DOK Leipzig Venues and Tickets: Where to Watch and How to Book (2026)

DOK Leipzig 2026 Dates and Ticket Sale Timeline

The 69th DOK Leipzig festival runs from 26 October to 1 November 2026, and the official festival site confirms the full film program publishes on 8 October 2026. Single tickets and free bookings against the real schedule go on sale that same day. The wait is intentional: the festival's selection committee reviews around 2,500 submissions after an early-July deadline, then finalizes showtimes by mid-September before the public program goes live in October. Season tickets are already available now on early-bird pricing, with that discount ending 7 October 2026. Walk-up box office sales typically start a few days before opening night at the Festival Center, and partner cinemas sell tickets on-site once the festival week begins.

• 8 October 2026: full film program publishes; single-ticket and season-ticket booking against real showtimes opens online.
• Through 7 October 2026: season ticket early-bird pricing is still available.
• 26 October to 1 November 2026: the 69th festival week, with screenings across Leipzig.
• A few days before opening: the Festival Center box office at the Museum of Fine Arts Leipzig opens for walk-up sales.

Ticket Types: Single, Season, or Accredited?

Casual viewers do best with single tickets. Full price runs 10€, and reduced tickets cost 8€ with valid proof at the door. Season tickets suit anyone planning several screenings across the week. Season pass holders book individual free tickets through myDOK rather than walking straight into a hall, and they can hold up to 10 active bookings at once. Once a booked ticket gets scanned at the door, a new booking slot opens immediately, which in practice lets one pass cover roughly 30 shows across the week. At standard pricing, a full-price season ticket pays for itself after eight single tickets, since 8 times 10€ equals 80€; the early-bird price breaks even after seven. Accredited industry guests get a separate track. Accreditation adds full access to the film program. It also covers DOK Industry sessions and networking events, plus masterclasses and talks with visiting guests. The Early Dove discount window for 2026 closed 9 July, so standard accreditation rates now apply for anyone applying today. Free options exist too. DOK Neuland, the festival's XR exhibition, requires no ticket. Neither do screenings at the Leipzig Hauptbahnhof east hall or the Polnisches Institut.

• People over 65 qualify for reduced pricing.
• Leipzig Pass holders qualify for reduced pricing.
• Students, trainees, and Federal Voluntary Service (BFD) members qualify.
• Refugees and unemployed visitors qualify.
• People with disabilities qualify without needing separate proof, though an accompanying-person ticket needs the disability pass's 'B' mark.

Booking Through myDOK, Step by Step

Every online purchase for DOK Leipzig runs through a free myDOK account. Season tickets, industry accreditation bookings, and standard single tickets are only bookable once logged in. Registration takes a few minutes and needs just an email address and a password. Standard purchases cap at five tickets per session. Accredited guests can also book up to five free tickets at a time, but only for the current festival day and the next one. Season pass holders work differently, holding up to 10 active bookings that refill as each ticket gets scanned at the entrance. Prefer paying in person? The Festival Center box office inside the Museum of Fine Arts Leipzig (MdbK) accepts cash, major cards, and digital wallets, and a DOK complimentary voucher can also be redeemed there or entered as a code during online checkout.

• Create or log into a myDOK account before browsing the film program.
• Add a ticket to the cart; a 20-minute checkout timer starts immediately.
• Add another ticket before the timer expires to reset the countdown by five minutes.
• Review discounts and any accreditation or complimentary-ticket codes in the cart before checkout.
• Pay by credit card or PayPal through the Braintree gateway, or buy in person with cash or card at a box office.
• Download the emailed e-ticket PDF and bring it printed or on a phone screen to the door.

