DOK Leipzig has revealed the competition line-up for its 68th edition, completing the 2025 film programme. A total of 78 films, including 30 world premieres, are competing for Golden and Silver Doves across the four competitions.
“Most of the films sent to us in the post-pandemic period have dealt with family situations and inner thoughts. This year, however, numerous documentaries and animated films have returned to looking outward,” says festival director Christoph Terhechte. “They address the threat of environmental destruction, resistance to political violence, the fight against exploitation, and strategies for human resilience under extreme circumstances.”
The complete programme will be posted later on October 9. In the meantime, the festival posted the following information about the Competition selections (scroll down for the full list of titles).
Of the nine feature-length films in the International Competition Documentary Film, five will have their world premiere and three their international premiere in Leipzig. These documentaries span a number of countries, including Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, and Switzerland. Six of the feature documentaries were helmed by emerging directors.
Srđan Kovačević’s The Thing to Be Done looks at an office for workers’ rights in Slovenia that advocates on behalf of people who have been cheated by companies. The Red Moon Eclipse by Caroline Guimbal explores questions relating to life and its end. In Peacemaker, Ivan Ramljak looks at the beginnings of the war between Serbia and Croatia and a chief of police in Slavonia who was determined to mediate between the conflicting parties. The films by Jennifer Chiu (Clan of the Painted Lady) and Gregor Brändli (Elephants & Squirrels) emphasise the value of cultures at risk of being forgotten. In A Scary Movie, director Sergio Oksman spends the summer with his son in an abandoned hotel. Together, they indulge their shared fascination with the uncanny. Three films explore the destructive impact of humans on their habitat. In Green Desert, Meliza Luna Venegas turns her lens on her native region in Chile, a former natural paradise now threatened by forest fires. Serge-Olivier Rondeau’s The Inheritors reflects on mass consumerism and environmental pollution by observing a population of seagulls on a Canadian garbage dumpsite. Meanwhile, Nikolaus Geyrhalter’s Melt captures the imperilled natural forces of ice and snow, preserving monumental images for future generations.
The eleven short films in competition encompass a wide range of themes and creative styles. David Shongo and Randa Maroufi, among other directors, return to the festival with their new works. Other films explore themes of sex education and intimacy, migration, and experiences of sexual abuse.
The German Competition Documentary Film presents eight feature-length films, seven of which will celebrate their world premiere and one an international premiere at the festival. Six of the documentaries were directed by emerging filmmakers. In Sediments, Laura Coppens asks her grandfather about his past – under National Socialism, the GDR, and in the post-reunification period – and, not least, about morality and personal responsibility. In White Smoke over Schwarze Pumpe, Martin Gressmann joins Peter Badel on his 1991 film shoot in Lusatia. The unemployment and lack of prospects following reunification continue to resonate today. Based on a story of a young teacher, Yulia Lokshina’s Active Vocabulary examines how the Russian state uses schools to further its own agenda. Karoline Rößler’s Intersection – It’s Political focuses on six people who recount their experiences with discrimination as a result of playing a game on their phones. In A Jewish Problem, Ron Rothschild examines the history of his family, shaped by a complex relationship with the conflict in the Middle East, while in Nonna, Vincent Graf visits his grandmother, who moved back to Italy some 30 years ago while her family remained in Germany. Ole Elfenkaemper and Kathrin Seward’s Holler for Service portrays a queer owner of a hardware store in Georgia, the USA, who treats her conservative customers with kindness. The protagonist in Patience Nitumwesiga’s The Woman Who Poked the Leopard strikes a different note: Ugandan feminist Stella Nyanzi spent years using provocative means to oppose incumbent head of state Yoweri Museveni. She now lives in Berlin but continues to publish political poetry, most recently releasing her poetry collection “Im Mundexil” in March.
The competition also presents 12 short films that recount the experiences of refugees, offer sensitive portrayals of loneliness and emotional pain, and record memories: of disappearing rivers, of state-enforced violence and policies of assimilation, and of the aftermath of colonisation. The line-up includes works by returning filmmakers, including Rainer Komers and Leonard Volkmer.
The AUDIENCE COMPETITION features ten feature-length films, all of which have premiered at renowned international festivals, including the Karlovy Vary Film Festival (Miro Remo’s Better Go Mad in the Wild), Cannes (Namir Abdel Messeeh’s Life After Siham) and Sundance (Amber Fares’ Coexistence, My Ass! and Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni’s Cutting Through Rocks).
