The winners of the Doc Alliance Award 2023 have been announced tonight at the award ceremony of DokuFest in Prizren.

The Doc Alliance Award for Best Feature Film, endowed with 5,000 EUR, went to “Death of a City“ by João Rosas. The film follows the demolition of an old printing workshop in the center of Lisbon to make way for luxury flats. What starts out as a work-centred film turns out to be an evocative account of the director's relationship with his hometown and the people who build it – a polyphonic narrative made up of their stories of labour and migration, shining a light on the violence and destruction that hide under the progress of our cities.

The jury commended the director “for an intelligently politicised work and its salutary portrayal of the lives of the people therein, an incisive and moving exploration of the face of modern Europe.“

The Doc Alliance Award for Best Short Film, endowed with 3,000 EUR, went to “The Cervix Pass“ by Marie Bottois. In her film, the director refers to the founding of the MLAC (Movement for Abortion and Contraception Freedom) in France in 1973. In the style of militant and feminist films of the time, she documents the insertion of an intrauterine device inside her own body.

The jury praised the film’s “ability to organize a moving and playful coexistence between life and cinema. Marie Bottois combines in a remarkable way political and cinematographic rigor, courage and humor, frontality and delicacy.“

The winning films were selected by a jury of three film professionals with different experience in the industry: Jonathan Ali, a programmer and curator (Locarno Film Festival, Open City Docs, True/False Film Fest, Sheffield DocFest and Third Horizon Film Festival), Anna Berthollet, CEO at Lightdox (sales and distribution) and programmer Arnaud Hée (Bibliothèque publique d’information du Centre Pompidou).

“Disturbed Earth“, a feature-length documentary by Kumjana Novakova and Guillermo Carreras Candi, received a Special Mention by the jury. The film was nominated by DokuFest, this year’s guest festival of Doc Alliance.

“The Cervix Pass“ and “Disturbed Earth” is available on dafilms.com until 31 August along with a selection of nominated short films and Doc Alliance Award winners from previous editions, which have gone on to enduring success in the world of documentary.

The Doc Alliance network of documentary film festivals supports emerging talent in European documentary film. Each of the seven festivals (CPH:DOX, Doclisboa, DOK Leipzig, FIDMarseille, Ji.hlava IDFF, Millennium Docs Against Gravity FF and Visions du Réel) as well as a guest festival nominates one short and one feature-length documentary film from its past programme. In addition, each festival in the network shows at least three films from the selection in its next edition.

The network cordially invites European documentary film festivals to apply as guest festival 2024. The guest festival will be part of the network and will participate in the selection of nominations for the Doc Alliance Award. Applications can be sent to barbora [at] dafilms [dot] com (barbora[at]dafilms[dot]com).

Full dafilms programme of Doc Alliance Award winners and nominees: dafilms
All information about the Doc Alliance Awards 2023: Doc Alliance Award