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Regulations 2010

DOK Leipzig is an annual festival for documentary and animated films. The City of Leipzig as the responsible authority has commissioned Leipziger DOK-Filmwochen GmbH, a non-profit-making limited liability company, to organise, prepare and manage the Festival.

Under the motto “The HeArt of Documentary”, the DOK Festival serves the promotion and increased circulation of international documentary and animated films and provides film-makers, producers, distributors, commissioning editors, journalists and media scientists with an opportunity to meet and exchange views with each other as well as with the Leipzig cinema audiences.

1. PROGRAMME SECTIONS AND COMPETITIONS

The DOK Festival programme consists of:

competitions
information and special programmes
retrospectives

The Festival management is in charge of developing the Festival programme and strategy, for selecting the films to be shown and for programming them.

DOK Leipzig has the following competitive sections:

International Competition for Documentary Film
International Short Documentary Competition
International Competition for Animated Film
International Young Documentary Talent Competition – Generation DOK
German Competition for Documentary Film

The 2010 competitions are open to:

documentary films and videos of any length
animated films and videos of up to 45 minutes’ length
animadok films and videos (hybrids between documentary and animated films) of any length

For the International Competition for Documentary Film, the International Short Documentary Competition, the International Young Talent Competition for Documentary Film – Generation DOK and the German Competition for Documentary Film only those films can be selected that have never been screened in Germany before (including the Prix Europa). World, international or European premieres will be favoured.

For Generation DOK – the International Young Talent Competition for Documentary Film – only films of such directors who have not made more than three documentary films prior to the one submitted shall qualify (excluding those during their training).

World, international, European or German premieres will be favoured for the International Competition for Animated Film.

Any screening on TV and/or theatrical release in Germany before the end of the festival will disqualify a documentary film from the official DOK Leipzig programme (competitions, International Programme). The party submitting a film shall inform the Festival about any such dates, should the film have been scheduled for screening on TV or in a cinema. If the screening is scheduled for a date prior to the end of the festival, or if any such date becomes known, the film will be immediately disqualified and excluded from the official programme. In such case, the Festival reserves the right to claim damages.

Documentary Films can only be selected for any one of the competitions (see section 4 “Selection of films” below).

The Festival accepts entries which can be screened as 16 or 35 mm film prints or as videos in the formats High Definition, Beta Digital PAL or Betacam SP PAL. Films selected for a competitive section will be screened in their original version; documentary films are translated simultaneously into German and English via headphones or are screened in a subtitled version in German or English. HD can only be screened in selected cinemas and programme sections.

2. JURIES AND AWARDS

The members of the juries will be appointed by the Festival Director. The International Jury for Documentary Film consists of five members, all other juries of three members each. The International Jury for the Young Talent Competition decides on the Golden Dove Short Metrage as well. The International Jury for Animated Films decides on the Prize for the best German animated film as well.

The decisions of the juries are ultimate. For a detailed list of all prizes please refer to our website www.dok-leipzig.de. The prizes, and hence the sums attached, will be awarded to the directors for the work they created or for the development of a new documentary film project, respectively.

3. FILM ENTRY TO THE DOK FESTIVAL

Documentary film productions submitted to the DOK Festival must not have been shown publicly prior to 1 October 2009.

Animated film productions submitted to the Festival must not have been shown publicly prior to 15 March 2009.

Films and videos, that have been completed prior to 1 May 2010, must be submitted by 31 May 2010. All other entries must be sent to the festival’s office by 10 July 2010 (date of the incoming mail). Later entries to the festival cannot be considered. It is requested to send the films as soon as possible.

The film entry assumes unrestricted acceptance of the Festival regulations. By entering their film, applicants agree to the selection of their entry to one of the competitive or other Festival programmes.