Suzannah Herbert’s Natchez turns the camera on the US’ southern states, following black tour guides in a small town as they try to fill in the gaps in a history that has long been romanticised. In Zaradasht Ahmed’s The Lions by the River Tigris, residents of Mosul, Iraq, seek to rebuild and preserve their culture following the occupation by ISIS. Olga Gibelinda’s Queens of Joy accompanies three drag queens in Ukraine as they juggle fundraising efforts to support the army with demands for queer equality. In Richard Ladkani’s Yanuni, Brazilian activist Juma Xipaia leads the fight for her Indigenous people’s rights and denounces environmental destruction caused by illegal gold mining. Anastasiya Miroshnichenko’s Welded Together follows a young welder who, having grown up in an orphanage, returns to live with her alcoholic mother. Ole Juncker’s Take the Money and Run investigates a controversial case in the art world: Danish artist Jens Haaning took 74,000 euros from a museum, regarding the stunt a performative work of art.
The winner of the Golden Dove in the Audience Competition will be chosen by a jury of five fans of the festival representing the audiences in Leipzig.
INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION DOCUMENTARY FILM FEATURE-LENGTH FILMS
- Clan of the Painted Lady | Director: Jennifer Chiu | Canada | International Premiere
- Elephants & Squirrels | Director: Gregor Brändli | Switzerland | World Premiere
- Green Desert | Director: Meliza Luna Venegas | Chile | World Premiere
- The Inheritors | Director: Serge-Olivier Rondeau | Canada | World Premiere
- Melt | Director: Nikolaus Geyrhalter | Austria | International Premiere
- Peacemaker | Director: Ivan Ramljak | Croatia | International Premiere
- The Red Moon Eclipse | Director: Caroline Guimbal | Belgium | World Premiere
- A Scary Movie | Director: Sergio Oksman | Spain, Portugal | German Premiere
- The Thing to Be Done | Director: Srđan Kovačević | Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia | World Premiere
INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION DOCUMENTARY FILM SHORT FILMS
- After the Silence | Director: Matilde-Luna Perotti | Canada | German Premiere
- BAEA | Director: Terra Long | Canada, UK, USA | World Premiere
- Café Kuba | Director: David Shongo | DR Congo, Belgium | World Premiere
- Equal Dust | Director: Jani Peltonen | Finland | German Premiere
- Ether | Director: Luiza Calagian | Brazil, Cuba | World Premiere
- Far from the Light of Day | Director: Yotam Ben-David | France | German Premiere
- It Must Be Because I Decided to Leave | Director: Zhuoyun Chen | USA | German Premiere
- L’mina | Director: Randa Maroufi | France, Morocco, Italy, Qatar | German Premiere
- Oscurana | Director: Violeta Mora | Honduras, Portugal, Hungary, Belgium | German Premiere
- String Pieces | Director: Vatae Kimlee | South Korea | German Premiere
- Unyagoni: Bahatiʼs Sex Education Journey | Director: Saitabao Kaiyare | Kenya | European Premiere
GERMAN COMPETITION DOCUMENTARY FEATURE-LENGTH FILMS
- Active Vocabulary | Director: Yulia Lokshina | Germany | World Premiere
- Holler for Service | Directors: Ole Elfenkaemper, Kathrin Seward | Germany, USA | World Premiere
- Intersection – It’s Political (Intersection – Alles ist politisch) | Director: Karoline Rößler | Germany | World Premiere
- A Jewish Problem | Director: Ron Rothschild | Germany | World Premiere
- Nonna | Director: Vincent Graf | Germany, Italy | World Premiere
- Sediments (Sedimente) | Director: Laura Coppens | Switzerland, Germany | International Premiere
- White Smoke over Schwarze Pumpe (Weißer Rauch über Schwarze Pumpe) | Director: Martin Gressmann | Germany | World Premiere
- The Woman Who Poked the Leopard | Director: Patience Nitumwesiga | Uganda, South Africa, Germany, USA | World Premiere
GERMAN COMPETITION DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILMS
- Alter Ego | Director: Sonia Leliukh | Germany, Ukraine | World Premiere
- Bendungan | Director: Jee Chan | Singapore, Indonesia, Germany | World Premiere
- Boma a Bopa | Director: Jana Rothe | Luxembourg, Germany | World Premiere
