Internationales Dokumentarfilmfestival München


The International Documentary Film Festival Munich has been held annually in Munich, Germany since 1985. Since 2001 it has been organized by Internationales Dokumentarfilmfestival München e. V. together with the Filmstadt München association. The festival focusses on socially relevant and artistically valuable documentary films.
DOK.fest München also includes the industry platform DOK.forum, the children and youth programme DOK.education and the touring festival DOK.tour Bayern. The management and artistic director is Daniel Sponsel.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the 2020 festival took place exclusively online, with part of the proceeds going to the partner cinemas. From May 6th to 24th, 2020, 121 films from 42 countries were presented and seen by more than 75,000 viewers. This makes DOK.fest München one of the largest documentary film festivals in Europe.

History

The establishment of the DOK.fest München goes back to the initiative of the Bavarian section of the Documentary Film Association Munich. AG DOK had the goal of making documentary films available to a wider audience. In cooperation with the Association Film Studio Munich, an association of local film initiatives, the first International Documentary Film Festival Munich was organized in 1985. The city of Munich supported the Festival. AGudrun Geyer was appointed director, and led the festival until 2001.
Following the resignation of Gudrun Geyer in 2001, Hermann Barth took over the task on behalf of the newly founded International Documentary Film Festival Munich Association e.V., to profile the Festival in Munich, the rest of Germany, and worldwide. Since 2002 the Festival operates under the brand name DOK.fest with an expanded program.
Hermann Barth resigned in 2009. Daniel Sponsel took over the management and was supported at the beginning by Christian Pfeil. Sponsel extended the programme to include the German competition DOK.deutsch, the guest series DOK.guest, the retrospective and DOK.education, the child and youth programme. He also created the platform DOK.forum in 2011.
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced a new conception of the festival as DOK.fest München @home. In the online edition there were daily award ceremonies, events and live online discussions with filmmakers in addition to the documentary films. For school classes there were free sighting links with teaching units for three age groups after appropriate registration.

Series and prizes

The festival programme of DOK.fest München is divided into "competitions", "theme series" and "specials". At the festival a selection of current international documentaries at least 52 minutes long are shown.
In the competitions, premieres are given special consideration. The fourteen awards of the festival are endowed with prize money worth €56,750. In the three main competition areas, the VIKTOR is awarded. The VIKTOR Main Competition DOK.international is the main prize of the festival.

VIKTOR Main Competition DOK.international – International Competition

DOK.education, the film literacy section of DOK.fest München since 2011, is aimed at a young audience between the ages of 6 and 18. The documentary film school for school classes offers media pedagogically accompanied film screenings and talks with filmmakers. In this workshop format, the participants learn to analyse non-fictional films and are motivated to apply this to their own everyday media use in order to become critical and self-confident media users. The programme also includes media education courses for teachers. DOK.education offers events at the festival in May and all year round. In 2020, the children and youth programme took place exclusively online.

DOK.forum – industry platform

DOK.forum sees itself as a think tank for the documentary film industry and as a platform for projects in the development process. Since 2011, DOK.forum has taken place at the Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film München and in recent years has established itself as a permanent meeting place for the German-speaking industry - with a growing range of offerings for international filmmakers. In 2020, the industry programme took place exclusively online. The programme is divided into two segments:

public events: DOK.forum Perspectives

In panel discussions, workshops and case studies, the DOK.forum Perspectives take a look at the developments in documentary work and invite you to develop visions and impulses and explore relevant media policy issues. The public events are aimed both at the industry and the interested festival audience.

Coproduction and ideas market: DOK.forum Marketplace

The marketplace offers filmmakers the opportunity to meet editors and producers from Germany, Austria, Switzerland and South Tyrol at moderated roundtables and present their concepts. The best student pitch concept is awarded the Pitch Award of Haus des Dokumentarfilms.
DOK.forum Marketplace: German Composition Funding Award
DOK.forum Marketplace: Pitch Award of Haus des Dokumentarfilms
Since 2017, DOK.fest München has been presenting a selection of international documentary 360° and VR experiences parallel to the festival in May in the Futuro exhibition house in front of the Pinakothek der Moderne.

DOK.tour Bayern

DOK.tour Bayern has been bringing selected films from the current festival year to the cinemas of the Bavarian region since 2011. In 2019 the DOK.tour takes place in autumn in 20 cities throughout Bavaria.