At the 67th edition of DOK Leipzig, juries of acclaimed filmmakers, arts professionals, and an audience jury will award short and feature-length animated and documentary films in competition.
International Competition Documentary Film
The five jury members will present a Golden Dove to both the best feature documentary and the best short documentary, chosen from the 8 feature-length nominees and 11 short documentary films. A Silver Dove will also be awarded to the best feature-length and short documentaries by an up-and-coming director.
Jury Members:
Maria Bonsanti
With a long history working with international film festivals, including the Locarno Film Festival, Festival dei Popoli, and Cinéma du Réel, Maria Bonsanti has served as the artistic director for five years at Cinéma du Réel and took on the role of program director at EURODOC in 2017. In early 2022, she was appointed deputy director of Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome, a position she held until May 2024.
Sylvaine Dampierre
Sylvaine Dampierre is a Paris-based documentary filmmaker of Guadeloupe origin. Her films often explore the motif of anchoring and trace and have been successful at festivals worldwide, including FIDMarseille, FIDOCS, DOK Leipzig, and IDFA. Her latest feature documentary “Words of Negroes” earned the FIPRESCI prize at DOK Leipzig in 2021.
Eric Hynes
Eric Hynes is the Senior Curator of Film at New York’s Museum of the Moving Image (MoMI). He is a seasoned critic and journalist who has contributed his writing to the New York Times, the Washington Post, Sight & Sound, and Reverse Shot, where he has been a staff writer since 2003.
Avi Mograbi
Well-known Israeli filmmaker currently residing in Portugal, Avi Mograbi’s latest films, “Between Fences” (2016) and “The First 54 Years: An Abbreviated Manual for Military Occupation” (2021), both screened at Berlinale Forum.
Mark Edwards
Mark Edwards is a producer and broadcaster, originally from New York and living in Paris since 1995, served as the director of the USC Shoah Foundation in France — founded by Steven Spielberg — for four years before transitioning to work as an independent producer across Europe. He has worked on many film commissions and taught at top-tier educational institutions in France.
International Competition Animated Film
The jury members will view 5 nominated feature-length films and 20 short films and select the recipients of a Golden Dove for the best animated feature-length film and the best animated short film. Titles that win a Golden Dove for the best animated short film and those that receive a Golden Dove in the International Competition Documentary Film qualify for nomination at the annual Academy Awards, provided they meet the Academy’s requirements.
Jury Members:
Merlin Flügel
Merlin Flügel is an animation director and visual designer from Berlin. His short films have garnered awards at international film festivals, including “ECHO”, which screened in competition at the Berlinale in 2013, and “Rules of Play”, which picked up the Jury Award at the Festival d’Animation Annecy in 2018. He is a co-founder of the Sweat&Tears Animation Filmfest Frankfurt.
Isabel Herguera
Isabel Herguera, one of the two filmmakers to whom DOK Leipzig pays homage this year, has directed a number of short films, including “Blindman’s Bluff” (2005), which was nominated for a Goya Award, and “Winter Love” (2015), among others. Herguera’s much-anticipated first animated feature, “Sultana’s Dream”, screened in the main competition of the San Sebastián International Film Festival.
Nosipho van den Bragt
Nosipho van den Bragt is a co-founder of the award-winning high-end animation and VFX studio in South Africa, Chocolate Tribe.
For more DOK Leipzig Juries, click here.
