Crowded cinemas, many international filmmakers and industry guests, lively discussions and a fantastic atmosphere all over the place are characteristically for the 51st edition of the International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film. The final audience statistics are not available, yet. However, according to the present data, festival director Claas Danielsen anticipates a slight decline of audience numbers compared with last year's 50th anniversary of DOK Leipzig (31.000 viewers). Happily, the number of German and international industry visitors has proved to be stable: Altogether, 1.400 accredited visitors from 49 countries (1.450 in 2007) have come to Leipzig in order to make use of both the manifold film programme and the DOK Industry offers.

Long queues could be observed in the digital DOK market. On 25 computers industry visitors had the opportunity to watch around 300 new documentary film productions from all around the world. The 4th International DOK Leipzig Coproduction meeting offered a platform for numerous new partnerships between producers from Europe and Israel. The new and high quality documentary film material, that has been presented during the meeting, has raised the interest of both international TV editors and distributors. Parallel to the DOK Leipzig festival, there are also pitching sessions of the Discovery Campus Masterschool. Nearly 50 editors from all over the world have come to Leipzig in order to discover new documentary film projects for an international audience.

Award Ceremony in the Leipzig CineStar:
Tonight, the Golden and Silver Dove as well as other prizes will be awarded in the Leipzig CineStar at 7.30 pm.
The Talent Dove of the Media Foundation of the Sparkasse Leipzig has already been awarded on Friday evening: The winner of the International Young Documentary Talent Competition „Generation DOK“ is the documentary film „Goleshovo“ by Illian Metev and Metodi Metev (UK, Bulgaria).


Award Winners 2008:

The International Jury for Documentary Film awards for Documentary Films and Videos / Long Metrage (longer than 45 min) a Golden Dove along with € 10,000 granted by TELEPOOL to the film "René" by Helena Treštiková (Czech Republic) and a Silver Dove along with € 3,000 to the film "El Olvido" (Oblivion) by Heddy Honigmann (The Netherlands, Germany)

and for Documentary Films and Videos / Short Metrage (to 45 min) a Golden Dove along with € 5,000 granted by DOK Leipzig and Filmverband Sachsen e. V. to the film "Do bólu" (...Till It Hurts) by Marcin Koszalka (Poland).


The German Jury for Documentary Film awards for Documentary Films and Videos a
Golden Dove along with € 10,000 granted by Kinowelt GmbH to the film "Hochburg der Sünden" (Bastion of Sin) by Thomas Lauterbach (Germany).


The International Jury for the Young Talent Competition awards for an extraordinary documentary film talent the
Talent Dove of the Media Foundation of the Sparkasse Leipzig along with € 10,000 as start-up funding for the next documentary film project to the film "Goleshovo" by Ilian Metev and Metodi Metev (UK, Bulgaria).


The International Jury for Animated Films awards for Animated Films and Videos a
Golden Dove along with € 5,000 to the film "Skhizein" by Jérémy Clapin (France) and a
Silver Dove along with € 2,000 to the film "Rabbit Punch" by Kristian Andrews (UK) and the
Award for the best German Animated Film along with € 3,000 granted by DOK Leipzig and Saturn Leipzig to the film "Our Wonderful Nature" by Tomer Eshed (Germany).


The MDR (Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk) awards for an excellent Eastern European documentary film the MDR Film Prize along with € 3,000 to the film "René" by Helena Treštiková (Czech Republic).


The DEFA Foundation awards the DEFA Sponsoring Prize as a grant in the amount of € 4,000 to the film "Das Herz von Jenin" (The Heart of Jenin) by Marcus Vetter and Leon Geller (Germany, Israel).


The Jury of the Trade Union ver.di – Department of Media and Arts – awards its Prize along with € 1,500 to the film "Femida" (Themis As a Lady of Loose Morals) by Wiktar Daschuk (Belarus).


The Ecumenical Jury awards the Prize of the Ecomenical Jury to the film "El Olvido" (Oblivion) by Heddy Honigmann (The Netherlands, Germany).


The FIPRESCI Jury (Fédération Internationale de la Presse Cinématographique) awards the Prize of the Fédération Internationale de la Presse Cinématographique to the film "El Olvido" (Oblivion) by Heddy Honigmann (The Netherlands, Germany).


The Youth Jury of the Filmschule Leipzig e. V. awards the Prize of the Youth Jury of the Filmschule Leipzig e. V. to the film "Pizza Be Auschwitz" (Pizza in Auschwitz)by Moshe Zimerman (Israel).


By Counting the votes of the audience the mephisto 97,6-Publikumspreis was given to the film "KJFG No. 5" by Aleksei Aleksejew (Hungary).