Claas Danielsen, head of studies at the Munich-based Discovery Campus training initiative for the international co-production of high quality documentaries, has been named as successor to Fred Gehler as the artistic director of the Leipzig Film Festival for Documentary and Animation.

The month-long search for a successor to Gehler, who retired at the end of last year, had had its share of controversy. During the festival in October it turned out that Jean Perret, director of the documentary festival in Nyon, was the only remaining candidate for the post. However, he manoeuvred himself out of the race when he announced that he would not be moving to Leipzig and intended to continue running Nyon as well. Moreover, there were rumours that he wanted to abolish the animation section of the festival.

The 47th Leipzig Film Festival for Documentary and Animation will be held this year from 19-24 October.