The International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film - DOK Leipzig - is the largest German and one of the leading international festivals for artistic documentary and animated films.

It was founded in 1955 by the 'club of film-makers of the German Democratic Republic' (Club der Filmschaffenden der DDR) under the title "All-German Leipzig Week for Cultural and Documentary Film", as the first independent film festival of the GDR. During the Cold War, the festival was a unique place of encounter and exchange for film-makers from East and West. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Leipzig Festival has developed into one of the most dynamic festivals for documentary and animated film, providing a high-quality programme and - since 2004 - additional industry offers.

Artistic animated film is an integral part of the festival for decades and is represented with its own, independent competition since 1995. This ‘twin-track character' makes Leipzig unique in the festival landscape.

Traditionally, the Leipzig Festival stands for films advocating peace and human dignity. In view of its varied and exciting history, it celebrates freedom of mind and speech, as well as pointedly illustrated images. High-quality art house cinema, superbly narrated stories, a critical eye, subtle observation, tracing back history and scrutinizing the "memory of images" shape the Leipzig Festival's character and diversity.  

The DOK Festival's film programme includes:

• International Competitions Documentary and Animated Film
• German Competition Documentary Film
• International Young Talent Documentary Competition
• Information and Special Programmes
• Retrospectives

DOK Industry Offers

Alongside the festival, DOK Leipzig organises a number of industry offers for film-makers, producers, commissioning editors, theatrical exhibitors, distributors, journalists and documentary newcomers. Under the title "DOK Industry" the festival provides networking opportunities for film-makers, producers and international industry professionals, financing opportunities for new film ideas, arranges co-productions and presents recently completed productions to festival programme organisers, distributors and TV buyers.

Competing for best international docu are:

48 by Susana de Sousa Dias | Portugal 2009 | 92:50 min.

Victims of Salazar's military dictatorship in Portugal talk about prison, torture and courage, in a strict composition of anthropometric photos made by the secret police. Powerful and oppressive.

• Close to Heaven (Dem Himmel ganz nah) by Titus Faschina | Germany, Romania 2010 | 90:00 min.

A shepherd's life in the Romanian Carpathians. A striking composition of dancing light and dramatic black and white images, which makes the landscape become a monument.

• Dreaming Films (Les films rêvés) by eric Pauwels | Belgium 2010 | 180:00 min.

A monumental essay about the film eye as discoverer of the world. From Ulysses to Christopher Columbus to Jean Rouch - a meditative dream trip of moving images.

• Empire of Mid-South (L'Empire du Milieu du Sud) by Eric Deroo, Jacques Perrin | France 2009 | 85:00 min.

A powerful visual epic about the history of colonisation and liberation: Vietnam in archive footage and literary quotes, composed by blockbuster filmmaker Perrin.

• Gaza on Air by Samir Abdalla | Egypt, Palastine, France 2010 | 90:00 min.

The Gaza that we never saw. The horror, filmed by Palestinian cameramen during the war, and a reflection about the medium and the images, politics and power.

• Goodnight Nobody by Jacqueline Zünd | Switzerland, Germany 2010 | 77:00 min.

Four people on four continents, all of them insomniacs. Night as a hypnotic space and undiscovered territory full of ghosts, restlessness and melancholia.

• Let's run away from her (Ucieknijmy od niej) by Marcin Koszalka | Poland 2010 | 50:00 min.

Two siblings contemplate their relationship with their parents and the latter's death, which redefines everything. Disturbing and painful, as usual from the master of the cinematic psychological study.

• Steam of Life (Miesten vuoro) by Berghäll Joonas, Mika Hotakainen | Finland, Sweden 2010 | 81:00 min.

Finnish men in the sauna: when they talk of love and hate, birth and death, loneliness and hopes, pores and hearts open up. There won't be a dry eye in the house.

• The North of Calabria (Na polnoc od Kalabrii) by Marcin Sauter | Poland 2009 | 67:00 min.

A film crew mingles with the inhabitants of a Polish town for the summer to enact an almost Italian comedy ... A documentary midsummer night's dream.

• Vodka Factory by Jerzy Sladkowski | Sweden 2010 | 90:00 min.

Working at the assembly line, bringing up children alone, dreaming of happiness - women's lives in the Russian provinces. But Valya wants more, whatever the price ... an insightful drama.