The Interreligious Jury at DOK Leipzig has awarded its prize to the Franco - Belgian film «A Life Like Any Other" (Une vie comme une autre) by Faustine Cros. The prize is endowed with € 1,750, jointly donated by the Interreligious Round Table Leipzig, the Oratory Leipzig and the VCH-Hotels Deutschland GmbH - im Verband Christlicher Hoteliers e. V. including the Hotel MICHAELIS in Leipzig. The film received also the Silver Dove. The Golden Dove for Best Documentary Film went to «Anhell69» by Theo Montoya. The Golden Dove for Short Documentary Films went to «Will You Look At Me» by Shuli Huang. The Leipziger Ring Film Prize was awarded to «König hört auf» by Tilman König. The FIPRESCI Prize of the International Film Critics was awarded to «One Mother» by Michaël Bandela. The Prize of the Public was awarded to «Drei Frauen» (Three Women) by Maksym Melnik.
The prizes reflect the trends observed in the films selected this year. Many of them were autobiographical documentaries relating the story of a family or the relations between children and parents. «A Life Like Any Other», «One Mother», «Will You Look At Me» and «König hört auf» fall into that category. By using old family films and photos but also real time interviews, they offer to the spectator a subtle and moving image of family lives.
The 65th International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film opened on October 17th, by the animated film «No Dogs or Italians Allowed» by Alain Ughetto, who won the Jury Prize in Annecy in 2022. From October 17th to October 23rd, DOK Leipzig presented 255 films from 55 countries, in several sections: International Competition Long Documentary and Animated Films, International Competition Short Documentary and Animated Films, Camera Lucida, German Competition, «Audience award» selection, Panorama and a retrospective on documentary films in the GDR.
An Ecumenical Jury has been present in DOK Leipzig since 1990. It was transformed in 2016 to an Interreligious Jury. This year, 13 films were competing for its prize. After the festival, up to October 30th, a selection of more than 100 festival films will be presented as Video on Demand for accredited guests.
Awards
«A Life Like Any Other» is a soulful and subtile movie about feminism where intimacy never disturbs the message, where the eye and the heart of the daughter never dominates the vision of the director. The movie deconstructs with virtuosity the seeming idyll of a family, how it is presented to us in old family video footage through old family films and photos and recent interviews.The director makes visible the often overseen and disturbing reality of traditional motherhood.
