German Film Festival 2021

This year's 30-film lineup includes the directorial debut of actor Daniel Brühl, a tense and topical thriller about immigration, and a new Rainer Werner Fassbinder biopic.
Sarah Ward
May 06, 2021

Overview

New adaptations of acclaimed classics, tributes to iconic directors, topical thrillers and plenty of glimpses of Berlin — that's what's on the program at this year's German Film Festival. Like its fellow country-specific counterparts (such as the French and Spanish film fests), this showcase of cinema serves up the latest and greatest movies its chosen nation has to offer. In 2021, after sitting out 2020 for obvious years, that means that 30 films will be lighting up the big screen at Palace Barracks and Palace James St from Tuesday, June 1–Sunday, June 20.

A number of GFF's big highlights this year all follow a common thread, because they're linked to the great New German Cinema director Rainer Werner Fassbinder in one way or another. That includes a 40th anniversary screening of Lola, which'll screen via a glorious new 4K restoration; biopic Enfant Terrible, which sees Oliver Masucci step into Fassbinder's shoes; and Berlin Alexanderplatz, a new screen version of Alfred Döblin's 1929 novel — which Fassbinder famously adapted into a miniseries back in 1980.

Celebrating today's German greats as well, GFF will kick off with Next Door, the filmmaking debut of actor Daniel Brühl (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier). No spotlight on movies from the European nation would be complete without an appearance by the inimitable Nina Hoss (Pelican Blood), of course, which comes courtesy of drama The Audition. And, there's also Exile, starring Toni Erdmann's Sonia Huller; Fabian: Going to the Dogs, which is set in pre-World War II Berlin; and romantic comedy I'm Your Man, which follows a scientist who agrees to live with a humanoid robot.

Top image: Berlin Alexanderplatz.

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