Stories about fractures, resilience, humor – and time and again the search for connection: FILMFEST HAMBURG invites audiences to ten unifying days in Hamburg’s cinemas. From September 25 to October 4, 2025, Hamburg becomes a city of film. Film enthusiasts and cinephiles from near and far can immerse themselves for ten days in other worlds and experience the most important and successful productions of this year’s film season in 15 participating cinemas – again this year for free on the “Free Admission Day”. The programme includes 118 feature films from 55 countries. Among them is Young Mothers by Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne. The Belgian directors will be honored in Hamburg with the Douglas Sirk Award. Other big names in directing and acting on the guest list include Julia Ducournau, Tarik Saleh, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Sergei Loznitsa, Cherien Dabis, Ferzan Özpetek, Philippe Falardeau, Fatih Akin, Diego Céspedes, Stephan Komandarev, Kelly Reichardt, Trine Dyrholm, Rebecca Zlotowski, Filippa Coster-Waldau, Henry Lloyd-Hughes, Susanne Wolff, Maren Eggert, Martin Brambach, Katharina Stark, Matthias Schweighöfer, Laura Tonke, Ulrich Tukur, and Anke Engelke. Also visiting the Hanseatic city are international distributors and renowned producers participating in the FILMFEST HAMBURG INDUSTRY DAYS. This significantly expanded industry segment is new to FILMFEST HAMBURG and marks an important signal for the film hub in the north as a gateway to the international film world.

 

Resonance Spaces & Attitudes

 

Three thematic themes run like a common thread through the various sections of this year’s festival programme: cohesion, humor, and resilience. They are reflected in numerous films – sometimes quiet and subtle, sometimes powerful and pointed. The opening film Lovely Day (Voilà!) by Philippe Falardeau uses subtle humour to tell a story about hope, healing and the fragility of happiness. The latest film by Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne, Young Mothers (Voilà!), stands exemplarily for the aspect of resilience. Yet again, the renowned directing duo turns its attention to social injustices with its characteristic cinematic precision. In the closing film Rental Family (Kaleidoscope), directed by Hikari, after ten days of shared film and festival experiences, the idea of togetherness and the value of genuine relationships comes alive.

 

Cohesion does not appear as an intact world but as something fragile, which must be sought and renegotiated again and again. A master of non-cohesion is Yorgos Lanthimos. In his new film Bugonia (Transatlantic), he plunges the audience into a world full of mistrust, fake news, and conspiracy fantasies – a film about fragmentation. Cinema can show exactly these fractures, but it also always stands for the longing for connection, which is reflected in several selected films of this year’s programme: Paolo Sorrentino tells in La Grazia (Kaleidoscope) of a president caught between loneliness, power, and family – a poetic film about closeness, trust, and the quiet strength of shared doubt. Ferzan Özpetek, attending the festival for the first time, dedicates Diamanti (Kaleidoscope) to two sisters running a costume studio in the 1970s. A vibrant portrait of female solidarity and family bonds. The works of longtime festival companions such as Hafsia Herzi (The Little Sister | Voilà!) and Rebecca Zlotowski (A Private Life | Voilà!) also demonstrate how fragile yet powerful belonging can be – whether in the quiet self-assertion of a young woman or in the analytical gaze at human relationships. US indie icon Kelly Reichardt is a guest in Hamburg with her latest film The Mastermind (Transatlantic). In addition, the section features films by two new voices of American independent cinema, both telling of closeness and support in times of emotional upheaval: Sorry, Baby by Eva Victor and East of Wall – The New West by Kate Beecroft.

 

