The Internationales Dokumentarfilmfestival München (International Documentary Film Festival Munich – short DOK.fest Munich) has been held annually in Munich, Germany since 1985. Since 2001 it has been organized by Internationales Dokumentarfilmfestival München e. V. (International Documentary Film Festival Munich Association) together with the Filmstadt München association. The festival focusses on socially relevant and artistically valuable documentary films.
Contents
- History
- Series and prizes
- VIKTOR DOKinternational International Competition
- VIKTOR DOKdeutsch German speaking Competition
- VIKTOR DOKhorizon
- References
The DOK.fest also includes the industry platform DOK.forum, the children and youth program DOK.education and the touring festival DOK.tour. The management and artistic director is Daniel Sponsel.
2016 received a record attendance with 37,800 guests, making the DOK.fest one of Europe's biggest and most dynamically growing documentary film festivals.
History
The establishment of the DOK.fest Munich goes back to the initiative of the Bavarian section of the Documentary Film Association (AG DOK) 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 program to include the German competition DOK.deutsch, the guest series DOK.guest, the retrospective and DOK.education, the child and youth program. He also created the platform DOK.forum in 2011.
Series and prizes
The festival program of DOK.fest Munich 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 twelve prizes of the festival are endowed with prize money and material worth €1,000 to €10,000 (in total €50,000). In the three main competition areas, the VIKTOR is awarded. The VIKTOR DOK.international is the main prize of the festival.