Belgium/ Tunisia, director: Mourad Ben Amor, nominated by Punto de Vista

• Can you hear me? (Czy Ty mnie słyszysz?), Poland, director: Anastazja Naumenko, nominated by Millennium Docs Against Gravity

• Fear Fokol, Sweden, director: Tuva Björk, nominated by CPH:DOX

• Shuruuk, France/ Germany, director: Amie Barouh, nominated by FIDMarseille

• Sixty-Seven Milliseconds (Soixante-sept millisecondes), France, director: Fleuryfontaine, nominated by Visions du Réel

• Unstable Rocks (Pedras Instáveis), Portugal/ Germany, directors: Ewelina Rosińska and Nuno Barroso, nominated by Doclisboa 

• We Had Fun Yesterday, Belgium, director: Marion Guillard, nominated by DOK Leipzig

And here’s the jury:

A jury of three distinguished film professionals will determine the winning films: film critic Fernando Ganzo (Deputy Editor-in-Chief at Cahiers du Cinéma), Gerald Weber (Deputy Managing Director at sixpackfilm), and producer Caroline Kirberg (CEO of pong film).

We are looking forward to celebrating the winners in May! We'll share the winners here in our news section.

Since 2015, we dedicate an exhibition platform to immersive documentary storytelling: DOK Neuland. Each year during the DOK Leipzig festival week (27.10.–2.11.2025) we invite our audiences to discover selected international XR pieces in public exhibitions.

The call for submissions to the 2025 DOK Neuland edition is now open. We look forward to receiving your artistic XR contributions until 1 July.

What are we looking for?

XR works that question conventional narrative forms and open up new audio-visual experiences – be it through virtual reality, mixed reality or augmented reality experiences, 360° films, performances, media or web-based art, sound installations, projection mapping or looped films, participatory films or games. We’re also excited to discover and showcase even more media we may not even be aware of yet.

You can submit your XR works until 1 July directly on our website. DOK Neuland has no premiere requirements nor submission fees. We are excited to work with you to support your visions and bring your works to the public!

Head to our DOK Neuland page to find out more about the exhibition, read the regulations, and access the entry form: 

Go to DOK Neuland