Resilience appears in the festival programme in many forms – political, historical, personal, or aesthetic: For the fourth year in a row, FILMFEST HAMBURG is showing the Palme d’Or of Cannes, the new film by Jafar Panahi, Douglas Sirk Award winner 2018. In It Was Just an Accident (Kaleidoscope), a car mechanic recognizes his suspected torturer, and the planned act of revenge becomes an existential trial. Panahi combines political indictment with gripping thriller cinema. In Amoeba (Asiascope), the debut of Singaporean director Siyou Tan, a girls’ gang rebels against an authoritarian school system. In Sergei Loznitsa’s Two Prosecuters (Veto!), a young prosecutor tries to save an imprisoned colleague in the midst of Stalinist terror in the 1930s. In Sanatorium (Kaleidoscope), Irish director Gar O’Rourke portrays a community in a decaying spa resort in Ukraine that asserts its dignity and everyday life between mud baths and bomb alarms. Canadian artist and director Amalie Atkins paints with Agatha’s Almanac (Transatlantic) a loving cinematic portrait of her 90-year-old aunt, shot on 16mm and with credits on homemade jam jars. Two female figures stand at the center of political as well as personal conflicts. In Dossier 137 (Voilà!) by Dominik Moll, a policewoman investigates corruption within her own ranks. Pietro Marcello dedicates Duse (Kaleidoscope) to the Italian actress Eleonora Duse, who stood up against the rising fascism of her time. In No Mercy (Kaleidoscope), Isa Willinger interrogates the patriarchal structures of cinema itself. The film gathers conversations with radical female filmmakers and shows, among other things, excerpts from works by Julia Ducournau. The French director and her Brazilian colleague Kleber Mendonça Filho are this year’s Filmmaker in Focus. Not only will their respective new films Alpha and The Secret Agent be shown, but also earlier works. The format is complemented by two in-depth talks on September 27 (Julia Ducournau) and October 4 (Kleber Mendonça Filho) at Metropolis.

 

Humor is much more than mere comedy. It is used as a multi-layered means to reflect serious topics in unexpected ways, as in Phantoms of July (Große Freiheit) by Julian Radlmaier, who ironically addresses East German province and contemporary political issues. The documentary André Is an Idiot (Transatlantic) by Tony Benna shows how humor, even in the face of the heaviest blows of fate such as a cancer diagnosis, becomes an expression of courage and contradictory emotions. Anne Émond’s Peak Everything (Voilà!) combines a tender love story with laconic humor and addresses existential fear of climate catastrophe in a surprisingly light way. Ali Asgari’s Divine Comedy (Veto!) is a satirical confrontation with censorship and artistic intransigence in Iran. The film highlights Kafkaesque bureaucratic hurdles and self-ironically portrays filmmakers who must assert themselves in the tension between regime and art. A Useful Ghost (Asiascope) by Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke tells with dry humor an unusual love story between a man and the ghost of his deceased wife, who has taken possession of a vacuum cleaner. The film combines ghostly apparitions with political and everyday economic issues in Thailand. The Chilean Oscar entry The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo (Vitrina) by Diego Céspedes depicts the life of a queer community on the edge of a mining town. In this drama about prejudice and violence, the film repeatedly sets humorous, absurd accents as a form of queer resilience.

 

Strong German Films

 

In addition to three major red-carpet premieres – among them with Anke Engelke, Ulrich Tukur in Neele Leana Vollmar’s Time We Lost, with Matthias Schweighöfer in Erik Schmitt’s The Life of Wishes and Laura Tonke, Detlev Buck, Jasper Billerbeck and Kian Köppke in Fatih Akin’s Amrum – eight films are competing in the competition, including three Hamburg productions: Donkey Days by Rosane Pel (JunaFilm), Rain Fell on the Nothing New by Steffen Goldkamp (Tamtam Film) and Smalltown Girl by Hille Norden (Leitwolf Film), all of which, like I Am the Greatest by Nicolai Zeitler and Marlene Bischof, celebrate their world premiere at FILMFEST HAMBURG. Other films in the section »Große Freiheit« include the new film by Ulrich Köhler, Gavagai, Joscha Bongard’s Babystar, Obhut by Veronika Hafner and Phantoms of July by Julian Radlmaier.

 

Television on the Big Screen

 

The fractures continue in this year’s TV films and series in the section »Televisionen«. The loss of faith in a neutral democratic state and the resulting corruption or state repression are very present. As for example in the film Police, in which a naïve young man is confronted with police authority. The future vision of a repressive surveillance state becomes clear in the near-future series Smilla’s Sense of Snow, in which an illegal refugee becomes vulnerable to blackmail. Corrupt police and state systems, seemingly already in a lost battle against drug cartels, are addressed in the German-Dutch Hamburg-TATORT A Good Day with the new investigator duo Dennis Moschitto and Wotan Wilke Möhring. The allegorical parable Final Hours provides a state justification for violence, murder, and hate. The historical series is set in Prague occupied by German troops in 1945. In the crook comedy In It for the Payback, three sisters restore order by criminal means because they had long since lost faith in the rule of law. Cohesion, happiness, and love are found only “in the small,” within the family environment. For example, in the father-daughter story Zutaten fürs Glück with Ronald Zehrfeld or in the humorous opening film of the section »Televisionen«: Lars Jessen’s comedy Prange with Bjarne Mädel, Olli Dittrich and Katharina Marie Schubert in the leading roles, which will be shown out of competition. Likewise the international series The Kollective, directed by Assaf Bernstein and Randa Chahoud. Here, a journalists’ collective is at the center, risking their lives to act against an international corrupt system. A series full of surprises.

