DOK.digital – Award for New Narrative Formats
Sponsored by the Bayerische Landeszentrale für neue Medien (BLM), endowed with 2,500 euros
How will facts and stories be told in an interconnected world in the future?
The DOK.digital award explores how advancements in technology have shaped and continue to shape the landscape of non-fiction storytelling. The aim is to encourage the emergence of innovative projects that combine different media formats and platforms with content in a meaningful way.
Award Donor: Bayerische Landeszentrale für neue Medien
As one of 14 state media authorities in Germany, the Bayerische Landeszentrale für neue Medien (Bavarian Regulatory Authority for New Media) – BLM for short – is responsible for the supervision, organisation and approval of private radio and TV programmes in Bavaria. It also supervises internet services based in Bavaria, so-called telemedia. The BLM is also responsible for media platforms, user interfaces and media intermediaries such as Prime Video, Twitch, Twitter and Yahoo. In a democracy, access to different sources of information and opinions is an essential prerequisite for the free formation of opinion. Media such as radio and TV stations or internet offerings make a decisive contribution to the opinion-forming process. It is the task of the non-governmental state media authorities to ensure a diverse range of media and thus a diversity of opinions.
Award winning project 2025
TRACES OF RESPONSIBILITY
Award winners:
Anja Reiß and Jann Anderegg
TRACES OF RESPONSIBILITY is an interactive cinematic documentary with a single and a multiplayer version where the audience decisions shape the narrative. The viewers delve in a multi-perspective exploration of the complex origins and aftermath of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda and follow the traces of a convicted war criminal with ties to Switzerland.
From the jury's statement:
"(...) This interactive storytelling format is only possible thanks to an extraordinary amount of work: over 150 sequences, more than seven hours of film – with no compromises in editorial or technical quality. The project proves that complex documentary content can be told interactively – not just individually, but even in a collective setting such as a theatre."
Jury 2025
Irem Couchouron, Head of Programming, SILBERSALZ Science & Media Festival
Wolfgang Kerler, Co-founder and Cchief Editor, 1E9
Dr. Fabrizio Palmas, CEO, Fabrizio Palmas Consulting
Katharina Schulz, Funding Consultant, Bayerische Landeszentrale für neue Medien
Aida Suljičić, Consultant, aisu culture
Review
Award winning project 2024: THE TRUE FILM
Award winner:
Christina Zimmermann
In the interactive VR experience THE TRUE FILM by Christina Zimmermann the avatars of Friedel and Lili Kracauer's restless souls explore the estate of the founder of film sociology.
Jury statement:
"(...) Christina Zimmermann's project THE TRUE FILM succeeds in making history and biographies tangible in VR. It poses the question of how a person's biography can be interpreted and understood on the basis of archives. (...) The award is intended to encourage further development of the storytelling of this prototype in order to convey the emotional aspects of the story as well as the media-theoretical aspects."
SALZSAMMLER by Nic Schilling received a special mention.
The jury says: "We would also like to honour the project SALZSAMMLER with a special mention. We were very impressed by the user experience design. It encourages children to discover the museum in a playful way – an important approach that contemporary knowledge transfer requires!"
Award winning project 2023: TRUTH DETECTIVES
Award winners:
Anja Reiss and Raphael Perret
In the Serious Game/Videogame TRUTH DETECTIVES by Anja Reiss and Raphael Perret 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."
Award winning project 2022: SNEAKERJAGD
Award winners:
Benedikt Dietsch and Lorenz Jeric
SNEAKERJAGD by Benedikt Dietsch and Lorenz Jeric 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 winning project 2021: SAFESPACE
Award winners:
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)
