Docs on the Spot

Together in front of the screens. Festival impression by Janne Sebening

The festival at home: At DOK.fest München @home 121 films from 42 countries were shown for 18 days, 90 of which were world or German premieres. A total of 14 prizes amounting to 55,000 euros were awarded. More than 75,000 spectators watched the films of DOK.fest Munich @home and the events of DOK.forum and DOK.education. The number of actual viewers of the online edition is likely to be even significantly higher, as it is not possible to determine how many people were sitting in front of the screens at any given time.

But "not only the numbers are overwhelming", says festival director Daniel Sponsel, "but also the support of our partners and the feedback from our viewers. It was received incredibly positively that we organised the festival despite the difficult circumstances. In this way, we have been able to give many people the opportunity to see these outstanding films".

The industry platform DOK.forum online was also a great success: around 170 experts and participants took part in the co-production market with projects in the development stage. More than 700 filmmakers from all over the world attended the online workshops and discussions. The positive response shows how important it is to make training and networking possible - more than ever in these difficult times.

The children and youth programme DOK.education also celebrated a new audience record with 3,000 viewers online. The online documentary film school was particularly successful: over 300 teachers requested the three video seminars for their classes, and so far over 2,600 pupils have already seen them.

The online edition will change DOK.fest München: For next year we are of course planning another festival on the big cinema screen, but we would like to take the experiences with this online edition with us to the future of the festival. So you can already look forward to the 36th DOK.fest München from May 5th to 16th 2021!

A very special thanks goes to all our sponsors and partners as well as to you, our audience! You have made it possible that the festival did not have to be cancelled this year, but could take place in a new and trendsetting form.