Regulations for the DOK.education 2027 Film Literacy Programme
DOK.education, the film literacy programme of the International Documentary Film Festival Munich, is seeking short films by professional filmmakers for the school programmes Schule des Sehens and Schule des Hörens. It will take place as part of the 42nd DOK.fest München (5–17 May 2027 in cinemas and 1 May–31 July 2027 online).
Please note: The following guidelines apply to submissions from professional filmmakers. There is a separate competition for teachers and pupils. The submission criteria for the 2027 Documentary Film Competition for Young People can be found here.
1. Submission for the School Programme of DOK.education
DOK.education introduces children, teenagers and young adults to the powerful experience of documentary storytelling through compelling and moving films.
At the heart of DOK.education is the school programme Schule des Sehens, and – new as of 2026 – the Schule des Hörens, which highlights film music.
The focus is on experiencing a short documentary film and meeting the filmmakers. We curate three age-appropriate short films for this purpose. In school workshops for three age groups, we show and discuss a documentary film that tells an exciting story on the same level as the pupils. Guided by trained film educators and with participatory viewing tasks, we initiate discussions on the film's theme and the documentary film genre. We introduce the young audience to the stylistic devices and conscious directorial decisions of a cinematically staged, real story. We convey that documentaries, through the choice of protagonists, camera work and editing, artistically shape reality rather than depicting it one-to-one. The DOK.education team creates accompanying teaching materials for each film to enable participating teachers to follow up on the cinema visit in a sustainable manner. The aim of the school programme is to inspire the younger generation with enthusiasm for artistic documentary film and at the same time enable them to interpret film critically and competently.
Further information about the programme and the mission of DOK.education can be found on the DOK.education website.
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2. Submission criteria for the School Programme
We are currently looking for short documentary films that address topics important to young people on an eye-to-eye level with the target audience:
We are looking for professional films about children, teenagers or young adults that
...are told from the perspective of a young protagonist.
...show the special circumstances of young people's lives.
...accompany them through major changes in their lives.
...tell of challenges they have taken on.
These films should
...convey remarkable visual imagery or bear an artistic signature,
...find an exciting narrative form for their theme,
...tell an exciting story in an artistic documentary style,
...be suitable for primary school/lower secondary school (6–12 years), middle school (12–16 years) or upper secondary school/vocational schools (16–22 years).
Formal criteria:
- Length between 15 and 35 minutes.
- English or German subtitles are desirable for non-German-language films, but not mandatory.
- No premiere requirement: films may have already been broadcast or shown on other platforms.
- If selected, your film will be shown as part of the educational programme of the 42nd DOK.fest München:
in cinemas from 5 to 17 May 2027,
on the password-protected online portal for teachers from 1 May to 31 July 2027
and at adult education events throughout the year. - Ideally, the director will have time during the festival to attend two or three days of school screenings of their own film. Remunertation is provided for this – see point 8.
- The film must be submitted by 13 December 2026 (for further information, see point 7). The date of completion of the online registration applies. We welcome early submissions!
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3. No submission fees
Submissions of short films for DOK.education are generally exempt from the submission fee. We kindly ask you to ignore any machine generated payment requests due to incorrect inputs during registration.
4. 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.
Beyond the festival period, the film can be requested for follow-up events as part of the DOK.education programme and for collaborative events at partner festivals. For all public events and events where admission fees are charged, we will clarify the use of the short films with the rights holders again. DOK.education also offers free, non-profit teacher training courses on the Schule des Sehens and Schule des Hörens throughout the year. By agreeing to the festival screening, you consent to us showing your short film at these non-public educational events. DOK.education never passes on films to schools or other platforms without prior agreement and never puts them online without prior agreement.
The specially created accompanying school materials and any German dubbing of the film can be made available to the production company or distributor on request.
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5. Publicity / Promotion
If your film is selected for the programme, we will require press and photo material immediately after acceptance. By accepting the regulations, you agree to provide the festival with the material (online download link, photos, texts, trailer) for press relations and advertising purposes in our print materials, on our website and on our social media channels as part of DOK.fest München. Similarly, you agree that DOK.fest München may use film excerpts of up to three minutes on its website as part of its festival coverage. By accepting, you grant DOK.fest München the right to pass on photos and trailers to selected partners for promotional purposes. You agree to the retention period of the photo material in our archive for the purpose of presenting our respective festival edition on the website.
If there are commercially available DVDs or VoD links to the submitted film, DOK.education will be happy to provide these to teachers and schools.
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6. Screening formats
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
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7. Steps to film submission
Film submissions are made via our website under „My Account”.
- 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.
For the free submission for DOK.education, please select the section "DOK.education school programme" under "Registration for".
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. 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.
Upon receipt of your film submission, you will receive a confirmation email to the email address you provided during online registration. If you receive a mechanically generated payment request for the submission fee, please ignore it.
Submissions that are incomplete or do not meet the above criteria will be considered rejected and will not be taken into account.
For the time being, please do not send us any digital photos, trailers or transcripts. If your film is selected, we will request this material from you. We ask for your understanding that print material sent in unfortunately cannot be returned.
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8. Remuneration
DOK.education invites directors of festival films from the school programme to the screenings in Munich and reimburses travel and hotel costs. DOK.education rewards participation in the school class workshops with an appropriate expense allowance. There are no claims to reimbursement of costs, screening fees or any other form of remuneration.
9. Validity of the entry conditions
By completing the registration using the online form, you accept the validity of the conditions of participation. These entry conditions apply to all current film submissions, 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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10. Place of jurisdiction and the application of German law
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.
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Contact
If you have any questions about the regulations and the submission, please contact:
Veronica Loebner
[email protected]
DOK.fest München
Dachauer Straße 116
80636 Munich
Germany
Phone: +49 (0)89 – 51 39 97 88
