The festival week concluded on Sunday with resounding success. We are thrilled by the many full cinema screenings and the overwhelmingly positive feedback. This year, we welcomed a record-breaking 55,000 visitors – our highest attendance yet.

“DOK Leipzig 2024 drew well over two thousand accredited professionals, who boosted attendance at the festival cinemas and noticeably increased the popularity of the industry events,” explains our Festival Director Christoph Terhechte. “But it’s undeniable that sales of individual and season tickets were up as well, enabling lively discussions in sold-out cinemas and memorable feedback for the numerous filmmakers who came here from all over the world. This is a good sign for cinema screenings of documentaries and animated films.”

The films in the Audience Competition and the Short Film Reels, along with events like Animation Night, Interactive Cinema of DOK Neuland, and Animation Perspectives were particularly well received. We are also delighted by the high demand for the feature-length animated films, the Retrospective, and Matinees.

The free screenings at the main station were also exceptionally popular, and our XR exhibition, DOK Neuland, attracted over twice as many visitors as last year.

At DOK Industry, DOK Exchange XR, DOK Co-Pro Market, and the events focusing on animated film were particularly well attended and drew a lot of enthusiasm.

We are already excited about the 68th edition of the festival! Save the date and join us for another memorable experience in Leipzig from 27.10. to 2.11.2025.

We are thrilled to announce the 2024 DOK Industry awards! Prizes have been awarded to documentary projects participating in three DOK Industry formats. Huge congratulations to the winning teams and big thanks to our award partners.

DOK Co-Pro Market

At the DOK Co-Pro Market, a total of two awards were presented. The Saxon Award for the Best Documentary Project by a Female Director went to Ana Kvichidze for her project “Oh, Heart Don’t Be Afraid” (Georgia, Germany). The prize, sponsored by the Saxon State Ministry for Science, Culture and Tourism (SMWK), is endowed with 5,000 euros.  

The Unifrance Doc Award was given to “Bitter Seed” by Camélia Gadhgadhi (France, Algeria), providing the project with subtitling services, sponsored by TitraFilm, and a Unifrance membership for its French producer.

DOK Preview Germany

At DOK Preview Germany, “Curtains” by Alina Cyranek (Germany) picked up the D-Facto Motion Works-in-Progress Prize. The prize, sponsored by D-Facto Motion GmbH, comes with post-production services valued at 10,000 euros.

DOK Short n’ Sweet

At DOK Short n’ Sweet, the Square Eyes Festival Consultation Award went to “Hypnagogy” by Paula Ábalos Santibáñez (Chile). The award comes with a tailor-made consultation on festival strategy by Square Eyes.

DOK Leipzig’s exciting programme on interactive and immersive storytelling with a special focus on XR works, DOK Exchange XR is expanding to two full days for the first time, taking place on 31 October and 1 November. Alongside XR Conference and XR Showcase, this year’s DOK Exchange XR also incorporates XR Prototyping Zone as an integral part of its programme.

The 2024 DOK Exchange XR’s lineup of events will centre on the theme of immersive and spatial sound, delving into the art of crafting spatial audio narratives, diverse immersive sonic worlds, 3D soundscapes, voice storytelling, and more.

XR Conference (31 October and 1 November) will feature ten stimulating keynote presentations and two panel discussions, addressing various aspects of spatial audio in immersive storytelling. Find more information about the keynote presentations and panels here.

At XR Showcase (31 October), six cutting-edge projects in development will be presented to an audience of professionals, followed by a feedback session with 30 experts. The 2024 project selection features “BOUGHT/BROKEN” (USA), “Scratching the Surface” (Germany), “LID-SCAPE” (Colombia), “Snow, Tiger, Reunion” (UK, the Netherlands, Switzerland), “YerbaBruja” (Mexico), and “ENTROPY” (Montenegro). 

In XR Prototyping Zone (31 October and 1 November), two prototypes (“Revival Roadshow” and “The Room of Resonance”) will be showcased onsite, allowing for direct audience engagement and testing.

We are delighted to present further highlights of this year’s DOK Industry Programme, which features a variety of events and activities that foster creative exchange and provide a space for filmmakers to present their projects and connect with industry peers and potential collaborators. Find the entire Industry Programme here.

First Glances at the Programme

The DOK Industry Talk ‘Doc/Fiction’ (moderated by Brigid O’Shea, the director of DAE, the Documentary Association of Europe) will examine the relevance of the documentary/fiction binary and dive into the possibilities of collapsing traditional distinctions between the two.

At the DOK Project Presentation ‘Generation Africa 2.0’, four African filmmakers will showcase their projects as part of Generation Africa 2.0, an initiative of the non-profit South African media company STEPS. The filmmakers, who will present their projects in Leipzig, are Babucarr Manka (“Standing Up”, The Gambia), Famagou Ndiaye (“Floods in Sotrac Keur Massar”, Senegal), Samira Vera-Cruz (“Plastic Atlantis”, Cabo Verde), and Karanja Ng’endo (“Forgotten Land”, Kenya). A producer from STEPS will also join the event, offering an overview of the initiative. 

Keeping on with our focus on archives and archive research, we are also presenting a variety of DOK Archive Market Screenings and Talks: The panel discussion ‘Archives of Colonialism and Socialism: The GDR, Namibia, and the Film Heritage of Today’ will take place alongside the screening of the GDR-produced TV documentary “Namibia – The Forgotten Colony” (Sabine Katins, 1976) about the Namibian struggle for independence, which was filmed by a Western crew. Another DOK Archive Market Talk ‘How Did They Do It? Researching and Producing “Stasi FC”’ will centre on the archive-rich Sky Documentary’s production “Stasi FC”, which will also screen at the DOK Archive Market. The DOK Archive Market Talk ‘Archive Producers: What’s Next? Discussing the Trends and Developments From the Inside’ will examine current industry developments as well as what lies ahead for archive producing, especially in light of the rising use of AI in this work. 

DOK Exchange XR, our exhilarating programme on interactive and immersive storytelling with a special focus on XR works, this year will revolve around the topic of “immersive sound”. Short n’ Sweet, the festival’s short film pitch, has announced this year’s selection of projects. The selection of projects for DOK Preview Germany and DOK Preview International will be announced on the website shortly.

We will also host a number of events, organised by our trusted partners. AG DOK will present their new mentoring initiative and reflect on the use of AI in documentaries (the two panels will be held in German). ARD will host speed meetings for serial storytellers and hold their TopDocs finale. AG Animationsfilm will run a panel, ‘Twentysomething – The Shift to Medium Length Film in Animation’, focusing on the emerging trend toward longer formats in animation films.

At Industry Intros, accredited guests will be able to dive into specific roles in the industry, such as producers, sales agents, and distributors. Industry Connections will offer accredited guests the opportunity to have one-on-one or roundtable meetings with experts in the field. Lastly, the DOK Toolkit for First Timers will help newcomers navigate various festival and DOK Industry’s offerings and learn more about the international markets.

All dates and events: DOK Industry Timetable