The Munich International Documentary Film Festival (DOK.fest München) was founded in 1985 and takes place annually in May in Munich, Germany. Since 2001 it has been organized by the non-profit association Internationales Dokumentarfilmfestival München in cooperation with the Filmstadt München. The festival focusses on documentary films that deal with socially relevant topics and are of artistic value. The 40th DOK.fest has held from May 12-25, 2025.

The business manager and artistic director of the 40th DOK.fest was Daniel Sponsel and deputy director was Adele Kohout. On February 12, 2025, it was announced that Sponsel is set to become president of the Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film München (HFF) in October 2025. At that time, Adele Kohout, will become the new festival director and her deputy will be Maya Reichert, who has been director of the festival's educational programm DOK.education.

The DOK.fest München is one of the largest documentary film festivals in Europe. In 2020 it was the first festival in Germany to take place exclusively online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Again in 2021 the festival went virtual, with 131 films from 43 countries being watched by over 71,000 viewers. The 37th DOK.fest München in 2022 was the first to be held as a dual-track event. This dual format is still in use as of 2025, with online access to selected films continuing for one week after the public screenings in Munich venues.

History The DOK.fest München was established at the initiative of the Bavarian section of the German film industry association and lobby organisation "Arbeitsgemeinschaft Dokumentarfilm (AG DOK)" with the goal of making documentary films more popular and accessible to a broader audience. In cooperation with the association ''Filmstadt München'', a consortium of local film-related groups and with support from the city of Munich, the first festival was held in 1985 under the leadership of Gudrun Geyer, who directed the festival until 2001.

Following the departure of Gudrun Geyer, Hermann Barth took over the festival on behalf of the newly founded non-profit association "Internationales Dokumentarfilmfestival München e.V." with the express goal of raising the festival's profile within Germany and around the world. Since 2002 the festival has adopted "DOK.fest" as its brand name and expanded the number of sections on the annual program.

In 2009 Daniel Sponsel became the new director, working together with the business manager Christian Pfeil. He added such sections as DOK.deutsch; a guest series; a retrospective section; and an educational series named DOK.education. Since 2011 the platform DOK.forum has served to promote the film branch and encourage the participation of young filmmakers.

In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic an online platform for screening was established under the name DOK.fest München @home. In addition to online film screenings, the platform offered live online discussions with filmmakers.

A special platform with restricted access for members of the film industry offers online workshops, pitchings and discussion panels. An educational program for school classes is made available on the platform DOK.education with links and teaching materials designed for three different age groups.

Awards

The festival program includes competition sections, theme sections and special series. Current international documentary films with a length of at least 52 minues are screened. Film premieres are given special consideration in the competition sections. In 2025 the 16 prizes awarded in connection with the festival had a total value 64,200 Euro. The award statue given in each of the three main competition categories is named the VIKTORIA. Before 2025 it had been called VIKTOR.

VIKTORIA DOK.international – International Competition This award is sponsored by the Bavarian public broadcaster Bayerischen Rundfunk.

2011: Der Fall Chodorkowski – Cyril Tuschi 2012: Six Million and One – David Fisher 2013: Sur le rivage du monde – Sylvain L' Espérance 2014: See No Evil – Jos de Putter 2015: Something Better To Come – Hanna Polak 2016: Natural Disorder – Christian Sønderby Jepsen 2017: Nowhere To Hide – Zaradasht Ahmed 2018: The Distant Barking of Dogs – Simon Lereng Wilmont 2019: Der nackte König – 18 Fragmente über Revolution – Andreas Hoessli 2020: Acasa, my home – Radu Ciorniciuc 2021: Anny – Helena Třeštíková 2022: Trenches – Loup Bureau 2023: Theatre of Violence – Lukasz Konopa, Emil Langballe 2024: Jōhatsu – Die sich in Luft auflösen – Andreas Hartmann, Arata Mori 2025: Silent Observers – Eliza Petkova

VIKTORIA DOK.deutsch – German Competition This award is sponsored by the German media company Sky Deutschland.

