DOK Co-Pro Market Project Selection 2019

The selection of projects for the 15th DOK Co-Pro Market is now complete. 35 film projects from 40 countries have been selected out of 309 submissions. They will now have the chance to find international co-production and financing partners at the beginning of the festival in Leipzig.

 

“For the last years we've put the priority on looking for and engaging with filmmakers not to fill diversity quotas, but more because our curiosity drives us to crave different perspectives and voices. We choose to work with professionals whose points of view challenge the status quo,” says Brigid O’Shea, head of DOK Industry. “Without exaggeration, the overall quality of the 309 submissions for the DOK Co-Pro Market was incredibly high this year, and we had tough decisions to make.” 

 

The selected film projects present a great variety of visual languages, narrative perspectives and thematic approaches. These include film projects that deal with the realities of living in a diaspora or accompany people who, due to current social or political upheavals, have had to shift their centre of life. Other directors provide intimate insights into personal family stories.

 

Ukrainian producer and programmer Darya Bassel (Docudays UA) and Jamila Wenske, managing director of the production company Achtung Panda!, were jointly responsible for the project selection.

 

On the first two festival days, 28 and 29 October 2019, around 900 individual meetings will take place at the DOK Co-Pro Market, where producers will encounter potential partners. These include international financiers and co-producers from broadcasters ARD, SVT, SRF, ORF, ARTE France and RAI. New partners such as Mubi, Vice, Ryot Films and other representatives of leading online platforms will also be taking part.

 

Four prizes will be awarded as part of the DOK Co-Pro Market.

 

Have a look at the list of DOK Co-Pro Market projects.

Our homage guest 2019

Welcome, Tan Pin Pin! This year, we are happy to welcome the Singapore born filmmaker as our homage guest.

 

In her films Tan Pin Pin questions the national identity of Singapore and it’s (not always official) history. Despite the well-known turbo-capitalism of the tiny island state, she encounters issues like the pressure to conform or xenophobia – to the frequent displeasure of the island nation’s ruling class. Her film TO SINGAPORE, WITH LOVE, a portrait of Singaporean citizens living in exile, is still not allowed to be shown in the city state to this day.

When the glamour of a nation headed for high development status becomes dazzling, Tan Pin Pin’s work is a reminder that there’s little chance for opposition in autocratically-governed Singapore. Tan Pin Pin persistently carries out remembrance work for a state in which no one is asked for their opinion and individual perspectives risk being smothered.

 

In its 62nd edition, DOK Leipzig honours Tan Pin Pins ouevre, showing her films in a Special Programme.

In addition, Tan Pin Pin will attend the festival in person and introduce us to her work in a master class on Friday, 1 November 2019. 

 

Weltkino donates Golden Dove

DOK Leipzig has a new prize donor! Film distributor Weltkino is donating the 10,000-euro Golden Dove in the German Competition Long Documentary and Animated Film this year.

 

“We love good films and we love Leipzig. For this reason, supporting DOK Leipzig is a particular delight,” says Michael Kölmel, who manages Weltkino along with Dietmar Güntsche.“ Documentaries and animated films are both very important to Weltkino’s selection of films, so we are eagerly looking forward to this year’s competition.”

 

DOK Leipzig and Weltkino have already proven to be a good team. In recent years, DOK Leipzig has continually shown films that Weltkino has subsequently brought to cinemas. These have included, for example, the documentaries ZWISCHEN DEN STÜHLEN by Jakob Schmidt and NEO RAUCH – GEFÄHRTEN UND BEGLEITER by Nicola Graef (both German Competition DOK Leipzig 2016) as well as the animated film LOVING VINCENT by Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman.

 

Our festival director, Leena Pasanen: “We are tremendously pleased about this excellent commitment by Weltkino and are very grateful to Michael Kölmel and his team. In sponsoring this award, the distributor underscores the fact that our competition films are just at the start of an eventful journey. A remarkable number of films that premiere at DOK Leipzig find a distributor and then public appraisal in cinemas.”

 

Which films are being sent into competition for the prestigious Golden Dove is something we can’t yet reveal. The public will find out on the big day when our programme is released on 10 October. Stay tuned.

 

Here’s an overview of all of our awards.

 

Here's more information about Weltkino.