For submitting a film please fill in the official entry form on-line which can be found on www.dok-leipzig.de. After we have registered the entry form you will get a confirmation by e-mail and a pdf-version of the filled-in entry form. Following that, the items listed below must be submitted:

the official entry form (transmitted by us in pdf format, to be printed out and signed)
a brief synopsis (with a maximum of 200 words)
a CV (with date and place of birth, educational background and other details being stated) and a filmography of the director (with title, genre and year of production, festivals and broadcasters involved)
a complete dialogue list with time codes in German or English (can be submitted later)
stills and a photo of the director (digital, 300 DPI, JPG is preferred)
press material (credits, electronic press kit, press book, poster etc.)
2 DVDs (no blu ray or HD DVD) or VHS viewing cassettes; additionally, the film may also be submitted by digital data transmission.

When submitting a film for viewing per digital data transmission, please check the relevant box in the entry form. Any further technical information and the access data will then be transmitted automatically by e-mail.

Should an entry be made to the DOK Market, one DVD of the film’s final version in English will be requested (which can be submitted under separate cover). It is recommended to submit all documents in German and English.

No entry fees will be charged for submitting films to the festival. However, an administrative flat fee will become due for films entered for the DOK Market only (see section 6 “DOK Market” below). The festival organizer will not pay any shipping costs, customs duties or any other expenses incurred in connection with submitting the productions. Documents and DVDs submitted cannot be returned.

All required materials have to be sent to the following address:

DOK LEIPZIG

GROSSE FLEISCHERGASSE 11

D-04109 LEIPZIG

GERMANY

Shipments with video cassettes and DVDs from non-EU-countries must be marked as follows “NO COMMERCIAL VALUE, FOR CULTURAL PURPOSES ONLY”. Since the entries to the festival do not represent a commercial value as such (i.e. the goods are not intended for sale and no profit is made), keep the amount as low as possible when declaring the shipment value, so that any customs duties possibly charged are kept to a minimum.

4. SELECTION

The Festival Director will decide, jointly with the Selection Committee, about the selection of films for the Festival programme as well as their allocation to the individual competitions or to the International Programme. The final decision shall rest with the Festival Director.

All those submitting films or videos to the Festival will be informed by e-mail by 24 September 2010 at the latest, whether their entry has been included in the Festival programme. In this case, they must ensure that the screening prints or tapes will arrive in Leipzig by 9 October 2010 at the latest (clearly marked in the internationally accepted manner).

5. AUTHORISATION

No film selected may be withdrawn from the DOK Festival programme after its publication. The Festival shall be entitled to use footage from the film with a maximal length of three minutes for Festival promotion purposes and reports on TV and make such footage available to reporting broadcasters (radio, television and Internet) for non-commercial use. The festival shall also be entitled to show footage online on its website www.dok-leipzig.de. The total duration of these extracts must not exceed ten per cent of a film’s total length.

During the Festival, the film can be viewed by professional guests in the DOK Market, the digital video library of the Festival. DOK Leipzig is entitled to digitise the submitted production for this purpose. The Festival reserves the right to archive selected viewing cassettes and DVDs for internal purposes as well as for non-profit-making and non-public educational work. Any commercial exploitation by the Festival shall be excluded.

The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) will present the Healthy Workplaces Film Award with a prize money of € 8 000 at DOK Leipzig. Documentary films competing for the Healthy Workplaces Film Award will be nominated by the festival management from the films selected for the official programme of DOK Leipzig. The winner of the Healthy Workplaces Film Award shall grant EU-OSHA the right, free of charge, to

place a trailer or an excerpt of the winning film of up to five minutes and stills (pictures) on the EU-OSHA website, in press releases or in the EU-OSHA newsletter (http://osha.europa.eu).
show and present the trailer or the winning film in its entirety at non-public and non-commercial EU-OSHA organised events and workshops in Europe.
to produce 1,000 DVDs including subtitles in 22 European languages of the winning film and to grant EU-OSHA the non-exclusive, non-commercial and non-theatrical license right to distribute the DVD to their national network in each country and to official campaign partners. In return, the rights for the subtitles can be obtained by the filmmaker/rights holder of the winning film free of charge for further use. Among the 1,000 DVDs produced, 100 will be reserved for the filmmaker/rights holder for their own promotion needs. Further details shall be discussed between EU-OSHA and the award winner.