DOK Leipzig Venues and Tickets by Neighborhood

Festival venues spread across Leipzig rather than clustering in one district, so grouping them by neighborhood helps with planning a day of screenings. The city center holds the heaviest concentration: the Museum of Fine Arts Leipzig (MdbK) serves as the Festival Center, housing the main box office and one DOK Neuland XR location. CineStar Leipzig Petersbogen and the arthouse Passage Kinos on Hainstraße both sit within walking distance of the MdbK. West Leipzig adds Schaubühne Lindenfels and Luru Kino, established partner cinemas that also host the festival's summer screening series outside festival week. Families can look for the Young DOK and Kids DOK series, which run daily through the festival week with age-grouped shorts and documentaries at some of these same venues. Budget real transfer time between clusters. Westkreuz, home to the Heilandskirche, sits apart from the city-center venues, so back-to-back screenings across those two zones need a buffer beyond the runtime alone. The Leipzig city guide and the festival's printed venue map both help with plotting routes between screenings. Leipzig's tourism board also covers general transit and lodging options for a stay that runs longer than the festival week. Accessibility varies by venue. Most DOK Leipzig cinemas are barrier-free, but not every location is, so use the 'Barrier-Free' filter inside the online program before booking a specific screening. Traveling to Leipzig by train also carries a festival perk: the DOK Leipzig Event Ticket gives a 10% discount with Deutsche Bahn, and it stacks with a BahnCard or Sparpreis fare. Confirm the current travel-date window for that offer on the official booking platform, since it resets each festival year.

• City center: Museum of Fine Arts Leipzig (MdbK), the Festival Center, box office, and one DOK Neuland location.
• City center: CineStar Leipzig Petersbogen, a multiplex screen.
• City center: Passage Kinos, the arthouse cinema on Hainstraße.
• West Leipzig: Schaubühne Lindenfels, a converted venue in Plagwitz.
• West Leipzig: Luru Kino, a second west-side partner cinema.
• Nontraditional space: the east hall of Leipzig Hauptbahnhof, home to the free pop-up cinema.
• Nontraditional space: Heilandskirche in Westkreuz, the second DOK Neuland location.

Rules and Mistakes That Cost You a Seat

DOK Leipzig sells tickets to specific showings, but the terms are explicit that no seat is reserved. Arriving early matters even with a valid ticket in hand, since seating fills first-come inside each hall. Cancellations follow a strict clock: any ticket change at a box office has to happen at least 15 minutes before the listed start time, or the booking is lost for good. Missed or unclaimed tickets don't carry over. DOK Leipzig reassigns those seats through a 'Last Minute Sale' the moment a screening begins, so a sold-out show is still worth a wait at the door. Reselling tickets privately or advertising them for resale breaches the festival's terms and can trigger a contractual penalty of up to €2,500. Accredited guests face their own limits. Their free tickets only cover the current festival day and the next one. Bookings cap at five active tickets, and overlapping showtimes are not allowed. A handful of house rules apply everywhere too: no outside food or drink inside the auditorium, no recording equipment, and latecomers may wait for a suitable pause before staff let them in.

• 10-ticket cap: season pass holders can hold up to 10 active bookings; scanning one ticket at the door opens a new slot.
• 15-minute rule: cancel or swap a ticket at the box office at least 15 minutes before showtime.
• No reserved seating: a ticket guarantees entry, not a specific seat.
• Last Minute Sale: no-show seats release to the door queue right when the screening starts.

Beyond DOK Leipzig: Planning the Rest of the Festival Calendar

DOK Leipzig is one entry point into a full year of Leipzig festivals. Book and print culture takes over the city each spring at the Leipzig Book Fair Guide: Dates, Tickets, and Leipzig Liest. Classical music fans plan around Bachfest Leipzig: A Traveler's Guide to Tickets, Venues, and Timing in summer, built around Johann Sebastian Bach's ties to the city. Documentary fans comparing festivals sometimes weigh DOK Leipzig against the Berlinale, though the two run in different cities, seasons, and formats. For a full annual overview alongside DOK Leipzig, the Leipzig festival calendar maps out dates across the year, and the full DOK Leipzig festival guide covers the program and competition sections in more depth.

See our Leipzig tourism attractions guide for the broader city overview.