"L'oubli tue deux fois" (Twice into Oblivion, France, Haiti, Dominican Republic 2023) by Pierre Jean Michel won the prize of the Interreligious Jury in Leipzig 2024. The film commemorates the murder of the Haitian population of the Dominican Republic in 1937, an almost forgotten genocide. The film also received the Silver Dove in the International Competition for Long Documentaries. The Golden Dove in the same competition went to "Le Cinquième plan de La Jetée" (La Jetée, the Fifth Shot, France 2024) by Dominique Cabrera, to whom a tribute was also dedicated. The Golden Dove for a long animated film was awarded to "Kék Pelikan" (Pelikan Blue, Hungary 2024) by László Száki, while the International Film Critics' Award went to "Valentina e i MUOStri" (Valentina and the MUOSters, Italy 2024) by Francesca Scalisi.
"Tracing Light" by Thomas Riedelsheimer opened the 67th International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film on 28 October. The film about artistic and physical perspectives on the phenomenon of light was part of the German Documentary Film Competition. Other competition sections are the International Documentary Film Competition, the International Animated Film Competition and the Audience Competition. The films in the Camera Lucida section (with entries of particular artistic quality) and the regionally defined Panorama: Central and Eastern Europe section are screened outside of the competition.
The Retrospective was entitled "Third Ways in a Divided World" and presented films that shed light on alternatives to the bloc confrontation during the Cold War. Tributes were paid next to French director Dominique Cabrera also to Spanish animation filmmaker Isabel Herguera, and a special series was dedicated to the recently deceased Thomas Heise.
The Interreligious Jury appointed by INTERFILM and SIGNIS awards a film from the International Documentary Competition. It has existed since 2016 and emerged from the Ecumenical Jury, which has accompanied the festival since 1990. Its prize is endowed with €2,000, donated by the VCH Hotel Michaelis in Leipzig as well as the Interreligious Round Table and the Oratorium Leipzig.