The festival opens in the Leipzig Gewandhaus with Aleksandr Medvedkin's classic from 1935, "Das Glück". This is the last year at the venerable Leipzig cinema Capitol, which has been the showplace for the festival for 43 years.
The annual competition for animated films becomes an integral part of the festival. The retrospective this year is dedicated to Jürgen Böttcher, who is honoured for his lifetime work with a Golden Dove.
In this and the following year the jury awards no Golden Doves for short documentary films and videos: "The international jury is disturbed by the sparseness of the offer for creative short documentary films. We plead urgently for improved support for the financing and distribution of this genre in cinemas and on television. We regret that we have seen no occasion to award the Golden Dove for the short documentary film this year."
The DEFA Foundation presents the first edition of its annual publication "apropos:Film"; Editors from the daily newspaper junge Welt read texts on the subject "Films that should have been made".
Audience figures consolidate at 15,000.
Golden Doves
LAO TOU (DIE ALTEN, China, Tian Yi Yang)
IN ABSENTIA (GB, Brothers Quay, Animation)
Silver Doves
MIN MANNA HADE FJORTON BARN (MEINE MUTTER HATTE VIERZEHN KINDER, Sweden, Lars-Lennart Forsberg)
POLUSTANOK (HALTEPUNKT, Russia, Sergej Loznica)
THE BOY WHO SAW THE ICEBERG (Animated Film, Canada, Paul Driessen)
MDR-Film-Prize
NEIZVESTNYJ PUTIN (DER UNBEKANNTE PUTIN, Russia, Sergej Miroschnitchenko)
Prize of Sparkasse Leipzig for an Animated Film
TUNING THE INSTRUMENTS (Poland, Jerzy Kucia)