The awards of the 65th edition of DOK Leipzig were presented October 22 at the Schaubühne Lindenfels in Leipzig. Following the week-long festival, a selection of the award-winning films will be shown online throughout Germany in the DOK Stream from 24 to 30 October.
The Golden Dove in the International Competition (€10,000) went to Theo Montoya for Anhell69. This co-production from Colombia, Romania, France and Germany portrays a queer young generation in a Colombia marked by violence and repression, in a very real ghost story told in atmospheric images. “A cinematic slipstream of consciousness fuelled by human nature’s pleasure and death drives” is what the jury called it, adding: “An ode to an ill-fated city and a tribute to one’s community, it harnesses the power of resilience and transgression to inhabit the world with fluidity, fearlessness and radical urgency.”
The award-winning long films in the International Competition were chosen by Philippa Kowarsky, Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese, Shireen Seno, Ula Stöckl and Andrei Tănăsescu.
The Silver Dove for Best Long Documentary or Animated Film by an up-and-coming director in the International Competition (€6,000) was awarded to Faustine Cros for the Belgian-French production A Life Like Any Other, a portrait of a woman at odds with her role as a mother and the demands of motherhood. “In seeking to understand a family’s pain, this film gives voice to the primal scream of women, wives, and mothers everywhere,” the jury stated.
In the International Competition Short Film, Diana Cam Van Nguyen, Rocco Di Mento and Tina Smrekar chose the recipients of the Golden Doves, each worth €3,000, and the newly created Silver Dove, worth €1,500. Will You Look at Me by Shuli Huang was honoured as best documentary film. This film shows how the queer filmmaker’s lifestyle collides with the expectations held by his mother and by Chinese society. The award for best animated film went to Marta Magnuska for Misaligned, which depicts scenes of a marriage as a minimalist, vibrating black-and-white animation.
The Silver Dove for the best short documentary or animated film by an up-and-coming director was awarded to the South Korean animated film Persona by Sujin Moon about beauty ideals and the compulsion to fit in.
The films that have earned Golden Doves in the International Competitions Long and Short Film qualify for nomination for the annual Academy Awards®, provided they meet the Academy’s standards. The winners in the International Competitions were chosen by Philippa Kowarsky, Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese, Shireen Seno, Ula Stöckl and Andrei Tănăsescu. Special Mentions from the jury went to Matthias Joulaud and Lucien Roux for their short documentary Ramboy and Sasha Kulak for the long documentary A Hawk as Big as a Horse.
In the German Competition, filmmaker Sönje Storm was awarded the Golden Dove (€3,000) for Dead Birds Flying High. “Image composition, sound design and editing merge into a coherent work of art that reflects both the dramatic changes in nature and the fatal influence of humans on their environment,” said the jury members Andreas Kötzing, Sabine Rollberg and Marie Wilke.
The Silver Dove in the German Competition Short Film (€1,500) went to Jonathan Brunner for Border Conversations, a film that follows Polish activists in the border region between Belarus and Poland in the winter of 2021.
In the Competition for the Audience Award, the Golden Dove (€3,000) went to Three Women by Maksym Melnyk. In encounters with three independent women, Melnyk documents rural life in the Ukrainian village of Stuzhytsya near the EU border. “This film brings us images of joie de vivre and lightness. Images that we don’t often see coming from that country at the moment. It creates connections and unites people through the screen,” said the Audience jury.
The Silver Dove (€1500) was awarded to Olesya Shchukina for the Russian-French production Lada, Ivan’s Sister. This animated documentary tells of the transition of a woman who was born a biological male. This year’s Audience jury was comprised of film enthusiasts and friends of the festival David Chazarenc, Margherita Gallano, Erik Laube, Paula Mecklenburg, Annegret Meder and Barbara Tennstedt.
Partnership Awards for documentary and animated films in competition
The DEFA Sponsoring Prize, which includes €4,000 granted by the DEFA Foundation, went to Maksym Melnyk for Three Wome.
The €3,000 MDR Film Prize for an outstanding eastern European documentary film was awarded to Marek Kozakiewicz for Silent Love. This film tells the story of a woman who attempts to obtain custody of her brother in a conservative part of Poland and to live with her partner in an alternative family arrangement.
The Film Prize Leipziger Ring honours a documentary film about human rights, democracy or civil engagement and comes with €2,500 in prize money. This year’s award went to Pastor Lothar Stops, Tilman König’s documentary about his father, the former Jena pastor and left-wing activist Lothar König.
Pastor Lothar Stops also received the ver.di Prize for Solidarity, Humanity and Fairness, which includes €1,500 in prize money.
The €2,000 Young Eyes Film Award went to Blue Sky White Clouds by Astrid Menzel. In this film, the director takes her grandmother, who suffers from dementia, on a canoe trip in northern Germany. The prize was awarded by the Youth Jury in cooperation with Filmschule Leipzig e.V.
The €1,750 Prize of the Interreligious Jury was awarded to A Life Like Any Other by Faustine Cros.
The Prize of the International Film Critics (FIPRESCI Prize) was awarded to One Mother by Mickaël Bandela, an autobiographical and visually ingenious study of growing up in a foster family.
The mephisto 97.6 Award went to Sliver Cave by Caibei Cai. In this short film, bizarre animations on a metal plate are set to free jazz.
The Gedanken-Aufschluss Award went to Yonii by Julius Gintaras Blum, a portrait of a Swabian-Moroccan actor and rapper. The prize is awarded by a jury of prisoners at the Juvenile Detention Centre Regis-Breitingen.
Awards presented as part of DOK Industry
Six awards were presented during the week of the festival as part of the industry platform DOK Industry.
DOK Co-Pro Market Awards:
Saxon Award for the Best Documentary Project by a Female Director (€5,000): A Bit of a Stranger by Svitlana Lishchynska (Ukraine)
Current Time TV Award (along with €1,500): Blum by Jasmila Žbanić (Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Germany)
The EWA Diverse Voices Award (€1,000 euros, a year-long mentorship by DOK Leipzig and an EWA membership): In the Light of Darkness (India)
The Unifrance Doc Award (along with subtitling services sponsored by TitraFilm and a Unifrance membership for its French producer): Under the Dance Floor by Sára Timár (Hungary, France)
Awarded at DOK Preview Germany:
D-Facto Motion Works-in-Progress Prize (post-production grant of €10,000): 300 Trillion by Rudolph Herzog (Germany). The prize is donated by D-Facto Motion GmbH.
Awarded at DOK Short n’ Sweet:
Square Eyes Festival Consultation Award (along with a tailor-made consultation on festival strategy by Square Eyes): The Art of Detaching One’s Memory by Jan Carlo Natividad (Philippines)
A total of 24 prizes were awarded at DOK Leipzig. During the festival week, 255 films and extended reality works from 55 countries were screened in the Leipzig venues.
