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Kasseler Dokfest 2026
Hesse's festival for documentary film and media art fills Kassel's arthouse cinemas for six days in November, then keeps running online for a week more. The 43rd edition screens 17 to 22 November 2026, online to 29 November.
What it is
The Kasseler Dokfest has run since 1983 and shows documentary film alongside video and media art, a pairing that fits Kassel, home of the documenta. Organised by Filmladen Kassel e.V., it screens short and feature-length documentaries and artistic-experimental work in the city-centre cinemas, and runs the Monitoring media-art exhibition and the interfiction lab in parallel. Recent editions have shown more than 200 works from over 40 countries.
Two halves, one festival
Documentaries, short and feature-length, plus experimental and artistic film, in the Gloria, the BALi-Kinos and the Filmladen. This is the part KinoNow lists: original-version screenings you can plan around.
Monitoring is the festival's exhibition of current video and media-art installations; interfiction is its long-running lab on digital-media practice. The DokfestForum runs at the Fridericianum, documenta's main hall.
Where it plays
The three main festival cinemas sit within a few minutes of each other in the city centre. Each links to the cinema and its programme.
The festival also uses the Kulturbahnhof as its centre, the Fridericianum for the DokfestForum, and the Planetarium in der Orangerie for fulldome screenings.
The programme
Documentary film and media art, in competition and beyond.
The prizes
The festival awards five cash prizes worth 11,000 euros in total, plus a 7,500-euro production grant. The Goldener Schlüssel (Golden Key) goes to a documentary short and a feature by directors up to 35; the Golden Cube, endowed by the Kassel software company Micromata, goes to the best media installation in Monitoring; the Goldener Herkules rewards a production from North Hesse.
Original with subtitles
The festival's rules require any film whose original language is neither German nor English to carry German or English subtitles, so international titles are followable without German. German-language documentaries are the ones that may run without English subtitles. The exact subtitle language per screening is set in the published programme.
Tickets and how it works
The on-site festival runs 17 to 22 November in the city-centre cinemas; a selection then streams on DokfestOnline until 29 November for viewers across Germany. The full 2026 line-up and screening times are published in autumn 2026.
Common questions
- When is the Kasseler Dokfest 2026?
- 17 to 22 November 2026 in Kassel, with an online programme to 29 November.
- What does it show?
- Documentary film, short and feature-length, plus video and media-art installations in the Monitoring exhibition.
- Which cinemas host it?
- The Gloria, the BALi-Kinos in the Kulturbahnhof, and the Filmladen, all in the city centre.
- Are the films shown in the original language?
- Yes. Films not in German or English carry German or English subtitles; German documentaries may run without English subtitles.
- What is the Golden Cube?
- The festival's prize for the best media-art installation in the Monitoring exhibition, worth 3,500 euros.