“The world is a very puzzling place. If you're not willing to be puzzled, you just become a replica of someone else's mind.“ This is how the Linguist Noam Chomsky sums up the underlying structure of our world. Perhaps in doing so he also expresses the reason why we go out and make documentary film: to confront our own confusion and report on the puzzles of this world. There are few other sections of this year’s DOK.fest in which you can experience this attitude more intensely than in the film school competition, the Student Award. Whether the films encounter the puzzling nature of the world in an eastern corner of Russia or in your own family circle, on a wrestling mat in Frankfurt an der Oder or in the expanse of the internet – it is not only about the answers that the films offer us; what excites us is the precision with which the questions are posed. Jan Sebening

All films in the section are nominated for the Megaherz Student Award, which is worth 3,000 Euros. The jury consists exclusively of students from the participating film schools.