The competition titles set to screen at the 2025 edition of DOK Leipzig, running from 27 October-2 November, have been revealed. A total of 78 films, 30 of which are world premieres, will be competing for the Golden and Silver Doves across four competitions.

“Most of the movies sent in to us in the post-pandemic period have dealt with family situations and innermost thoughts. This year, however, numerous documentaries and animated flicks have returned to looking outward,” says festival director Christoph Terhechte. “They address the threat of environmental destruction, resistance against political violence, the fight against exploitation, and strategies for human resilience under extreme circumstances.”

Of the nine feature-length titles in the International Competition Documentary Film section, five will have their world premiere at DOK Leipzig, while six of them are helmed by emerging directors. The list includes Srđan Kovačević’s The Thing to Be Done, which takes a look at the dynamics in the Ljubljana workers’ rights office, which stands up for people cheated by their employers. Gregor Brändli’s Elephants & Squirrels follows a Sri Lankan artist’s legal battle to achieve the restitution of a collection of the country’s works of art that are being kept in Switzerland. With Melt, Nikolaus Geyrhalter captures images of ice and snow all over the world. In The Red Moon Eclipse, Caroline Guimbal deals with her own pregnancy and her mother’s cancer diagnosis. Sergio Oksman’s A Scary Movie [+leggi anche:
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Five feature-length works and 23 shorts have been picked for the International Competition Animated Film section. Among the feature-length efforts, European involvement is present in two films, Giovanni Columbu’s Italian-German co-production Balentes [+leggi anche:
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The German Competition Documentary Film brings along eight feature-length titles, seven of which are world premieres and six are made by emerging filmmakers. In Sediments [+leggi anche:
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Finally, the Audience Competition showcases ten feature-length documentaries that premiered at renowned film festivals. Among other titles, the list includes the Karlovy Vary Crystal Globe-winning film, Miro Remo’s Better Go Mad in the Wild [+leggi anche:
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A total of 252 films and XR works will be shown at the festival. You can explore the full programme here.

As in previous years, the industry section of the festival brings a wide array of talks, workshops and market events aimed at professionals in the domain of documentary and animated cinema, as well as XR. You can peruse the programme here.