Award winners DOK.forum 2025

Here we present the winning film projects of the DOK.forum industry platform 2025. Our warmest congratulations to the winners!

DOK.archive Award

FEBRE TROPICAL / TROPICAL FEVER

by Andy Malafaia and Carolina Höfs

A mysterious cross stands in a remote Amazon cemetery, a remnant of an unknown German expedition from the eve of World War II. For months, these men mapped the area, contacted isolated indigenous villages, hunted rare animals, and plundered valuable resources. During the sweltering nights in the jungle, they devised a bold plan: to establish a Nazi territory in the region.

From the jury's statement: (...) [The film] shows how authoritarian forces create a rippling effect across the globe – even where you least expect. In doing so, the project takes a contemporary approach, questioning our concept of archive by making the memories kept in indigenous communities through oral traditions central to the narrative. The collaboration with the indigenous people that witnessed this historical encounter [with the Nazis] ensures that their perspective is given appropriate weight in the storytelling. (...)

The jury: Elizabeth Bowley (Business Development Manager, British Pathé), Mathias Reitz-Zausinger (Proucer, neue reitz) und Anaïs Roth (Head of the editorial department for history and documentaries, MDR).

The DOK.archive Award is donated by British Pathé, endowed with British Pathé archive material worth 22,500 euros (or alternatively 2,500 euros in cash). Nominated were documentary film projects in development that use archive material.

DOK.composition Award

THE ANGEL MAKER

by Marina Klauser, Composer: Mirjam Skal

A brilliant inventor of a world-changing energy machine is revealed to be a sadistic guru – THE ANGEL MAKER uncovers unthinkable crimes and manipulative tactics of criminal cult founder Paul Baumann and his international religious community Methernitha, which still exists today. A bizarre, chilling and mysterious true-crime mini-series told in four episodes.

From the jury's statement: The composer succeeds convincingly in making the audience feel the tremendousness of the events and the subject matter that the film depicts. (…) With great aplomb Mirjam Skal avoids any kitsch or compositional complacency. (…)

The jury: Atena Eshtiaghi (Composer), Sebastian Höglinger (Curator, Publicist), Markus Lehmann-Horn (Composer), Ann-Kathrin Mittelstraß (Music journalist, BR), Benedikt Schulte (Director, Producer) and Anaïs Roth (Head of the Editorial Department for History and Documentaries, MDR).

The DOK.composition Award is donated by Sonoton Music and funded by Förderungs- und Hilfsfonds des Deutschen Komponist:innenverbands, endowed with 2,500 euros. Nominated were composition projects in development.

DOK.digital – Award for New Narrative Formats

TRACES OF RESPONSIBILITY

by 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.

BLOCKED UNDER GROUND, a multi-perspective audio drama by Regine Elbers, received a special mention.

The jury: 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) and Aida Suljičić (Consultant, aisu culture).

The DOK.digtal Award is donated by Bayerische Landeszentrale für Neue Medien and endowed with 2.500 euros. Nominated were projects that innovatively combine different media formats and platforms with the content and explore contemporary forms for journalistic-factual or documentary storytelling.

DOK.talent Award 

FAMILY, LOL

by Patrick Wira

As an almost 30-year-old man, I move back to my home near Cologne to care for my grandmother. I want to know from my family why they kept quiet about our psychiatric histories. Between serious pain and absurd situation comedy, I investigate what this multi-generational household has actually made me into.

The jury's statement: A filmmaker with the most exclusive approach to his subject imaginable. His own family. With a gripping pitch, he convinced us of the urgency of portraying precisely this family. And this will not be a gentle family portrait. It's about trauma, migration, religious flight from the world and the search for healing. We are convinced that the sensitive, black humour with which he presented his project will also be found in the finished film. We congratulate Patrick Wira on FAMILY, LOL.

The jury: Rebecca Fuxen (Producer, Horse&Fruits), Christine Haupt (FFF Bayern), Peter Jaeger (Consultant, JAEGER CREATIVE), Frauke Knappke (MAGNETFILM), Jutta Krug (WDR), Natalie Lambsodrff (BR), Sharon Nuni (ORF), Alex Tondowski (Producer and Consultant, Tondowski Films), Marcus Vetter (SWR), Sven Wälti (SRG SSR), Ralph Wieser (Producer, Mischief Films) and Jakob Zimmermann (ZDF).

The DOK.talent Award is donated by SÜDKINO Filmproduktion and endowed with 2,500 euros. Nominated were projects from students at our partner universities.

Mentoring & Festival Awards

  • DAE Talent Award
    YOUNG MEN by Bahar Bektaş
    Between dreams and trauma, between failure and self-discovery, between lost fathers and new role models: What does it mean to be a young man today?

  • Impronta Films Award
    2050: A CYBER ODYSSEY by Anna-Sophia Richard
    In the sci-fi documentary the filmmakers embark on a journey to the digital metaverse and venture a look into the future of human connections.

  • Baltic Sea Docs Award
    THE WARS WE PLAY by Anton Yaremchuk and João Pedro Prado
    As Brazilian footballers join a Ukrainian team, some of the local players face conscription – and football becomes a mirror of a nation torn apart.

  • FIPADOC Award
    DVIGUBAS AUTOPORTRETAS / DOUBLE SELF PORTRAIT by Aistė Stonytė
    Thirty years after the unsolved murder of Lithuanian photographer Virgilijus Sonta, we explore his enigmatic life encoded in his photographs.

  • Docs Barcelona Award
    WALKING ALONE, TEXT YOU WHEN I’M HOME by Vincent Abert
    An immersive 360-degree documentary that explores the hidden impact of everyday sexual harassment through personal stories and abstract visuals.