28/10/2013 - The big international documentary and animation festival opens today and launches a new prize: the Animadok Dove

DOK Leipzig, the international documentary and animation festival directed by Claas Danielsen and linked to DOK Industry (made up of a series of events and professional encounters) and DOK projects (bringing together a whole series of initiatives turned towards the future, research and promulgation of culture), begins its 56^th edition today. Until November 3, the great town of Saxe will present, all sections combined, 346 films: 187 documentaries, 116 animated films and 43 Animadoc productions.

From the proposed 2240 films from 114 countries, 88 representing 34 countries were chosen to compete in the five competitive sections of the event. The countries traditionally present such as France, Poland and the United Kingdom have answered the call yet again but others like Nepal, Bolivia and Syria will also make their mark...

The international competition dedicated to documentary features will present 12 competitors in the race for the Golden Dove, including In Sarmatia, in which German director Volker Koepp crosses different landscapes from the Baltic to the Black Sea, while Vitaly Mansky travels with Pipeline from Serbia to Cologne. Amongst the other candidates, Finnish director Virpi Suutari delivers a moving social study with Hilton! – Here for Life, Italian director Roberto Minervini explores conservative America with Stop the Pounding Heart [+see also:
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film profile], Dutch director Bregtje van der Haak questions the capitalist exploitation of genetics in DNA Dreams, and award-winning Polish director Piotr Stasik hits the road with A Diary of a Journey. The presented films all link back to our time’s great questions (wars and revolutions, globalization, environment), but as always in Leipzig, many also deal with the world’s political and social issues through personal narratives. The human being is precisely at the heart of the programme of the competition dedicated to animated films, which includes 39 films from 19 countries.

It is also worth mentioning this year the creation of a new prize promoting the blending of genres, close to the festival’s heart, (the Animadok section has existed for 17 years): the Golden Animadok Dove for Best Animated Documentary. 9 films will compete for the honour of receiving this trophy for the first time, which comes with 3,000 euros.

(Translated from French)