From Berlinale Highlights to Box-Office Hits, Here's What You Need to See at 2025's German Film Festival
A particular highlight in Sydney and Melbourne: Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 'Berlin Alexanderplatz' on the big screen across three weekends.
It's the film festival that gives German cinema fans a showcase of the European nation's latest and greatest movies without leaving Australia. It's a way to catch up on highlights from the Berlin International Film Festival from Down Under, too. And, it's where German-language flicks from beyond the obvious nation equally get their time to shine. Here's another description that fits: it's also where one of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's masterpieces is almost always on the bill.
The event in question is the German Film Festival, which has a huge 2025 in store even just by the numbers. Making its way around Australia between Wednesday, April 30–Wednesday, May 28, this year's fest has 29 days of movies on offer across eight legs in nine places and 23 cinemas. Cinephiles in Canberra, Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Ballarat, Byron Bay and Ballina, get excited: 20 features, plus 14-part miniseries Berlin Alexanderplatz, are on their way across the festival's tour.
Not every title is playing at every location, including the literally biggest of them all for 2025. Fassbinder's addition to this year's program only has dates with Sydney and Melbourne, playing on the silver screen across three weekends — but if you're a movie lover in either city, clearing your diary to see the page-to-screen great that is Berlin Alexanderplatz couldn't be more highly recommended.
The German Film Festival's opening-night pick is showing at all legs of the event, however, with romantic comedy Long Story Short kicking off the celebration of cinema — and giving Australia the chance to see one of Germany's recent box-office smashes.
Other highlights across the complete program include six flicks that first played at this year's Berlinale, spanning closing night's Mother's Baby, the Nina Hoss (Tár)-starring Cicadas and conspiracy thriller Hysteria, alongside Hildegard Knef-focused documentary I Want It All, comedy of manners What Marielle Knows and the family-friendly Circusboy. That strand of movies also demonstrates the fest's fondness for variety, and for veering from the amusing to the thrilling and the dramatic.
Or, attendees can catch Anatomy of a Fall Oscar-nominee Sandra Hüller in heist comedy Two to One, which is based on real-life events in 1990; Lars Eidinger (Babylon Berlin) as an orchestra conductor in Dying; Sam Riley (Widow Clicquot) in biopic John Cranko, about the choreographer; the literary loving The Door-to-Door Bookstore, as fittingly based on the novel; or Winners, which picked up the 2024 German Film Award for Best Children's Film.
With Fassbinder, Hoss, Hüller and Eidinger, 2025's GFF is packed with well-known names. Another comes courtesy of doco Riefenstahl. About Leni, the controversial director that shares its moniker, the movie stems from unparalleled access to her private estate as it unpacks the legacy of the helmer of Nazi propaganda film Triumph of the Will, and the fact that her work contradicts her denial of close ties to the party.
German Film Festival 2025 Dates
Wednesday, April 30–Wednesday, May 21 — Palace Electric, Canberra
Thursday, May 1–Wednesday, May 21 — Palace Norton Street, Chauvel Cinema, Palace Central and Palace Moore Park, Sydney
Friday, May 2–Wednesday, May 21 — Palace Balwyn, Palace Brighton Bay, Palace Cinema Como, Palace Westgarth, The Kino, The Astor Theatre, Pentridge Cinema and Palace Penny Lane, Melbourne
Friday, May 2–Wednesday, May 21 — Palace Regent Ballarat, Ballarat
Wednesday, May 7–Wednesday, May 28 — Palace James St and Palace Barracks, Brisbane
Wednesday, May 7–Wednesday, May 28 — Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas and Palace Nova Prospect Cinemas, Adelaide
Thursday, May 8–Wednesday, May 28 — Luna Leederville, Luna on SX and Palace Raine Square, Perth
Thursday, May 8–Wednesday, May 28 — Palace Byron Bay and Ballina Fair Cinemas, Byron Bay and Ballina
The 2025 German Film Festival tours Australia from the end of April and throughout May. For more information, visit the festival website.
- The Four Parks in Brisbane Where You Can BYO Drinks
- The 11 Best Day Spas in and Around Brisbane
- The Best Caves to Visit Near Brisbane and Beyond
- Five Romantic Brisbane Date Ideas for This Week From Budget to Blowout
- It's Eurovision Time: Here's When You Can Watch 2025's Song Contest (with Tony Armstrong and Courtney Act Hosting Australia's Coverage)
- The Best Glamping Sites Around Australia