You could see the proud smile of the film team at the opening in the empty Deutsches Theater, you could see the euphoria of the award winners in the stream, but you saw the happiest faces at the very end. In real. On the penultimate day of the 36th Dok-Fest, what no one expected any more happened: the partner cinemas caught up. The winner of the audience award, the Danish family portrait “He’s My Brother” (directed by Cille Hannibal and Christine Hanberg), was shown on the big screen. In the City, in the Rio, in the New Maxim. “That was an emotional moment,” says Dok-Fest boss Daniel Sponsel. “Suddenly to experience the reactions of the audience again in the hall, totally touching!” With this climax, the film festival, which took place as a digital edition like in 2020, has come to a surprising end. One that is optimistic about the future. Back to the cinemas.
Most of the time, of course, took place on the visitors’ laptops. 131 documentaries from 43 countries were available as a stream for two and a half weeks. There were award ceremonies and film discussions (live or recorded), the industry and education segments “Dok-Forum” and “Dok-Education” and exchange via chat. The experience from the previous year paid off, and we can only speak of stream fatigue to a limited extent. The organizers counted fewer spectators than in 2020: almost 71,000 compared to more than 75,000. However, the minus is limited (and nobody knows how many people actually sat in front of the screens). “We managed to reach the audience despite the abundant cultural offerings on the Internet,” says Sponsel. “It is precisely against this background that we can draw an extremely positive summary of the second online edition.” 320,000 clicks and 110,000 streams were noted (this also includes trailers). The number 71,000 means how often entire films were viewed (including award ceremonies and festival events). Also interesting is the result that around a third of the visitors logged in from a location outside of Bavaria. The nationwide opening is a clear added value of the online edition. The willingness to donate was also great, although not as great as in 2020: Around 47 percent of all ticket buyers opted for the solidarity surcharge (one euro per film, five euros per festival pass), compared with 51 percent in the previous year. At that time, 19,000 euros went to the partner cinemas. The result for 2021 is not yet available, but it should only be slightly smaller.
16 prizes with a total value of 64,000 euros were awarded, most of them during the festival. “Anny” by Helena Třeštíková, “Zuhurs Töchter” by Laurentia Genske and Robin Humboldt and “Things We Dare Not Do” by Bruno Santamaría won the three main competition series.
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