2011: Wadans Welt – Dieter Schumann 2012: Das schlechte Feld – Bernhard Sallmann 2013: Der Imker – Mano Khalil 2014: Nirgendland – Helen Simon 2015: Aus dem Abseits – Simon Brückner 2016: Holz Erde Fleisch – Sigmund Steiner 2017: Bruder Jakob – Elí Roland Sachs 2018: I´m a bad guy – Susanne Freund 2019: Die bauliche Maßnahme – Nikolaus Geyrhalter 2020: Weiyena – Ein Heimatfilm – Weina Zhao und Judith Benedikt 2021: Zuhurs Töchter – Laurentia Genske und Robin Humboldt 2022: Zusammenleben – Thomas Fürhapter 2023: Gretas Geburt – Katja Baumgarten 2024: Zwischen uns Gott – Rebecca Hirneise 2025: Wir Erben – Simon Baumann

VIKTORIA DOK.horizonte Competition – Cinema of Urgency This award is sponsored by the German charitable foundation Petra-Kelly-Stiftung.

2011: El Mocito – Marcela Said 2012: Bachelor Mountain – Yu Guangyi 2013: A World not Ours – Mahdi Fleifel 2014: Cantos – Charlie Petersmann 2015: Ce qu'il reste de la folie – Joris Lachaise 2016: A Maid For Each – Maher Abi Samra 2017: Motherland – Ramona S. Díaz 2018: Demons in Paradise – Jude Ratnam 2019: Está todo bien – Alles ist gut – Tuki Jencquel 2020: They call me Babu – Sandra Beerends 2021: Things we dare not do – Bruno Santamaria 2022: No Simple way home – Akuol de Mabior 2023: Le Spectre de Boku Haram – Cyrielle Raingou 2024: Kamay – Ilyas Yourish, Shahrokh Bikaran 2025: Rashid, l’enfant de Sinjar – Jasna Krajinovic

Awards by external sponsors The following awards are given in special categories of filmmaking. Award name Years awarded Sponsor Comments megaherz Student Award 2015-megaherz, a Bavarian film production company For an outstanding film by students at German-speaking film schools. Award: 3,000 eurosFFF-Förderpreis Dokumentarfilm 2011- FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, a Bavarian film promotion company For up-and-coming directors in Bavaria. Award: 5,000 euros DOK.fest Prize SOS-Kinderdörfer weltweit2014- SOS Children's Villages, an international humanitarian organization, and B.O.A. Videofilmkunst For films which depict the perspective of children and young people. Award: 3,000 euros Kinokino Audience Award 2015- 3sat and Bayerischer Rundfunk, public broadcasting companies Award: 2,000 euros. German Documentary Film Music Prize 2015- The cultural foundation of "Versicherungskammer", a Bavarian insurance company For a composition that is combined in an outstanding way with the documentary film narrative. Award: 5,000 euros. DOK.composition Award 2016- Sonoton Music, a Munich music publisher and distributor For compositions still in development. Award: 2,500 euros VFF Documentary Film Production Prize 2018- Verwertungsgesellschaft der Film- und Fernsehproduzenten (VFF), a film and television rights licensing agency Recognizing outstanding, creative film production. Award: 7,500 euros DOK.edit Award – presented by Adobe 2021- Adobe, a computer software company For outstanding film editing. Award: 5,000 euros. DOK.talent Award 2015- Haus des Dokumentarfilms, a non-profit center for documentary films in Stuttgart For student projects at film schools. Award: 2,500 euros DOK.archive Award 2019- British Pathé For film projects making use of archival material. Award: 2,500 euros DOK.digital – Prize for New Narrative Formats 2020- Bayerischen Landeszentrale für neue Medien (the Bavarian state agency for new media) For journalistic-factual or documentary storytelling using a variety of media. Award: 2,500 euros All Inclusive Award 2025- Werksviertel-Mitte Stiftung, a Munich foundation promoting cultural diversity at grass-roots level For film productions by teams that include people with disabilities in significant roles. Award: 5,000 euros

Homages

2021: Helena Třeštíková 2022: Heidi Specogna 2023: Nikolaus Geyrhalter 2024: Petra Lataster-Czisch und Peter Lataster

Retrospectives

2011: Klaus Wildenhahn 2012: Wim Wenders 2013: Werner Herzog 2014: Kim Longinotto 2015: Avi Mograbi 2016: Andres Veiel 2017: Georg Stefan Troller 2018: Helga Reidemeister 2019: Heddy Honigmann 2021: 75 Years of DEFA Documentary Films 2022: The Years under Franco's Dictatorship 2023: 10 Year Anniversary: DOK.network Africa 2025: Four Decades of DOK.fest

External links

Festival website

References