doxs! – Documentaries for Children and Young People

Documentary Film for Young Eyes

The doxs! festival sees itself as a stage for documentary films made explicitly for a young audience – films that consider children aged four and upwards and young people up to 18 as a serious film audience, not as a target group for commercial entertainment. The programme features short and feature-length documentaries from Europe and worldwide, often in their German premieres. The 25th edition in 2026 marks a quarter-century of curated documentary film work in Duisburg.

When and Where is doxs! On?

doxs! 2026 runs from Monday, November 2nd to Sunday, November 8th, 2026, in various cinemas in Duisburg. The main venues are the filmforum Duisburg in Dellviertel and Hundertmeister in the Innenhafen. The festival is embedded within the Duisburger Filmwoche, the renowned festival for German-language documentary film.

The Most Important Prizes

GROSSE KLAPPE (5,000 €)

The main prize of doxs! – endowed with 5,000 euros, awarded by a youth jury. This makes it unique across Europe: no other documentary film prize is awarded exclusively by young people and endowed so highly. The jury selects from the submitted competition entries the film that speaks most strongly to young eyes and young themes.

ECFA Documentary Award

Awarded by the European Children's Film Association – an international award honouring the best children's and youth documentary film in Europe.

Programme and Accompanying Formats

The festival is much more than just film screenings:

• International Competition with short and feature-length documentaries
• Film Discussions with directors and producers after screenings
• Workshop Discussions for film students and teachers
• Kindergarten Visits with curated short film programmes
• School Workshops in Duisburg and schools across North Rhine-Westphalia
• Call for Entries for filmmakers worldwide
• Special Programmes for the 25th anniversary

Duisburger Filmwoche as the Parent Festival

doxs! is the children's and youth section of the Duisburger Filmwoche, which has taken place annually in November since 1977 and is one of the most important German-language documentary film festivals. While the main film week is aimed at adults and film critics, doxs! began as an independent section in 2002 and has consistently curated its programme for young eyes. The close integration with the parent film week ensures quality – doxs! has access to the same filmmakers as the adult film week.

Duisburg – A Film City in the Ruhr Area

With around 500,000 inhabitants, Duisburg is the fifth-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and is primarily known for its port, steel, and structural change. The city's film culture is surprisingly diverse: filmforum (arthouse cinema), the Duisburger Filmwoche, and doxs! make Duisburg one of Germany's most important documentary film cities. Anyone who wants to see, curate, discuss, and award films from all over the world in November should come to Duisburg.