Kino Dokumentarfilm

Editorial tone

Radically author-driven. The director IS the film — signature, stance, worldview determine everything. No editorial mandates, no broadcast grid, no audience compromise. Formally free: essayistic, observational, hybrid, experimental, poetic. The cinema documentary demands narrative radicality and visual courage. It may disturb, challenge, have longueurs — if intended. The screen is the goal, not the monitor.

What this format covers

• ●Thematically no restrictions — anything from the intimate to the geopolitical
• ●Strong authorial position and personal urgency to the subject
• ●Formal innovation: new documentary storytelling modes, dissolving genre boundaries
• ●Universal resonance — even local stories need global legibility
• ●Long-term observations, immersive access, essayistic forms
• ●Social, existential, or political relevance

What this format does NOT want

• ●TV documentaries with voice-over and explanatory stance
• ●Commissioned work without personal directorial vision
• ●Talking-head formats or journalistic magazine aesthetics
• ●Formats that primarily inform rather than narrate
• ●Films without autonomous visual language
• ●Productions without festival or cinema ambition
• ●Pure knowledge formats or educational television

Visual expectations

Cinema quality is non-negotiable. The film must work on the big screen — image composition, light, sound, editing at feature-film level. Autonomous visual signature: What makes THIS film unmistakable? Reference point: festival documentaries (Berlinale, IDFA, Sundance, Cannes, Hot Docs). No TV aesthetics. Sound design and music as dramatic devices. 5.1 cinema mix recommended. Shoot on cinema-capable format (min. 4K).

Expected exposé structure

1. Title (autonomous, cinema-ready)
2. Logline (2–3 sentences: core and urgency of the film)
3. Synopsis (1 page: What does the film tell?)
4. Exposé / Treatment (detailed: dramaturgy, scenes, arcs, access)
5. Director's statement (personal motivation, stance on subject)
6. Visual signature (camera, light, sound, montage — what makes the film unique?)
7. On-camera protagonists and access (if protagonist-driven)
8. Production plan (shoot phases, timeframe, locations)
9. Financing (funding strategy: BKM, FFA, DFFF, regional funds, Eurimages, Creative Europe MEDIA)
10. Distribution and festival strategy (target festivals, cinema release, VOD rollout)
11. Production company and director (filmography, previous festival success)

Example productions

• 20.000 Arten von Bienen (Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren)
• Everything Will Change (Marten Persiel)
• Walchensee Forever (Janna Ji Wonders)
• Taste of Cement (Ziad Kalthoum)
• Aquarela (Victor Kossakovsky)
• Herr Bachmann und seine Klasse (Maria Speth)
• Elsewhere (Nikolaus Geyrhalter)
• Wer wir waren (Marc Bauder)