DOK Leipzig 2024 Awards
Copy Paste of the press release tonight from the festival:
“La Jetée, the Fifth Shot” by Dominique Cabrera Triumphs with the Golden Dove at DOK Lepzig’s International Competition Documentary Film
Long animated film “Pelikan Blue” receives Golden Dove | Long film “Tarantism Revisited” wins the German Competition | Audience jury honours “Once upon a Time in a Forest”
The award winners of the 67th edition of DOK Leipzig have been announced. Seven Golden Doves, two Silver Doves, and various Partnership Awards were presented during two ceremonies at the Schaubühne Lindenfels in Leipzig on Saturday.
In the International Competition Documentary Film, the Golden Dove Long Film went to Dominique Cabrera for “La Jetée, the Fifth Shot” (Le Cinquième plan de La Jetée | France). The festival had also dedicated a homage to the director this year. In the award-winning film, Cabrera’s cousin recognises himself in Chris Marker’s classic short film “La Jetée” (1962), prompting an exploration of the family’s history.
“With precision and a light touch, the filmmaker takes us on an intimate journey …, revealing new layers of meaning and emotion behind an enigmatic image of a boy and his family,” the jury said in its statement. The 10,000-euro Golden Dove is sponsored by Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk. The award was presented by Jana Brandt, the director of the MDR Programme Directorate Halle.
The 3,000-euro Golden Dove Short Film went to celebrated British experimental filmmaker John Smith for “Being John Smith” (UK), a wry look at how having one of the most generic names in the English language has affected his life and career. The jury was impressed by Smith’s “willingness to share doubts and vulnerability” and “questions about what makes up our identity”.
The films that have earned Golden Doves in the International Competition Documentary Film qualify for nomination for the annual Academy Awards®, provided they meet the Academy’s standards.
The Silver Dove Long Film, sponsored by 3sat and awarded to the best feature-length documentary film by an up-and-coming director, went to Pierre Michel Jean for “Twice Into Oblivion” (L‘oubli tue deux fois | France, Haiti, Dominican Republic). The film deals with was known as the Parsley Massacre of 1937, which ended the lives of 20,000 Haitians living in the Dominican Republic. “By pursuing two distinctly compelling modes – testimonials from elderly survivors as well as improvisational performances by the young inheritors of these unhealed wounds – the film shows the persistence of the past, and the need to reckon with it in order for us to find a way forward,” the jury stated in praise of the film. Johannes Dicke, the head of programming at 3sat, presented the 6,000-euro award to the filmmaker.
The 1,500-euro Silver Dove Short Film, sponsored by the independent Saxon State Media Agency (SLM) and awarded to the best short documentary by an up-and-coming director, went to “What Goes Up”(Saudi Arabia, USA) by Samar Al Summary. In this film, the artist trampolines at a military airfield in Arizona – rebelling not only against gravity, but also against the patriarchy. The jury remarked: “Beginning with her own impossible return, the filmmaker invents a language to unearth the stories of others who left their own fragile traces in the landscape.” The award was presented by Thomas Neie from the SLM’s Media Council.
The winners of the International Competition Documentary Film were selected by Maria Bonsanti, Sylvaine Dampierre, Mark Edwards, Eric Hynes, and Avi Mograbi.
In the International Competition Animated Film, the 3,000-euro Golden Dove Long Film went to László Csáki for “Pelikan Blue” (Kék Pelikan | Hungary), about three broke friends in Hungary who forge train tickets to travel to the West after the fall of communism. “While we do not condone forging your way towards your dreams, we absolutely appreciated the manner in which the story was told, the visual language and, above all, the effortless personal and historical honesty it embraced,” the jury said.
The Golden Dove Short Film, which includes 1,500 euros, sponsored by the German Institute for Animated Film e. V. (DIAF), went to Anu-Laura Tuttelberg for “On Weary Wings Go By” (Linnud läinud | Estonia, Lithuania). In the film, a miniature girl made of delicate porcelain observes the onset of winter. “The boundary between the characters and the real environment gradually dissolves into an ambivalent world full of wonder and visual poetry, in which nature itself seems to be the protagonist,” the jury said. Dr. Volker Petzold (Chairman of the DIAF) addressed the audience at the award ceremony.
The film that earns the Golden Dove Short Film qualifies for nomination for the annual Academy Awards®, provided it meets the Academy’s standards.
Jury members Merlin Flügel, Isabel Herguera, and Nosipho van den Bragt gave a Special Mention to Heinrich Sabl for “Memory Hotel” (Germany, France).
In the German Competition Documentary Film, the Golden Dove Long Film went to “Tarantism Revisited” (Germany, Switzerland) by Anja Dreschke. The directors investigate the phenomenon of “tarantism”, which made numerous women in southern Italy in the 1950s dance uncontrollably, supposedly from the bite of a poisonous spider. “The myth repeats itself, always the same and always different, in the bodies that rebel against the poison of a patriarchal order by dancing or face the toxic legacy of exploitative land use. Between archival research and re-enactment, sound and text compositions, gender and genre, this film develops an idiosyncratic language, resistant in the best sense of the word,” commended the jury. This 10,000-euro award is donated by Doris Apell-Kölmel and Michael Kölmel.
The Golden Dove Short Film, which includes 1,500 euros, went to Leonard Volkmer for “The King of Spain” (Der König von Spanien | Germany), in which the director’s search for his own past takes him from Berlin darkrooms to clubs in the Spanish capital and into the archives of a provincial psychiatric ward. Jury members Tilman König, Katrin Mundt, and Susanne Sachsse noted that the film “confides personal matters in us and makes them cinematically tangible – not as illustration, but as a daring venture.”
The Golden Dove in the Audience Competition was presented to the documentary film “Once upon a Time in a Forest” )Photo) (Havumetsän lapset | Finland) by Virpi Suutari. In this film, an environmentalist takes on the Finnish forestry industry. “Despite the urgency of climate change, the film takes the time to immerse itself in the magic of nature. The intimate portrait of the protagonists has touched and inspired us deeply,” emphasised jury members Linda Dombrowski, Maria Gallo, Sophie Görlipp, Maria Weiße, and Anna Wulffert. The 3,000-euro award is granted pro rata by the Leipziger Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Filmkunst e. V.
