Eyes Wide Open in Munich
As DOK.fest München begins, its 2026 edition gathers films and industry debates around witness, technology, labour and the unstable conditions of nonfiction today.
DOK.fest München opens today with its 41st edition, bringing 106 documentaries from 49 countries to cinemas across Munich and online audiences across Germany. Running under the motto «Eyes Wide Open,» the 2026 festival arrives at a moment when documentary culture feels both urgent and unsettled, caught between political witness, technological anxiety and the changing economics of nonfiction cinema.
This year’s programme includes 22 world premieres, 9 international premieres and 51 German premieres, with thematic sections spanning ecological crisis, labour, migration, feminist histories, African perspectives, political resistance and the future of work. Opening with Regina Schilling’s Ingeborg Bachmann – Jemand, der einmal ich war, starring Sandra Hüller, the festival also expands its audience architecture through Signature Films and FocusTalks. Alongside the screenings, DOK.forum will examine AI, digital platforms, financing and the shifting conditions of documentary production today.
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News
DOK.fest München 2026 unveils full programme for 41st edition
DOK.fest München 2026 opens with Ingeborg Bachmann hybrid portrait
Films
80 Angry Journalists
Director: András Földes, Anna Kis
As political and institutional pressure tightens around Hungary’s largest independent news outlet, the newsroom is pushed, exhausted, into a collective rupture.
A Song Without a Home
Director: Rati Tsiteladze
A trans woman’s life between Georgia and Vienna anchors this striking documentary about repression, survival, and the limits of liberation.
Amílcar
Director: Miguel Eek
Built from original letters, poems, and political writings, Amílcar offers a subjective, meditative portrait of Amílcar Cabral and the fight for Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde’s independence.
Death of Death
Director: Dāvis Sīmanis
A witty and unsettling journey through cryonics, anti-ageing science, and transhumanist fantasy, Death of Death explores the growing pursuit of immortality while exposing the inequality and power that may shape who gets to outlive death.
MARIINKA
Director: Pieter-Jan De Pue
A rare glimpse across the lines of Russia’s war in Ukraine, where brother has been set against brother, and families brutalised by conflict.
Melt
Director: Nikolaus Geyrhalter
Geyrhalter’s latest film observes global snowscapes and people amid tourism and research, documenting the vanishing ice, extreme weather, and urgent climate policy questions.
Nova ‘78
Director: Rodrigo Areias, Aaron Brookner
An electrified archive of 1978’s Nova Convention with Burroughs, Ginsberg, Cage, Smith colliding in a space where theory met punk poetry on 16mm.
Outliving Shakespeare
Director: Inna Sahakyan, Ruben Ghazaryan
In a remote Armenian retirement home, the clocks are no longer standing still.
Something Familiar
Director: Rachel Taparjan
A search for a birth family becomes a nuanced meditation on trauma, shared fates, loss, and self-authorship.
The Kartli Kingdom
Director: Tamar Kalandadze, Julien Pebrel
Three generations endure postwar exile in a fractured building above Tbilisi.
Whispers in May
Director: Dongnan Chen
Set in China’s Liangshan Mountains, the hybrid documentary gently draws us into the world of a 14-year-old girl and her two best friends.