For the first time at DOK Leipzig, a Golden Dove in combination with €3,000 and a Silver Dove in combination with €1,500 will be awarded in the newly established competitions for the Audience Award for long and short films. Twenty documentaries and animated films from 12 countries will be screened in “The Golden Section” competitions, in cinemas and online. These include five world premieres, five international premieres, one European premiere and nine German premieres.

“We are happy that a panel of cinema enthusiasts representing the DOK Leipzig audience will be voting on films in competition this year,” says festival director Christoph Terhechte. “The title of the competitions, ‘The Golden Section’, evokes harmonious proportions and thus a well-rounded, multifaceted film programme. Here you’ll find films that stir emotions, that take a subjective look at global issues as well as at one’s personal surroundings, and that can be surprising, warm and humorous.”

Waiting to be discovered are films by established filmmakers, such as Todd Chandler from the United States and Nicola Graef, who has been a guest at DOK Leipzig on several occasions. The selection also includes films by numerous up-and-coming directors, such as Rocco Di Mento and Areum Parkkang from South Korea. Representing central Germany are animated filmmaker Falk Schuster, director Alina Cyranek and 3-D artist Franz Impler. Luca Lucchesi is included with a film produced by Wim Wenders.

The competition entries include cinematic narratives about loneliness in the big city of Berlin as well as reflections on fake news and gun violence in US schools. One of the films selected deals explicitly with the time of the lockdown amid the coronavirus pandemic. Other works follow a musical couple and their passion for Balkan music, take a close look at Diego Velázquez’s masterpiece “Las Meninas” and reveal the humorous side to animated film. There is also a portrait of a fervent football coach who is prone to excess. An autobiographical work is dedicated to the tragic and comic sides of the life of a filmmaker and young mother caught between travelling to festivals, feeling homesick and changing nappies.

The Golden Dove for a Long Documentary or Animated Film and the Silver Dove for a Short Documentary or Animated Film in the “Golden Section” competitions will be awarded by seven film enthusiasts from around Leipzig who have applied to DOK Leipzig to be on the panel: Johanna Bender, Maurane Cugny, Hermann Klinghammer, Ahmad Masoud, Rico Mosig, Sabine Seliger and Anita Weiss. This year's award-winning films will be announced on the Sunday of the festival (1 November 2020).

The Silver Dove in the “Golden Section” competition for the Audience Award for Short Documentary and Animated Film in combination with €1,500 in prize money is donated by the Leipziger Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Filmkunst e. V., the Friends of DOK Leipzig.

Please find an overview of all films in the Audience Award competitions in the pdf file.