DOK Leipzig has announced the lineup for its 69th edition, which will take place from November 2 to 8 in Leipzig, Germany, featuring a total of 217 films and XR works and 76 titles selected for its four official competitions. The lineup includes 30 world premieres and 29 debut films, in an edition that brings together established filmmakers and emerging voices in documentary, animation, and experimental cinema.
The International Competition Documentary Film will feature nine feature-length films and 13 shorts, including three world premieres and two international premieres. The selected directors include Lukas Marxt, Helena Třeštíková, and Alain Kassanda, alongside filmmakers from different generations and backgrounds. The section presents films engaging with some of the major political and social conflicts of the present, as well as intimate explorations of memory, identity, and changing territories.
Among the titles is >1,5°C Pyropolitics and the New World, by Lukas Marxt, which examines the devastating wildfires that swept through Los Angeles in early 2025; Concrete Land, by Asmahan Bkerat, focusing on a Palestinian Bedouin family in Jordan whose home is threatened by the expansion of luxury developments; and Letters from the Silenced Country, by Andrei Kutsila, which reconstructs crimes committed in contemporary Belarus through private correspondence from prison. Also included in the competition are Bára – Diary of a Rockstar, by Helena Třeštíková, and The Maternity Ward, by Alain Kassanda.
The section also includes The Nights, by Ana Bovino, which follows La Pichi, a woman who transforms her life into stories and uses storytelling, humor, and imagination as ways of confronting violence and reclaiming an identity and body pushed to the margins.
DOK Leipzig director Ola Staszel said that one of the main concerns of this year’s edition is to give greater space to films and filmmakers from Central and Eastern Europe. “Many of this year’s competing films focus on Central and Eastern Europe,” she said, adding that giving greater visibility to filmmakers from these countries is both a central concern of the festival and a personal priority. Staszel also highlighted the number of works by emerging directors.
The International Competition Animated Film will feature five feature-length films and 19 shorts. They include The Orbit of Minor Satellites, by Chris Sullivan, set in a hallucinatory abandoned Cold War space station; Magic Atlas, by Xun Sun, which combines painting and woodcut animation; Son of a Bitch, directed by Erica Maradona, Tania Anaya, Otto Guerra, and Sávio Leite; We Are Aliens, by Kohei Kadowaki; and Prelude and Fugues – The Wood Thrush, by Pierre Hébert.
The German Competition Documentary Film will feature eight feature-length films, seven of them world premieres, alongside 12 shorts. The selected films include Cold River: I Am in Leipzig, the debut feature by Haiguang Li; Haus der Trinker, by Janis Westphal; Hotel Utopia, by Julia Groteclaes; Free Zone, by Jasmine Alakari; and The Snake Charmer, by Jonathan Omer Mizrahi, which focuses on an encounter between Thai migrant farmworkers at the Israel-Gaza border and a robotic snake camera used for military surveillance.
Meanwhile, the Audience Competition will bring together ten feature-length films that have already had their world premieres at major international festivals, including Venice, Sundance, CPH:DOX, and Visions du Réel. The section will feature Holy Wood Dust, by Victor Kossakovsky; Sumo: Spirit Weighs Nothing, by Erik Shirai; Petrolheads, by Emil Langballe; Closure, by Michał Marczak; Heat, by Jacqueline Zünd; and Nicole Nicole, by Lauren Dällenbach.
Also included in the section is Kurtág Fragments, by Dénes Nagy, dedicated to composer György Kurtág, and For Life, by Ahmet Seven, about a Palestinian woman who attempts to become pregnant while her husband remains imprisoned. The lineup is completed by White Lies, by Alba Zari, and Baby Jackfruit Baby Guava, by Nhat Quang Nong.
In total, the four competitions bring together 76 films, including 30 world premieres, reflecting one of the key directions of the 2026 edition: a dialogue between established filmmakers and new directors exploring the possibilities of documentary, animation, and hybrid forms. DOK Leipzig also announced that screening schedules and venues will be available on October 8, when ticket sales will also begin.