DOK Leipzig reserves the right to write its own texts for the festival catalogue, programmes and flyers.

By entering their film, applicants signify their willingness to abide by these regulations. Any issues not clarified by these regulations shall be adjudicated by the Festival management.

6. DOK MARKET

With its fully digitized DOK Market video library DOK Leipzig offers an outstanding opportunity for the distribution and promotion of all current documentary productions in the Festival programme as well as 100 additional selected documentary entries. The DOK Market targets at professional visitors to the Festival, i.e. distributors, commissioning editors, buyers, festival programmers, journalists etc. The documentary films selected for the DOK Market will be included in a separate DOK Market catalogue with all information necessary for distribution.

Should an entry be made to the DOK Market as well, one DVD of the film’s final version in English will be requested (but can be submitted under separate cover). It is recommended to submit all documents in German and English.

All documentary films screened at the competitions, in the International Programme and as part of selected special programmes will be digitised automatically and free of charge and entered into the DOK Market.

The parties submitting a film shall be responsible that all details which are relevant for distribution purposes are updated und that the DOK Market office is informed accordingly (markt@dok-leipzig.de). The approval to digitise the films is assumed to have been granted to the Festival management (see section 5 above). If a party submitting a film to the Festival does not wish to enter it into the DOK Market, the DOK Market office shall be explicitly informed in writing.

In addition to that, all animated films selected for the official programme will be made available to expert visitors in the DOK Market. However, these films will not be listed in the separate DOK Market catalogue.

The entry of other documentary and animadok films into the DOK Market shall depend upon the decision of DOK Leipzig. Should a film be selected for the DOK Market, a flat fee of € 90.00 plus VAT will be charged. Requests for having a film entered into the DOK Market should be indicated in the relevant field on the application form, by which the applicant also grants his permission to have the film digitised for the DOK Market videotheque.

7. INVITATION

The Festival will invite filmmakers, whose films have been selected for one of the competitive sections, for three to five nights to Leipzig and pay their accommodation for this period. The travel expenses for participants in the competition as well as accommodation expenses for filmmakers, whose films have been selected for one of the other programmes, can only be borne by the festival in exceptional cases, provided there are sufficient funds.

8. TRANSPORTATION OF SCREENING PRINTS OR TAPES

The shipping costs to the Festival to Leipzig shall be borne by the sender. A pro-forma invoice must be attached to shipments from abroad. Since the entries to the festival do not represent a commercial value as such (i.e. the goods are not intended for sale and no profit is made), keep the amount as low as possible when declaring the shipment value, so that any customs duties possibly charged are kept to a minimum. Shipments with tapes and prints will have to be endorsed as follows: „NO COMMERCIAL VALUE, FOR CULTURAL/FESTIVAL PURPOSES ONLY“.

The Festival organiser takes care of the return costs for exportation and shipping, excluding fees for re-imports storage etc. The sender will have to bear the insurance costs for the shipping to Leipzig as well as from the delivery to the first forwarder during the return shipment. Tapes and prints will be returned through the festival’s courier service.

All copies will be insured by the Festival for the replacement costs of the screening print or tape of the same type and quality from the moment they are received by the organisers until they are handed over to the first forwarding agent for the return shipment. The insurance coverage will be limited to the costs for making a new film copy or displacing the damaged reel, or in case of videos, for copying a new screening tape. The assessed costs have to be proven by supporting documents and must not exceed current laboratory prices in Germany. The liability of the Festival shall exclude any potential expenses for (intermediate) negatives or positives, master videotapes or other postproduction costs. In case of a faulty screening the Festival cannot be held responsible for any immaterial damage. Compensation claims shall be filed in writing within 6 weeks after the Festival. Later claims cannot be taken into consideration.

Leipzig, 31 March 2010

> Download Regulations 2010 (PDF)

Regulations 2010

Cinematic Passion – What Kind of Films is DOK Leipzig Looking for?

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