DOK Leipzig: 78 films competing for Golden Doves!

DOK Leipzig: 78 films competing for Golden Doves!

The DOK Leipzig Festival, an important event in the film and media industry, will take place in Leipzig from October 27th to November 2nd, 2025. This year, a total of 252 films and XR works from 55 countries will be presented, including 78 entries that will compete in four competitions for the coveted Golden and Silver Doves. As the Film University reports, there are 30 world premieres among the competition entries, which underlines the relevance and freshness of this year's program.

An outstanding work in the International Animated Film Competition is the short film “FLOATING” by Jelena Milunović. The film deals with the challenges of dealing with a mentally ill father and addresses the early onset of responsibility for the family. Visually, “FLOATING” impresses with strong color accents: depressive episodes are depicted in black and white, while ecstatic highs are expressed in colorful drawings. A red balloon acts as a symbolic symbol of hope for the protagonists.

Documentary competitions and social issues

Eight feature-length films are represented in the German Documentary Film Competition, including “INTERSECTION – Everything is political”. This interactive documentary, combined with a mobile game, gives viewers the opportunity to experience discrimination in a playful way. The game is competitive and has an unequal distribution of starting conditions, which impressively visualizes the issues of social inequality and discrimination. In the film, six people discuss relevant topics such as racism, sexism, ableism and queer and transphobia at a round table.

Another important contribution is “WHITE SMOKE OVER BLACK PUMP”, documented by Peter Badel and Dieter Chill. The film deals with the serious structural changes in the Lusatian lignite mining area between 2019 and 2025 and addresses the far-reaching effects of the transition in this region.

The festival not only addresses individual stories, but also reflects important social challenges. So reported Journalist Watch about how film festivals provide a platform to discuss social and political issues. Films like “Parasite” can spark debates about social inequality. Similarly, DOK Leipzig plays a key role by presenting films that deal with environmental destruction, resistance to political violence and humanity's resilience in extreme environments.

The entire DOK program, which also includes daily streaming of a film for 24 hours, as well as ticket sales information, is available on the festival's website. Festival director Christoph Terhechte highlights that since the pandemic, many films have shown a clear trend towards dealing with family and internal issues, while other documentary and animated works look for external realities.