We are delighted to be introducing a new award for feature-length animated films this year!

Back in 2020, we announced that we would like to give greater prominence to feature-length animated films at our festival. Due to the pandemic, we were not able to put the plan into action until now and are all the more happy now to add the Golden Dove long animated film to our line-up of festival awards.

“Every year we’ve been seeing feature-length animated films of very high artistic quality. In recent years, these animated films have been competing alongside documentaries for the Golden and Silver Doves. We now intend to change that and award a Golden Dove for a feature-length international documentary as well as a separate one for a feature-length animated film – as we’ve been doing with the short films,” explains Christoph Terhechte.

In adding the new Golden Dove, we are also revamping the entire framework of our competitions:

The previous International Competitions are being split into the International Competition Documentary Film and the International Competition Animated Film.

The German Competitions will be replaced by the German Competition Documentary Film. German animated film productions will henceforth be screened in the International Competition Animated Film. The competitions for the Audience Award are being merged into the Audience Competition.

Overview of the competitions and awards at DOK Leipzig 2023:

International Competition Documentary Film

• Golden Dove for a feature-length documentary film
• Golden Dove for a short documentary film
• Silver Dove for a feature-length documentary film by an up-and-coming director
• Silver Dove for a short documentary film by an up-and-coming director

International Competition Animated Film

• Golden Dove for a feature-length animated film
• Golden Dove for a short animated film

German Competition Documentary Film

• Golden Dove for a feature-length documentary film
• Golden Dove for a short documentary film

Audience Competition

• Golden Dove for a feature-length documentary or animated film

246 short and long animation and documentary films at eleven venues in Leipzig, nine XR works at DOK Neuland as well as numerous talks, networking events and Get Togethers – that was DOK Leipzig 2022.

“We are very happy about the exuberant, positive feedback from our audience and the trade visitors, which shows us how important direct encounters are for the film and cinema industry,” concludes festival director Christoph Terhechte.

The Retrospective “The Female Documentarists of the GDR” was very well received, as were the two Matinees on related themes. The two Master Classes by Mila Turajlić and Špela Čadež were also met with enthusiasm. The free screenings at the Leipzig main station were again in high demand, as was the DOK Neuland exhibition “THX 4 Nothing!”.

DOK Industry returned to a focus on in-person participation this year, with great success. During the week-long festival, some 1,500 international industry representatives met in Leipzig, with a further 200 accredited participants attending remotely. Highlights included the DOK Archive Market with accompanying keynotes, case studies and individual consultations with archive experts. DOK Short n’ Sweet and the focus programme for the animation film industry also met with great interest.

During the festival week, 24 prizes were awarded, including nine Golden and Silver Doves. See all winners

In total, DOK Leipzig was visited 41,500 times in Leipzig and online. We would like to thank our audience, guests and filmmakers for many intensive conversations at Q&As, masterclasses and talks as well as for numerous great encounters – and we are looking forward to the 66th edition (save the date: 8– 15 October 2023)!

Read more in our press release

On May 21, Heddy Honigmann died in Amsterdam at the age of 70. The Peruvian-Dutch director was a guest at our festival many times, where she was honoured with awards for several films. In 1994 she won a Golden Dove for Metal and Melancholy. In 2006, she won the Prize of the Interreligious Jury for her film Forever. And in 2008, she received three awards for Oblivion: the Silver Dove, the FIPRESCI Prize, and the Prize of the Interreligious Jury.

Oblivion screened again in 2017 as part of our 60th anniversary programme series, which featured significant films from the festival's history. That same year, she was our guest as a juror for the International Competition. She also presented 100UP, her latest film project at the time, to the international film industry at the DOK Co-Pro Market.

We continue to feel deeply connected to Heddy Honigmann. Our thoughts are with her family, friends and colleagues.

On Friday, 1 April at 7 pm, we present a fundraiser screening at Leipzig’s Kinobar Prager Frühling. We will show the animated short Deep Love followed by the feature documentary No Obvious Signs.

Ticket proceeds will go to our colleagues at the Docudays UA film festival, who are collecting donations for filmmakers documenting current events in Ukraine. More details about the fund initiated by Docudays UA can be found on their website: https://docudays.ua/.

Tickets for the fundraiser screening (8 €/ reduced 7 €) are available online via the Prager Frühling web shop or at the evening box office.

We look forward to seeing you there and wish to say thank you in advance for your support.

More about the films

Both films have been awarded at previous DOK Leipzig editions: Deep Love won the Golden Dove in our Next Masters Competition Short in 2019, and No Obvious Signs received the MDR Film Prize for an outstanding East European documentary in 2018.

Deep Love has no dialogue, No Obvious Signs will be screened in its original version with English subtitles.

Discover more about Deep Love and No Obvious Signs in our Film Archive.