- Cold Call | Director: Stefanie Schroeder | Germany | World Premiere
- Ekbatana | Directors: Simon Dickel, Werner Müller | Germany | World Premiere
- I Don’t Think I’m Alone in This | Director: Jack Wolf | Germany | World Premiere
- Kamogawa | Director: Rainer Komers | Germany | World Premiere
- My Mother’s Scars (Die Narben meiner Mutter) | Director: Tete Hoffmann | Germany | World Premiere
- Open Game (Offenes Spiel) | Directors: Justus Hanfland, Rasoul Mohammadi | Germany | World Premiere
- Vanished Past | Director: Anna-Maria Dutoit | Germany, Canada | International Premiere
- Have Fun in Venice! (Viel Spaß in Venedig!) | Director: Leonard Volkmer | Germany | World Premiere
- You Don’t Look Nothing Alike | Director: Eva Świątkowski | Germany | World Premiere
- Audience Competition
- Better Go Mad in the Wild | Director: Miro Remo | Czech Republic, Slovakia | German Premiere
- Coexistence, My Ass! | Director: Amber Fares | USA, France | German Premiere
- Cutting Through Rocks | Directors: Sara Khaki, Mohammadreza Eyni | USA, Iran, Germany, Netherlands, Qatar, Chile, Canada | German Premiere
- Life After Siham | Director: Namir Abdel Messeeh | France, Egypt | German Premiere
- The Lions by the River Tigris | Director: Zaradasht Ahmed | Norway, Netherlands, Iraq | German Premiere
- Natchez | Director: Suzannah Herbert | USA | German Premiere
- Queens of Joy | Director: Olga Gibelinda | Ukraine, France, Czech Republic | German Premiere
- Take the Money and Run | Director: Ole Juncker | Denmark | German Premiere
- Welded Together | Director: Anastasiya Miroshnichenko | France, Netherlands, Belgium | German Premiere
- Yanuni | Director: Richard Ladkani | Brazil, Austria, USA, Germany, Canada | German Premiere
INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION ANIMATED FEATURE-LENGTH FILMS
- Balentes | Director: Giovanni Columbu | Italy, Germany | German Premiere
- Death Does Not Exist | Director: Félix Dufour-Laperrière | Canada, France | German Premiere
- Endless Cookie | Directors: Seth Scriver, Peter Scriver | Canada | German Premiere
- The Great History of Western Philosophy | Director: Aria Covamonas | Mexico | German Premiere
- Jinsei | Director: Ryuya Suzuki | Japan | German Premiere
INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION ANIMATED SHORT FILMS
- Amarelo Banana | Director: Alexandre Sousa | Portugal, Hungary | German Premiere
- Ancestor | Director: Yasmine Djedje-Fisher-Azoume | UK | German Premiere
- The Balcony’s View | Director: Stella Hood | Germany | World Premiere
- Bar Croquette Freestyle | Director: Maria Dakszewicz | Poland | International Premiere
- Blinded by the Lights | Director: Francis Yushau Brown | Ghana | German Premiere
- Clot | Director: Levi Stoops | Belgium | German Premiere
- EX-tract | Director: Marcel Barelli | Switzerland | World Premiere
- Floating | Director: Jelena Milunović | Serbia, Croatia, Germany | German Premiere
- Force Times Displacement | Director: Angel Wu | Taiwan | German Premiere
- Four Percent | Director: Monika Masłoń | Germany, Poland | World Premiere
- God Is Shy | Director: Jocelyn Charles | France | German Premiere
- How a River Is Born | Director: Luma Flôres | Brazil | German Premiere
- The In-The-Head Film | Director: Konstantin von Sichart | Germany | World Premiere
- Kyiv Cake | Director: Mykyta Lyskov | Estonia | German Premiere
- Lights, Haze | Director: Tata Managadze | Georgia, Portugal, Belgium, Finland | German Premiere
- Lina | Director: Remo Rauscher | Austria | German Premiere
- Murmuration | Directors: Janneke Swinkels, Tim Frijsinger | Netherlands, Belgium | German Premiere
- Once in a Body | Director: María Cristina Pérez González | Colombia, USA | German Premiere
- Paradaïz | Director: Matea Radic | Canada | German Premiere
- Passageways | Directors: Milla Cummings, Geneviève Tremblay | Canada | German Premiere
- Petra and the Sun | Directors: Malu Furche, Stefania Malacchini | Chile | German Premiere
- Ping Pong | Director: Tianji Yu | Belgium, Hungary, Portugal, China | International Premiere
- Ploo | Director: Jon Frickey | Germany | German Premiere
