German Film Festival
Films starring Nina Hoss, 'Anatomy of a Fall' Oscar-nominee Sandra Hüller and Lars Eidinger are all on the lineup at this year's celebration of German cinema.
Overview
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 Sydney, get excited: 20 features, plus 14-part miniseries Berlin Alexanderplatz, are hitting Palace Norton Street, Chauvel Cinema, Palace Central and Palace Moore Park between Thursday, May 1–Wednesday, May 21.
Fassbinder's addition to this year's program is playing on the silver screen across three weekends — and 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 2025 opening-night pick is romantic comedy Long Story Short, kicking off the celebration of cinema by 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.
Information
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