Docville
The International Documentary Film Festival Docville is an annual documentary film festival set in Leuven, Belgium.
Docville was founded in 2005 as a thematical series within the arthouse movie theatre Cinema ZED. In the next edition the festival added competitive sections and became independent of the movie theatre. Docville takes place each year in different locations within the city of Leuven. It is the only annual, competitive documentary-only film festival in Belgium.
In June 2018 the festival announced it is one of 28 film festivals in the world whose jury award-winning film will be placed on the longlist of the documentary feature category for the Academy Awards
The 16th edition was postponed due to the COVID-19 crisis to September 25 - October 3, 2020.
The 17th edition is postponed due to the COVID-19 crisis to June 9-19th 2021.
The 20th edition is planned between March 20-28th 2024. In 2023 a new section was added to the festival, dedicated to science related documentaries and activities: ScienceVille. The Nationale Loterij Prijs for best science documentary was added as a new award, therefor the old ConScience Award has been renamed to TOPICS.
Programming
The festival has three main competitions: Jury award for best Belgian documentary, Jury award for best international documentary and Jury award for best documentary within the ConScience competition. Next to these recurring section, the festival has each year a selection of non-competitive programming, which vary each year.The festival focuses on auteur driven documentaries: documentaries that reflect the director's personal creative vision with regards to cinematography, content, structure, productional context,...
Awards
1st edition DocvilleNo awards
2nd edition Docville
- Best Belgian documentary: Rwanda, Les Collines Parlent
- Best international documentary: Last Supper
- Best Belgian documentary: Het Rijksadministratief Centrum
- Best international documentary: The Monastery: Mr. Vig and the Nun
- Best Belgian documentary: Le Flic, La Juge et L'assassin
- Best international documentary: Stranded
- Best Belgian documentary: Zondag Gaat Het Gebeuren
- Best international documentary: Dear Zachary
- Best Belgian documentary: Vlasman
- Best international documentary: How Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr Foster?
- Best Belgian documentary: L'Ile Déserte
- Best international documentary: Marwencol
- ConScience award: Rainmakers
- Best Belgian documentary: Empire of Dust
- Best international documentary: Il Castello
- ConScience award: The Ambassador
- Best Belgian documentary: Behind the Redwood Curtain
- Best international documentary: The Expedition to the End of the World
- ConScience award: A River Changes Course
- Best Belgian documentary: What about Eric
- Best international documentary: Happiness
- ConScience award: Virunga
- Best Belgian documentary: Twilight of a life
- Best international documentary:Garnet's Gold
- ConScience Award: Democrats
- Best Flemish TV documentary: De Werkende Mens
- Knack Audience Award:The Man Who Saved The World
- Best Belgian documentary: Reach for the Sky
- Best international documentary: Life, Animated
- ConScience Award: This Changes Everything
- Best Flemish TV documentary: Spul
- Knack Audience Award:Life, Animated
- Best Belgian documentary: Burning Out
- Best International documentary: School Life
- ConScience award: City of Ghosts
- Best Flemish TV-documentary: Steenweg
- Knack Audience Award: Magnus
- Best Belgian documentary: Zie Mij Doen
- Best International documentary: Piripkura
- ConScience Award: The Deminer
- Audience Award: Doof Kind
- Best Belgian documentary: Sakawa
- Best International documentary: Heartbound
- ConScience Award: One Child Nation
- Audience Award: Free Solo
- Best Belgian documentary: Victoria
- Best International documentary: The Painter and the Thief
- ConScience Award: Collective
- Audience Award: The Cave
- Best Belgian documentary: Holgut
- Best International documentary: Some Kind of Heaven
- ConScience Award: President
- Audience Award: The Jump
- Best Belgian documentary: Juste un Mouvement
- Best International documentary: Trenches
- ConScience Award: Jason
- Audience Award: Duty of Care
- Best Belgian documentary: Dag Ma
- Best International documentary: The Invention of the Other
- TOPICS Award: Rojek
- Nationale Loterij Award for Best Science Documentary: Make People Better
- Audience Award: Wolf
- Best Belgian documentary: Soundtrack to a Coup D'état
- Best International documentary: The Tuba Thieves
- TOPICS Award: A Storm Foretold
- Award for Beste Science documentary: Eternal You
- Nationale Loterij Audience Award: ''Life is Beautiful''
Special Guests/activities
- In 2012 British documentary film maker Louis Theroux held a masterclass at the festival
- In 2014 Canadian filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal introduced her newest documentary, Watermark. As well as Freda Kelly, former secretary of The Beatles and the subject of Good Ol' Freda. Austrian documentary film maker Erwin Wagenhofer will be presenting his newest film, Alphabet as well as giving a masterclass during the festival.
- In 2016 British documentary film maker Louis Theroux presented his first feature-length documentary My Scientology Movie in European premiere.