showcasing 109 films from 51 countries        

 

DOK.fest München is Germany's largest documentary film festival showcasing the highlights of current documentary filmmaking – at the main event in May and throughout the year. Anually in May the festival presents about 110 international documentary films on the big screen at 20 partner venues in the centre of Munich. The programme is divided into four main competitions and nine series. After two online editions, the festival has been held as a dual event since 2022: on the big screen in the cinema as well as on the digital screen @home. The 39th edition is scheduled for May 1-12 in cinemas and additional May 6-20 @home with selectied films online throughout Germany. Browse the full programme here and stay tuned FB.

Every year, the programme brings together a selection of the most outstanding current international documentary films. The festival presents the highlights of documentary filmmaking and at the same time is guided by a clear curatorial signature. Three main competitions are at the heart of the programme: DOK.international Main Competition, DOK.deutsch Competition and DOK.horizonte – Cinema of Urgency. With the Student Award and the FFF Talent Award Documentary Film, we also present two relevant prizes for up-and-coming filmmakers. In the programme sections DOK.panorama, Best of Fests, DOK.music, Munich Premieres, DOK.4teens and In Memoriam, the festival presents numerous specials, often in cooperation with selected partners from art, culture and society in Munich and beyond.

 

 

LineUp German productions and co-productions:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

VFF Documentary Film Production Award focuses on the work of documentary film producers is sponsored by the VFF Verwertungsgesellschaft der Film und Fernsehproduzenten mbH and is endowed with € 7,500.–. This year's award goes to producer Oliver Stoltz for the documentary VENEZUELA: COUNTRY OF LOST CHILDREN | LAND DER VERLORENEN KINDER by directors Juan Camilo Cruz and Marc Wiese. Oliver Stoltz produced the film with his company Dreamer Joint Venture Filmproduktion GmbH. From the jury statement: "It is impressive to see the adverse conditions under which Oliver Stoltz and his team made this film: Without the protection of a gang of youths, filming on location would have been too dangerous; professional camera equipment had to be smuggled in over the border. In a country where foreign camera teams are monitored at every turn, a project like this can only succeed with the utmost conspiracy. To this end, the producer used a local crew. Oliver Stoltz has proven to have nerves of steel and deserves public recognition for the successful completion of this film: in this case, the VFF Documentary Film Production Award 2024."
The award ceremony and the German premiere of VENEZUELA: COUNTRY OF LOST CHILDREN | LAND DER VERLORENEN KINDER will take place on Tuesday, 7 May at HFF Munich.

 

 

Nominees are the following films with outstanding creative significance of the production:

 

 

 

 

 

DOK.edit Award is endowed with € 5000.- and aims to shed light on the post-production of documentaries and to honor the work of editors. The nominated films will be presented at #DOKfest2024 with extended Q&As with the DOK.edit jury and the respective editor. Among the six nominated documentaries are the following three German productions and co-productions.

 

 

 

 

 

Annualy the GERMAN DOCUMENTARY FILM MUSIC AWARD honours a composition that connects with the documentary film narrative in an outstanding way. The award is endowed with € 5,000.- and is sponsored by Versicherungskammer Kulturstiftung. And the winner 2024 is Atena Eshtiaghi for original score of MY STOLEN PLANET by Farahnaz Sharifi. The award ceremony, incuding the screening of the film, is scheduled for May 5, 2024, 8 p.m. at HFF Munich.

From the jury statement: "The film music avoids the conventions of illustrative film music and instead uses silence as a stylistic device for this equally radical and personal film. Atena Eshtiaghi gives strong expression to the messages of uncensored life by accompanying the images with minimalist patterns rather than pathetically exaggerating them. This creates a sense of distance and, at the same time, creates periods of time in which a great sadness is inscribed. Eshtiaghi's music does not coat the film in a pleasing rhythm, rather it emphasises the heterogeneity and creates a resonance space for what the film is about through its precise texture: Isolation, resistance, hope."

 

GERMAN DOCUMENTARY FILM MUSIC AWARD 2024 NOMINEES ARE:

 

 

 

 

 May 1–7, 2024
 

In panels, workshops and other public events, the DOK.forum Perspectives invite you to develop visions and impulses for the future of documentary film and to explore relevant questions of media policy.
As a market for co-creation and co-production, the DOK.forum Marketplace offers various formats for the further development and realisation of new documentary film projects.

Over the past 10 years, the DOK.forum has established itself as a fixed meeting place and relevant networking opportunity for the German-speaking industry – with a growing range of offers for international filmmakers.

