dok.incubator 2022 calls for ambitious feature documentaries in rough cut stage

This year marks the 10th anniversary of dok.incubator, a decade in which the film workshop worked with 159 documentaries and led many of them to awards at the world's top festivals. The workshop is now accepting applications for the 2022 edition. Deadline January 26th, 2022.

dok.incubator invites editors, directors and producers to a six-month long workshop, focused on filmmakers’ professional development with the guidance of world class tutors. The tutors are people from the industry, very experienced producers, marketers, and editors who themselves regularly present their films at top festivals. It is their practical experience that is crucial for the success of the workshop. And that is how the participants learn all the important parts of the process - by applying it directly to their films.

Eight teams, composed of a producer, a director and an editor, will focus on the film’s unique perspective and sharpening the storytelling, placing it within the international context and finding concrete tools to effectively approach future audiences. Intensive work on editing, distribution and audience-building upgrades your rough-cut to a high-end film with the potential to meet worldwide interest.

"The workshop participants go from working on the cut to thinking through the complex journey of the film, which they've never done before. They're not only looking at the story, but also at the audience, marketing, and distribution. They go so much further, and when the film is finished, it can successfully make its way through the system," adds Andrea Prenghyová, the workshop founder and director.

And the system apparently works! Over the past 10 years the workshop has helped 12 films to get into Sundance competitions, 30 films were screened at IDFA and 5 were nominated for the European Film Award.

Our history is strongly connected to Denmark as our core tutors‘ team regularly includes some of the best Denmark professionals – Freddy Neumann is the workshop’s marketing tutor for more than 8 years, among our editing tutors were Per K. Kierkegaard, Nanna Frank Møller or most currently Thomas Krag. For four years Karolina Lidin prepares our participants for the final presentation at the dok.incubator preview (taking place at Nordisk Panorama or IDFA in 2021) and moderates the whole event.

In 2020 a Danish coproduction 'We are inside' by Farah Kassem was a part of the international workshop, getting ready to be released in 2022 and another Danish coproduction 'How to Kill a Cloud' by Tuija Halttunen premiered in 2021 at CPH:DOX and received many award since, among others the Zonta Club award, which is awarded to films with a particularly strong social and ethical contribution at Locarno.

What to expect?

  • intensive six months of editing and project development of your project aiming for picture lock in early autumn 2022
  • more than thirty internationally-active filmmakers tutoring you throughout the postproduction period
  • personal feedback on your rough cut from key festival representatives, sales agents and other decision makers
  • preparing a tailor-made marketing and distribution strategy to unfold your film to a wider audience

How it works?

For the 2022 dok.incubator 11th season we are prepared for both online and/or residential format of the workshops, the actual program will be realized according to the development of COVID 19 pandemia.

Participants will attend three online/hybrid, but hopefully mainly residential sessions at different project development stages (the exact dates and locations will be confirmed later):

  • 1st session online / hybrid: April 2022 // ROUGH CUT
  • 2nd session – residential: June 2022 // FINE CUT
  • 3rd session – residential: September 2022 // NEAR PICTURE LOCK


Format of the workshops can change according to the actual COVID 19 situation.

  • editing tutors work with participants continuously to develop the storyline of the film and maximize the film’s international potential
  • production mentors advice the producers on the financing, team management and distribution
  • marketing experts help the teams to position the film on the market and build a sophisticated strategy to target the right audience
  • the nearly/finished films are presented to key decision-makers