DOK.digital – Award for New Narrative Formats
Sponsored by the Bavarian Regulatory Authority for New Media (BLM), endowed with 2,500 euros
What are contemporary forms for journalistic-factual or documentary content? How can the possibilities of new formats be used to inspire a demanding audience?
With the DOK.digital award, the DOK.forum is looking for answers to the question of how the further development of technical possibilities affects the narration of documentary or journalistic-factual content. The aim is to encourage the emergence of new innovative projects that combine various media formats and platforms with content in a meaningful way.
Journalists, filmmakers, games designers and producers from German-speaking countries are invited to submit their completed works.
The prize is endowed with 2,500 euros and will be awarded at the DOK.forum Perspectives.
What we are looking for
We are looking for outstanding projects that open up different perspectives through new narrative forms, actively involve the audience and bring stories to life. Projects that explore the possibilities of digital media and convey journalistic factual or documentary content beyond linear narrative.
Award Donor: Bayerische Landeszentrale für neue Medien
Award winners 2023: TRUTH DETECTIVES by Anja Reiss and Raphael Perret
In the Serious Game/Videogame TRUTH DETECTIVES players learn with the help of unfiltered video and image material from real war zones how the truth about war crimes and human rights violations can be uncovered – and how this knowledge can be applied to current conflicts.
Jury statement:
"The prototype for this contemporary and innovative serious game has a high social relevance, shows the potential when journalistic and interactive skills are combined and complemented with scientific expertise. It can sustainably promote the media competence of users by enabling them to learn journalistic research using real image sources, to uncover fake news or even to become online investigators beyond the game in order to uncover human rights violations."
Criteria for the submission for DOK.forum 2023
A project is eligible for selection for DOK.digital if the following requirements are met:
Submission by
- Collective or individuals
- Young talents with their first or second project
Production
- Within the German-speaking area (DE/AT/IT/CH)
- Production period from January 2022 to spring 2023
Content & formal approach
- Relevant content with a documentary and/or journalistic approach
- Digital format
- Consistent linking of content and form
- Potential for meaningful interaction with the audience
Further conditions
- Possibility of presentation within the hybrid DOK.forum 2023: Preselected projects will be presented to the public in the presence of the jury. The award ceremony will take place as part of the DOK.forum at the 38th DOK.fest München.
- Willingness to actively contribute to the DOK.digital alumni network upon nomination
How to apply, submission documents and submission deadline
The submission is done via our website.
If you do not yet have a user account with us, please register here. If you already have an account, you can log in there at any time.
To submit via the online form, select the module "DOK.digital" under "Your account" after logging in. You can then use the button "Neues DOK.digital Projekt" (top right) to create a new project and start your submission.
The following documents are required and can be submitted via the DOK.fest München homepage:
- Contact details of the submitter(s)
- Link to view the project
- Exposé / Project description
- Objective of the project
- CV of the submitter(s) / profile of the production company
- Catalogue of works
Both completed and published projects can be submitted. The prerequisite for DOK.digital registration is a meaningful application.
Submission is free of charge.
Submission Deadline: 1 February 2023
Contact
Jonathan Bugiel
forum@dokfest-muenchen.de
DOK.fest München, Dachauer Straße 116, 80636 Munich, Germany
Phone: +49 177 82 20 238
Review
Award winners 2022: SNEAKERJAGD by Benedikt Dietsch and Lorenz Jeric
SNEAKERJAGD is a data-driven investigative research that takes the audience on a global cross-media report. What happens to our old sneakers after we dispose of them? The old sneakers of eleven celebrities were to bring special attention to the sneaker hunt. They became narrative threads, data providers and faces of the story. For this, we hid GPS transmitters in the soles of the shoes, disposed of them and tracked them for more than five months and many thousands of kilometres across the world.
Jury statement:
"SNEAKERJAGD shows in an impressive way how journalism can implement a topic in an imaginative way and reach a broad community, bringing them closer to the very relevant topic of "fast fashion" in an entertaining way. In doing so, Lorenz Jeric and Benedikt Dietsch question green promises made by manufacturers through data and information that is accessible to everyone. Various channels are used for this: Print, film, podcast, newsletter and an interactive map on the web on which the signals from the GPS trackers in the shoes can be traced. The authors show that this is how journalism or digital storytelling can work and a current topic can be presented in an exciting way."
Jury 2022:
Sönke Kirchhof (CEO and Executive Producer of the VR Full Service Studios INVR.SPACE)
Suli Kurban (Director, Screenwriter & Vertical Storytelling Expert)
Matthias Leitner (Freelance Author, Digital Storyteller and Strategy Designer)
Sylvia Rothe (Professor of KI at Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film München)
Katharina Schulz (Referee at Bayerische Landeszentrale für neue Medien (BLM))
Award winners 2021: SAFESPACE by Whitney Bursch, Säli El Mohands, Rosa Fabry, Saphira Siegmund, Lea Wessels, Ariane Böhm, Elena Münker and Kim Neubauer
Jury statement:
"A young editorial team creates content around the topics of mental and physical health and well-being for an even younger and hard-to-reach audience. The platform of choice is TikTok, where this audience is at home. The SAFESPACE team communicates authentically and at eye level, and the community's feedback is taken up directly and translated into new content. SAFESPACE indeed offers a protected space on a platform where very young users in particular feel at home and look for like-minded people. A platform that, like many other social media channels, is not always entirely innocent of problematic body images and insecurity due to the many perfectly staged images/videos and negative comments."
Jury 2021:
Volker Bach (Head of MIZ Babelsberg and ALEX Berlin)
Prof. Dr. Lena Gieseke (Professor for Image-Oriented Media Technologies at the HFF Konrad Wolf)
Matthias Leitner (Freelance writer, digital storyteller and strategy designer)
Sabrina Scharpen (Lead Format Development HR New Media / ZDF)
Jutta Schirmacher (Media literacy and youth protection officer at BLM)