 

Among the seven Master's Pitch projects are two German (co)productions:

  • SILENT WAR by the directors and producers Dirk van den Berg, OutreMer Film, Berlin & Pascal Verroust K2 Productions, Paris. After Hiroshima and Nagasaki, over 2000 nuclear devices have detonated on Earth, labeled as "tests." This film unveils Prof. Robert Jacobs’ groundbreaking research of the Cold War's darkest secret: all nuclear powers ruthlessly experimented on their people, weaving a decades-long tale of deception and lies with countless victims, in a SILENT WAR.
  • OUR SISTER ANGELA – BLACK POWER IN THE GDR by Katharina Warda and Jascha Hannover, producer André Schäfer, Florianfilm GmbH,  In the 1970s, an enthusiastic solidarity movement for Black civil rights activist Angela Davis emerges in the GDR. She attracts tens of thousands of people during her visits to the country. But all this enthusiasm is deceptive. Co-director Katharina Warda tells this often-overlooked piece of Black East German history from her personal perspective.

 

DOK.talent Award, a unique pitch format for students. Sponsored by ndF Entertainment GmbH (@ndf_film )

  • BOTH SIDES, NOW by Julia Milz @spleen_ideale
  • DONNA QUIXOTE by Maxie Borchert
  • EINE PARTEI BAUEN by Indira Geisel
  • EIN HERZ: DAS SCHWEIN, DER MENSCH by Denise Riedmayr @deniseriedmayr
  • FRONTIER OF OBLIVION by Yango González @yango.unframed
  • ICH WAR ICH BIN ICH WERDE SEIN by Joana Georgi @joanageorgi
  • TRANSLATING LOVE by Lasse Linder @lassenonen
  • WAX by Nina Fritz
  • WHAT IS LEFT? by Maya Steinberg @steinberg.maya

 

 

 

 

 

DOK.forum archive with an overview of past DOK.forum projects and events.

DOK.archive Award includes German productions and co-productions such as:
• MOTHER/TONGUE by Mala Reinhardt
• OUR SISTER ANGELA – BLACK POWER IN THE GDR by Katharina Warda, Jascha Hannover, P: Florianfilm GmbH,

DOK.composition Award The best musical concept for a documentary film will be endowed with €2,500 sponsored by Sonoton Music. Out of the five selected documentareis, the two selected German productions are:
• SCHWARZER FLUSS – RIO NEGRO by Anna-Sophia Richard, 90min, P: sehstern Filmproduktion,
• NO PLACE LIKE HOME (WT) by Daniel Abma, Composer: Henning Fuchs, P: Bandenfilm,

 

 

DOK.educations presents DREH'S UM with AG DOK Speed Dating.
May 4, 2024, 10a.m. – 2p.m., Anita-Augspurg-BOS am Königsplatz, Brienner Str. 37, Munich.

The founders of the Berlin collective Dreh's Um present their award-winning film education concept and their close collaboration with a social worker: Viet German teenagers and young adults deal with their migrant identity and family history through intensive documentary film workshops. Dreh's Um initiator Duc Ngo Ngoc: "On the one hand, it's about making films and, on the other, about empowering yourself with your own perspective, taking the camera into your own hands and figuratively turning it on yourself – away from the white, often stereotypical view of our community".

The AG DOK Speed Dating enables exchange of experience and active networking within the specialist audience of social work stakeholders and funding institutions. The subsequent get-together as the starting signal for a sustainable development of comparable film projects that enable diverse access to the film to the film industry.

For registration send an Email to  kloeckner@dokfest-muenchen.de.

 

 

 

            AG DOK  @ 39 DOK.fest Munich              

  

Media Libraries: Challenges and Opportunities for Film and Media Professionals.

AG DOK event on May 1, 2024 – 2 p.m. at the HFF Munich, moderated by AG DOK board member Andreas Schroth, producer — MEDEA FILM FACTORY.
Media libraries have become an important part of today's media landscape. They offer an enormous amount of content, but also bring challenges with them. In our discussion, we will look at audience trends and the tension between creativity and format restrictions.
Panelists:
• Arianne Gambino, Content Lead Play Suisse
• Nicola Staender, Head of Digital Planning & Format Development, ZDF
• Thilo Kasper, Team Lead Content Strategy & Development, ARD Mediathek
• Christian Tipke, Producer / CEO Sendefaehig.

 

 

 

as single page:
• 39 DOK.fest Munich 2024 •
• 38 DOK.fest Munich 2023 •
• 37 DOK.fest Munich 2022 •
• 36 DOK.fest Munich 2021 •
• 35 DOK.fest Munich 2020 •
• 34 DOK.fest Munich 2019 •
• 33 DOK.fest Munich 2018 •