all inclusive Documentary Film Award 2027
Call for Entries – submit now until 22 January 2027!
DOK.fest München and the Munich Werksviertel-Mitte Stiftung are pleased to announce the third edition of the all inclusive Award – a prize for filmmakers with disabilities and inclusive documentary film productions – which will be presented as part of the 42nd DOK.fest München in May 2027.
The award for inclusive documentary film productions
The award honours documentary film productions in which filmmakers with disabilities play a leading role. It is sponsored by the Munich based Werksviertel-Mitte Stiftung and is endowed with prize money of 5,000 euros.
In order to assess eligibility for participation, we are guided by the definition of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: "People with disabilities include people who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which, in interaction with various barriers, may prevent them from participating fully, effectively and equally in society."
The award recognises the inclusive team effort in the realisation of the film. The award ceremony takes place during DOK.fest München.
Producers, directors and screenwriters are cordially invited to submit their current cinema documentary films!
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1. Conditions of participation
Films that meet the following criteria are eligible for submission to the all inclusive Documentary Film Award 2027:
- Film makers in whose film production one or more persons with disabilities are significantly involved may submit films. This applies to the tasks of production, direction, screenplay, camera, sound and editing.
- The subject of the film does not necessarily have to be about a life with a disability.
- The prize is awarded internationally.
- Cinema film productions with a minimum length of 52 minutes
- Completion after 1 January 2026
- The film may have already been released and shown in cinemas.
- If your film has already been shown in a previous DOK.fest München edition, a new submission is not possible.
- The prize is awarded across all film series.
- University films (including graduation films) are eligible.
- For the accessible film screening, an accessible version with audio description and subtitles for the hearing impaired should be available.
- Two public screenings in cinema (5 to 17 May) as well as online @home (10 to 23 May) at DOK.fest München 2027 are obligatory.
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2. Granting of rights, legal guarantees and exemptions
(1) By submitting the film, you guarantee that you are the sole owner of all rights to the work. This includes, in particular, the moral rights, copyrights, and neighboring rights of all persons appearing in the film and all those involved in the production of the film, as well as the rights of other third parties and the right to grant us the rights specified as follows: DOK.fest München is granted the screening rights to the film as well as the right to potentially make it publicly available (online streaming, individual tickets geo-restricted to Germany, limited time period, 48-hour window) for the duration of the festival. Furthermore, you agree that DOK.fest München may, at its sole discretion, publish warnings regarding the film, such as, in particular, following the festival trailer shown before your film. The right to distribute press materials is granted to DOK.fest München without restriction as to location, time, or content.
(2) Upon notification of the film’s selection, you grant these rights to DOK.fest München without the need for any further declaration. You indemnify DOK.fest München against any and all third-party claims in connection with the rights specified in Section 4 (1), including the reasonable costs of the necessary legal defense, such as, in particular, attorneys’ fees and court costs.
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3. Publicity / Promotion
If your film is selected we require press and photo material to be provided promptly. By accepting the regulations, you assure that you will make the material (online download link, photos, texts, trailers) available to the festival for press relations and promotional purposes in our print materials, on our website as well as on our social media channels in the context of DOK.fest München. Likewise, you agree that DOK.fest München may use film clips of up to three minutes as part of the festival coverage on the website. With your consent, you also grant DOK.fest München the right to pass on photos as well as trailers to selected partners for promotional purposes.
By presenting our respective festival edition on the website, you agree to the indefinite storage and use of the photographic material and trailer in our archive on the website.
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4. Screening format
The following exhibition formats are required:
- DCI compliant Digital Cinema Package DCP
- ProRes File 4.2.2 HQ (sound format 5.1) or a H.264 file
5. Steps for submitting a film
Films can be submitted via our website under the ‘My Account’ menu item.
- If you are submitting a film for the first time and do not yet have a user account with us, please register here by creating an account.
- If you already have an account, you can log in at our website at any time and submit a new film. In case you have forgotten your password, you can request a new one via our system.
- To submit via the online form, select the module ‘Your films’ under ‘Your account’ after logging in. You can then use the button ‘Submit a film’ (top right) to start your submission.
- Please select ‘all inclusive Documentary Film Award’ under ‘Registration for’ in the film submission form.
Please fill in the online form completely including an online screening link (a rough cut is sufficient for the screening process; the final cut must be submitted by mid-February). Please enter correct and, if possible, complete information about the submitted film, as we will work with the information when selecting the film for our programme. The information you provide will be included in our programme booklet as well as on our website.
