We are pleased to introduce three new colleagues who will contribute varied perspectives to our festival work. Victoria Leshchenko (coordinator documentary film competitions) and Jana Kraft (coordinator animated film competitions) are joining the programme department. At DOK Industry, Guevara Namer will oversee the DOK Co-Pro Market and the DOK Short n’ Sweet short film pitch as project coordinator. We are happy to welcome you as new members to our DOK Team!

Victoria Leshchenko

is a producer of cultural events and a curator who lives in Berlin and Kyiv. In 2010, following a stint at the Molodist Kyiv International Film Festival, she became programme coordinator at the Docudays UA International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, which DOK Leipzig partnered with last year. Since 2019, she has served as programme director at Docudays UA, curating numerous sections of that festival. In 2022, she and Yuliia Kovalenko founded the sloïk film atelier, an independent union of Ukrainian film curators which gives space to underrepresented voices and promotes them internationally.

Jana Kraft

is working towards a degree in cultural studies and aesthetic communication at the University of Hildesheim. She lives in Leipzig. As part of her studies, she has been involved in the making of various cartoon and stop-motion films. She has also worked in film coordination at the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and the Kurzsuechtig Central German Short Film Festival.

Guevara Namer

is a documentary filmmaker and visual artist based in Berlin. She started her career in Damascus in 2007. Her work deals with themes of feminism, identity and exile. Guevara Namer is a German Film Academy winner (Lola 2022 for “The Other Side of the River”), in her filmography she has held various roles in a number of collaborations with international filmmakers, including co-directing, researching, filming, and producing.

DOK Leipzig is bidding farewell to programme coordinators Thérèse Antony (formerly competitions) and Ulrike Schmidt (formerly DOK Co-Pro Market, DOK Short n’ Sweet), who are moving on to other endeavours. Dear Thérèse and Ulrike, we wish you all the best!

Photo Guevara Namer: Bernhard Ludewig

We’re taking the festival to the city’s celebrated book fair! Four of our films will be part of their new format “Forum Open Society” (Forum Offene Gesellschaft), which focuses on social issues such as democracy, social justice, freedom of expression and human rights. From 27 to 30 April, a short film from our past festival editions will be shown daily at 2 pm in Hall 4. 

The Programme:

27/4 “We Have One Heart” by Katarzyna Warzecha 
28/4 “Marine Target” by Lukas Marxt 
29/4 “Armat” by Élodie Dermange 
30/4 “Biegen und Brechen” by Falk Schuster und Mike Plitt

Find all details in the Leipzig Book Fair Programme.

Photo © Leipziger Buchmesse / Jens-Ulrich Koch

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