Anhell69

Source: Venice Film Festival

‘Anhell69’

German director Theo Montoya’s documentary Anhell69 has won the €10,000 Golden Dove prize of the international competition of the DOK Leipzig documentary and animation film festival in Germany. 

Austria’s Square Eyes is handling international sales on the film. 

The festival took place from October 17-23 in Germany.  

Inspired by the director’s own past, Anhell69 explores the young queer generation of Colombia and the violence of the city they reside in. It is a co-production between Colombia, Romania, France and Germany.

The film had its world premiere in Venice’s Critics’ Week where it received a special jury mention as well as the Verona Film Club award. 

The Silver Dove went to Faustine Cro’s Life Like Any Other which follows a woman grappling with motherhood. The France-Belgium co-production is awarded a €6,000 prize.

The jury for the international competition comprised Philippa Kowarsky, Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese, Shireen Seno, Ula Stöckl and Andrei Tanasescu.

Audience awards

Maksym Melnyk’s Three Women, about rural life in a Ukrainian village, won the gold audience award while Olesya Shchukina’s Lada, Ivan’s Sister, about a transgender man’s transitioning process, picked up silver.

Sonje Storm’s Dead Birds Flying won the €3,000 Golden Dove prize of the German competition. The film sees the director explore the life of her great-grandfather, a farmer and enthusiastic naturalistic, who documented the extinction of species in the early 20th Century.

Industry awards

The festival’s industry platform DOK industry presented six prizes for new documentary projects participating in the DOK Co-Pro Market and the DOK Preview Germany. 

The Saxon award for best documentary by a female director went to Svitlana Lishchynska for A Bit Of A Stranger. The project, produced by Anna Kapustina, was presented as part of a Ukrainian presentation at Nordisk Panorama festival in Sweden last month and will participate in the CPH:DOX, EAVE and IMS’ co-production workshop Change.

Jasmila Žbanic’s Blum received the Current TV Time award, while the EWA diverse voices award was presented to India’s In The Light Of Darkness.

The Unifrance Doc award went to Sarah Timar’s Under The Dancefloor.

In DOK Preview Germany, Rudolph Herzog’s 300 Trillion took home the work-in-progress prize. 

Out of the 24 prizes, 11 of the films will be available to stream October 24-30 with Anhell69 receiving a cinema release in Germany in early 2023.