DOK Leipzig Record Attendance
The hugely successful 69th edition of DOK Leipzig (International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film), first under the direction of festival director Ola Staszel, came to a close on Sunday. A total of more than 57,000 people attended the festival, while over 2,100 accredited guests took part in screenings and events.
“My impression that the cinemas and other venues felt incredibly full has now been confirmed by the figures. Reaching a record number of attendees in my first year is already a great success. It strengthens my resolve to continue with the innovations introduced this year,” said festival director Ola Staszel. “Creating opportunities for people to talk to one another and experience films together is one of my central visions for the festival. This will also be reflected in the future programming of DOK Leipzig.”
The screening of the opening film “Guten Abend, du Schöne” by Ina Borrmann in the East Hall of Leipzig Central Station, which attracted an audience of around 1,300, the “Animation Night” event and the Retrospective “Kino und Kampf. Latin America between East and West” were particularly well attended. Another highlight of the programme was DOK Neuland, the festival’s exhibition of extended reality works. This year, visitors were able to experience a total of eight interactive and immersive media works not only at the main exhibition venue, the Kohlrabizirkus, but also at the Heilandskirche/Westkreuz and Leipzig Central Station. The masterclass with Helena Třeštíková, held as part of the Hommage Documentary Film dedicated to her work, was another special highlight. The many questions from the audience about her working methods and her longitudinal observational works spanning several decades meant that an event originally scheduled to last two hours ended up running for almost three.
A pleasingly large number of this year’s prizes went to film projects presented at DOK Industry, with 14 of them receiving awards in total. Among the highlights of the platform for industry professionals were the DOK Industry Talks “Doc Together: When Freedom of Expression is at Risk”, “Making Space for Queer Cinema – The Curators’ Role” and “Community and Alternative Cinema Spaces and Practices”, the roundtable “Adult Animation in Europe” and the DOK Exchange XR Think Tank. There was also a further increase in the number of one-to-one meetings at the DOK Co-Pro Market.
DOK Leipzig 2026 presented 217 films and extended reality works from 61 countries over 7 days. The seven Golden Doves and two Silver Doves as well as numerous partner awards were presented on the Saturday of the festival.
The 70th anniversary edition of DOK Leipzig will take place from 25.10 to 31.10.2027.
