Eleven prizes were presented at DOK Industry during the 69th edition of DOK Leipzig, taking place 26 October to 1 November. DOK Industry awarded outstanding projects across three formats: the DOK Co-Pro Market, Short n’ Sweet, and DOK Preview Germany
Seven awards were presented at the festival’s major co-financing and networking event, the DOK Co-Pro Market.
Jūratė Samulionytė’s Two of Us, produced by Just a Moment (Lithuania), received the Saxon Award for the Best Documentary Project by a Female Director, endowed with €5,000 and sponsored by the Saxon State Ministry for Science, Culture and Tourism (SMWK).
Rami Farah’s A1, produced by Hauteville Productions (France) and co-produced by Les Films Grain De Sable (France) and Final Cut for Real (Denmark), won the Verità Films Award for Best Project. The award, carrying a cash prize of €2,000, honours an outstanding creative vision for a documentary with universal appeal and strong potential to succeed globally across platforms and at major festivals.
Farah’s A1 also received the Jacob Burns Film Center Residency Award, which comes with two to four-week residencies, and includes a $500 weekly stipend, travel support, and housing, as well as access to the JBFC arthouse cinema and Media Arts Lab with editing, audio, animation, and screening facilities.
The Deutsche Welle Award went to Isaac Knights-Washbourn’s Fallout, produced by Varda Pictures (UK) and co-produced by ARTicle Films (Japan). The award, carrying a cash prize of €1,500, recognises a project that tackles some of the most pressing issues of our time, such as human rights, climate change, and migration. It supports directors and producers at every stage of development, production, or post-production.
Sophie Ataya’s Who We Are, produced bySEERA Films (Germany), received the No Nation Films Fellowship Award, offered to exceptional documentary film teams from around the world facing challenging and precarious circumstances. The six-month fellowship supports filmmakers through a bespoke mentorship and consultancy package, customised to guide film teams during the development or production stages.
The Unifrance Doc Award, in partnership with TitraFilm, went to Shorena Tevzadze’s Concrete Grassland, produced by Parachute Films (Georgia) and DiaFilm (Georgia), and co-produced by Ceresa Films (France). The award comprises subtitling services worth €2,300, sponsored by TitraFilm, as well as a Unifrance membership worth €1,590 for the project’s French producer.
The GRAP Archive Award was presented to Almira Saifullina’s Dala, produced by Algiz (Kazakhstan) and co-produced by EuroArctic Media Group AB (Sweden). The award recognises a project in development distinguished by its extensive use of archival material, and comes with an initial consultation with a GRAP archive producer valued at €500.
Three awards were handed out at the short film pitch, DOK Short n’ Sweet.
The Square Eyes Festival Consultation Award went to Anna Dziapshipa’s Daughter of the Moon. Square Eyes provides the winning project with a tailor-made consultation on festival strategy.
Documentary Association of Europe (DAE) presented the DAE Talent Encouragement Award to Elza Gubanova’s Black Waters, which includes a tailor-made mentoring session with a DAE senior consultant.
Gubanova’s Black Waters also won the Ohrfilm Award, which comes with comprehensive music support services offered to a short documentary film.One award also went to a project at DOK Preview Germany, an exclusive showcase of German works in progress and freshly completed documentaries. D-Facto Motion presented the D-Facto Motion Works-in-Progress Prize to Julius Gintaras Blum’s EASTKIDS. The prize includes post-production services valued at €10,000.