Please also send the following documents by email to Kathi Seemann (seemann@dokfest-muenchen.de):
- Cover letter, informal (with telephone number and address of the submitter)
- Synopsis of the film (max. 1,500 characters)
- Short biographies of the leading filmmakers with disabilities (max. 700 characters per biography)
- Statement on the extent to which the disability of one or more filmmakers bring a new perspective or positive impact on the film production and the work in the team. (max. 2,000 characters)
- We are happy to receive information or proof of the degree of disability.
Please make sure that you send in all documents, as incomplete submissions cannot be considered. All documents and information will be treated in strict confidence.
6. Validity of the entry conditions
By completing the submission using the online form, you accept the validity of the conditions of participation. These conditions apply to all film submissions for the current festival edition, even if they have not been expressly agreed upon again. DOK.fest München does not recognize deviating terms and conditions even if they are known, unless DOK.fest München has expressly agreed to their validity in writing.
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7. Place of jurisdiction and the application of German law
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Munich is understood as the place of jurisdiction as far as it is permissible. The law of the Federal Republic of Germany applies to the exclusion of conflicting laws.
The submission is independent of the participation at the DOK.fest München.
Submission deadline is 22 January 2027.
Contact
If you have any questions regarding your application, please contact:
Kathi Seemann
Project management all inclusive Award
seemann@dokfest-muenchen.de
Phone: +49 89 51 39 97 88
DOK.fest München
Dachauer Straße 116
80636 Munich
Germany
Award donor
HELLO NEW BODY, HOW ARE YOU TODAY? wins the all inclusive Documentary Film Award 2026
The second all inclusive award goes to HELLO NEW BODY, HOW ARE YOU TODAY? by German director Laura Kansy and producer Daniel Morais dos Santos Bruss. Sincere congratulations!
The jury says: „This film is a document of the impossible. With rare courage and remarkable sensitivity, HELLO NEW BODY, HOW ARE YOU TODAY? manages to portray something that resists being portrayed: the protagonist’s inner world and her invisible chronic disease, ME/CFS. In doing so, the work consistently translates perception into a distinct filmic form making intelligent use not only of images but, above all, of a gentle and immersive sound design. There was no audio description available for the jury screening but, despite this, the film captivated the blind jury member from the very first second. This was achieved through the calm, beautifully-sounding voice of the protagonist as well as the outstanding sound design, which allowed us to get a real sense of the various locations and made the inner worlds so palpable. You could experience the pain and all the ups and downs of the illness along with the director and protagonist.
The film’s narrative sensitively shows that we know very little about what it is like to live with this condition. We wish to stress that this film must have been created in a situation in which nothing could have seemed more impossible and distant than producing a film. The director Laura Kansy more than succeeded in this. The film is also the result of a production process that was adapted to the conditions of the disability, moving beyond rigid time constraints. In this way, the film impressively demonstrates that fair and sustainable film productions that are tailored to the needs of the participants are not only necessary but can also open up new creative horizons.
HELLO NEW BODY, HOW ARE YOU TODAY? provides an important impetus for inclusive production methods in documentary film and makes an exceptional contribution to the visibility of invisible disabilities."
Jury: Barbara Fickert (Founder and Managing Director of Kinoblindgänger gGmbH & Blogger), Vika Gurina (Director, Film Educator, Video Artist & Project Manager of the Inclusion Working Group at Pro Quote Film), Leonard Grobien (Screenwriter & Director Aura Film Production)
Shortlist 2026
HELLO NEW BODY, HOW ARE YOU TODAY?
DE, 2025, Laura Kansy, 30 min.
MOVEMENT UNBOUND
DE, 2026, Miriam Jakobs and Gerhard Schick, 120 min.
OBJEKT
DE, CL, 2026, Loreto Plubins, 87 min.
OUT OF FRAME
FR, 2025, Bahman Yazdan Panah, 77 min.
A QUIET LOVE
IE, 2025, Garry Keane, 96 min.
ROTACISMO
EC, 2025, Ricardo Ruales Eguiguren, 85 min.
THE LAST GIRL
IR, 2025, Daryoush Gharibzadeh, 52 min.
THE TALLEST DWARF
USA, 2025, Julie Forrest Wyman, 92 min.
