The 63rd edition of DOK Leipzig saw a total of 47,615 visitors attend the hybrid event, either in person or online, organisers say in their post-festival report. Of these, 5,002 visitors attended cinema screenings. 674 people visited DOK Neuland, the festival’s extended reality exhibition.
The festival’s online offerings included film screenings, discussions with filmmakers and industry offerings such as the DOK Co-Pro Market. A total of 150 films and XR works were shown during the 63rd edition of DOK Leipzig.
Festival director Christoph Terhechte commented: “This edition of the festival was a big adventure for us. Organising a festival under these new circumstances meant a huge adjustment for the entire team as well as for all the filmmakers, partners and service providers involved. However, the positive reactions of the visitors and the fantastic level of interest among the public tell us that this huge effort was worth it.”
He extended his gratitude to festival audiences who shared “positive and cordial feedback” via photos of private film screenings via social media, “We would like to share this wonderful feedback with the filmmakers, who have lost much of their direct contact with the audience. You deserve special appreciation,” added Terhechte.
Despite not being in the same place, the audience and the filmmakers had numerous opportunities to engage in dialogue, the festival further noted, with one of the challenges of the hybrid edition being to bring together the cinema audience, the directors at home and the online audience for 12 live film talks. “We were very moved by the receptiveness and attentiveness of everyone who took part in the discussions, and we are proud that the connection between online and offline audiences functioned so well,” continued festival director Terhechte, who also oversaw the commission of pre-recorded talks and pre-produced segments to bolster the programme.
From an industry perspective, nearly 1,700 accredited professionals attended DOK Industry and were networked online across different time zones. The offerings included the DOK Co-Pro Market, the presentations of rough cuts at DOK Preview, the DOK Exchange conference and, for the first time, a series of podcasts on topics relating to the industry.
DOK Industry director Brigid O’Shea commented: “We thank everyone for their commitment to making this year’s DOK Industry programme a success. Turning up for meetings across time zones, delivering news about the hard production and distribution reality, new partnerships, honouring old commitments. This year was an enormous team effort. I thank all those who made their contributions to a successful week — in particular, the dedication and unending patience of the DOK team.”
Christoph Terhechte ended: “The team has seldom faced such a huge challenge, but we all learned an enormous amount in a short time. We will apply the know-how we’ve acquired to future editions of the festival.”
