DOK Leipzig has unveiled the line-up of competition films taking part in its upcoming 69th edition, running from 26 October-1 November. A total of 76 movies, including 30 world premieres and 29 debut works, will be vying for the awards. This year, the festival will screen 217 films and XR works across its competitive and non-competitive sections.

“Many of this year’s competing films focus on Central and Eastern Europe. Giving more space to movies and filmmakers in these countries is not only a key concern of DOK Leipzig’s, but is also something I care deeply about personally,” said Ola Staszel, festival director. “I am also delighted that we can showcase so many works by emerging directors, and that most of the films in the German Competition were made possible with the support of state and federal media funding agencies, as well as with the involvement of broadcasters,” she added.

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Of the nine feature-length films in the International Competition Documentary Film, three will have their world premieres at DOK Leipzig. They are >1.5°C Pyropolitics and the New World by Lukas Marxt, The Maternity Ward by Alain Kassanda and Ana Bovino’s The Nights. Also, acclaimed documentarian Helena Třeštíková, whose oeuvre is to be honoured in the “Documentary Film Hommage” at this year’s festival, presents an intimate exposé of Czech rock icon Bára Basiková in Bára – Diary of a Rockstar, covering an impressive time span of 50 years. A tonally different work comes from Andrei Kutsila: his Venice prize-winning film Letters from the Silenced Country paints a powerful portrait of the crimes committed in contemporary Belarus, transforming private prison correspondence into a cinematic testimony. In Giuseppe Schillaci’s Auber 89, actor Fatsah Bouyahmed turns his gaze to the forgotten 1980s archives of the Aubervilliers social-housing estates, revealing a fleeting moment of hope before disillusionment reshaped the Parisian suburbs. In Blossoming, Kamila Serwicka takes her camera along as she journeys into a closed world: that of her family’s secrets and its troubled history. The competition also features 13 shorts exploring a range of themes, from romantic or familial ties to bureaucratic and political processes.

Four feature-length films are competing in this year’s International Competition Animated Film. The only European co-production among them is Kohei Kadowaki’s “anti-coming-of-age film” and Cannes Directors’ Fortnight title We Are Aliens, which deals with friendship between boys, as well as misunderstandings and quarrels, made as a co-production between Japan and France. The rest of the list includes Chris Sullivan’s The Orbit of Minor Satellites, Son of a Bitch by a group of Brazilian auteurs (see the GoCritic! review) and Sun Xun’s Magic Atlas. The competition also includes 19 short and one mid-length film that challenge the status quo, and question how we live with each other and the systems around us.

The German Competition Documentary Film presents eight feature-length films, seven of which will have world-premiere status. Child’s Mother, directed by Konrad Schlach, paints a nuanced portrait of a mother-daughter relationship in the city of Halle. In the debut feature Cold River: I Am in Leipzig, a meditation on home, death and family ties, Li Haiguang looks back at his native town in China, which seems to linger on the fringes of his daily life in Leipzig. Jasmine Alakari’s Free Zone follows an exiled Iranian activist who opens refugee squats in Athens, as the right-wing government sets mass evictions in motion. As shown in Julia Groteclaes’ Hotel Utopia, an abandoned luxury hotel in a Bulgarian ski resort was supposed to become a co-living space for digital nomads, but the idea does not sit well with the local population. In Last Round, Janis Westphal shows a Berlin housing project for homeless people that does not force abstinence on them, but rather treats them with acceptance, support and dignity. A daughter’s camera closely follows her writer dad, who is suffering from dementia, in Tete Hoffmann’s My Brilliant Father. Jonathan Om’s The Snake Charmer follows Thai workers in Israel, on the border with Gaza, against the backdrop of the events of 7 October. Finally, Peter Badel and Chris Wright continue the unfinished project by the late Thomas Heise in Transition. The competition will also present 12 shorts.

The Audience Competition, meanwhile, features ten feature-length films, all of which have world-premiered at renowned international festivals. Viktor Kossakovsky’s Holy Wood Dust and Erik Shirai’s Sumo: Spirit Weighs Nothing premiered at Venice. Emil Langballe’s Petrolheads comes from CPH:DOX, while Michał Marczak’s Closure started its journey at Sundance. Visions du Réel is represented by two titles, Jacqueline Zünd’s Heat and Lauren Dällenbach’s Nicole Nicole, the latter of which scooped the National Competition Jury Prize there. The rest of the movies in the programme are Dénes Nagy’s Kurtág Fragments, Ahmet Seven’s For Life, Alba Zari’s White Lies and Nhat Quang Nong’s Baby Jackfruit Baby Guava, which was presented at the DOK Co-Pro Market back in 2020. This year’s competition winners will be decided by an online vote.

Click here to explore the full programme.