The festival was created to support and promote films of the professional competition "Lavrovaya vetv", primarily from the categories "Best author's documentary" and "Best debut".
The first competition program included such films as "Herbarium" by Natalia Meshchaninova, "My class" by Ekaterina Eremenko, "Mother" by Pavel Kostomarov and Antoine Cattin,"Artel" by Sergei Loznitsa, "Far to London" by Yulia Kiseleva.
The first jury consisting of Dmitry Bykov, Aidan Salakhova and Boris Yukhananov awarded the Grand Prix to Svetlana Fedorova's film "Not scary".
[2] In the same year, the Minister of culture of Russia Vladimir Medinsky announced a ban on state support for all projects related to the festival.
As the pressure on the festival in Russia continued and censorship and administrative barriers are imposed to the free screening of the most vivid documentaries, the Latvian part of Artdocfest has expanded.
The festival is organized jointly by the Latvian Directorate of Artdocfest, Biedriba Artdoc Fest & Media and leaders of the documentary film industry in the Baltic region.
In a situationin which any film that the authorities do not like may be banned and never shown in cinemas, online cinematheque is the only way for Russian viewers to see free, independent documentaries.