 

Films for Young Festival Visitors

 

Whether two- or four-legged, with fins or paws: The programme of this year’s MICHEL Children’s and Youth Festival, running from September 26 to October 2, 2025, is full of magical stories, emotional family conflicts, original characters, and socially relevant topics. A total of nine films are competing for the MICHEL Filmpreis MAJA, endowed with 10,000 euros and awarded by a children’s and youth jury, including the animated film The Last Whale Singer by Reza Memari. With the detailed stop-motion animation film The Songbirds’ Secret by Antoine Lanciaux, the MICHEL Filmfest opens on September 26. Tales from the Magic Garden by David Súkup, Patrik Pašš, Leon Vidmar and Jean-Claude Rozec, with lovingly animated hand puppets, takes audiences into a realm of fantasy, while Stitch Head by Steve Hudson, with black humor and a large dose of heart, brings the quiet monster Stitch Head to life. The live-action films this year come from Denmark (Honey / Natasha Arthy), Italy (Forever with you / Fabrizio Cattani), the Netherlands (Lampie / Margien Rogaar), Japan (How Dare You? / Mipo Oh), Germany (Circusboy / Anna Koch, Julia Lemkes) and Belgium (Wild Foxes / Valéry Carnoy). The Belgian festival hit is aimed at an older MICHEL audience and is also part of the expanded FILMFEST UMS ECK program. For the youngest audience, the Reihe für Minis offers five poetic short films without dialogue, providing a gentle introduction to cinema. Also returning: two new episodes of The Peppercorns. Most films will be shown in their original version and dubbed live in German in the cinema hall. The film talks of the MICHEL Filmfest are moderated by children and young people up to 16 years of age. The young reporters of the MICHEL MOVIE KIDS will accompany the entire festival with media coverage, conduct interviews, and review the films on their own blog.

 

Juries and Awards

 

Renowned filmmakers, personalities from politics and media, as well as Hamburg students will once again decide as professional juries at FILMFEST HAMBURG on the winners of the total of eight jury prizes, including Lena Urzendowsky, Malick Bauer, Zamarin Wahdat, İlker Çatak, Bettina Brokemper, and Aimen Abdulaziz-Said. FILMFEST HAMBURG will present ten prizes this year with prize money totaling 145,000 euros, including the newly named and each endowed with 25,000 euros Hamburg Producers Award International Cinema-CoPro and Hamburg Producers Award German Cinema, donated by the Behörde für Kultur und Medien der Freien und Hansestadt Hamburg. Other prizes are the Hamburg Producers Award German Television Films (25,000 euros) and the Hamburg Producers Award German Series (10,000 euros), donated by the Verwertungsgesellschaft der Film- und Fernsehproduzenten (VFF), the Award of the Political Film of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (increased this year to 10,000 euros), the NDR Young Talent Award (5,000 euros), the Arthouse Cinema Award (25,000 euros) donated by the MOIN Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, the undoted Critics’ Choice Award as well as the FILMFEST HAMBURG Audience Award donated by the Hapag-Lloyd Stiftung (5,000 euros) and the MICHEL Award MAJA (10,000 euros donated by Hamburg cinema operator Hans-Peter Jansen). The Albert Wiederspiel Award, also endowed with 10,000 euros and donated by the Hapag-Lloyd Stiftung, goes this year to Ukrainian director Zhanna Ozirna, who will be present with her film Honeymoon. The award ceremony will take place on September 26 at 6 p.m. at Metropolis.

 

Oscar Precursors

 

One by one, countries around the world announce which film will be their entry for the Academy Award for Best International Film. FILMFEST HAMBURG features several of them in its program: The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo (Chile), A Useful Ghost (Thailand), Young Mothers (Belgium), Sanatorium (Ireland), Eagles Of The Republic (Sweden) and All That’s Left Of You (Jordan).

 

FILMFEST UMS ECK & Free Admission Day & Accessible Films

 

For the seventh time, FILMFEST HAMBURG honors with the additional program FILMFEST UMS ECK, this year with ten participating cinemas, the committed work of cinema operators and programmers for neighborhood culture. New this year: Kinopolis in HafenCity. From September 27 to October 2, the red carpet will be rolled out in the following districts: Altona (Zeise Kinos), Bergedorf (Hansa Filmstudio), Blankenese (Blankeneser Kino), Barmbek (Alabama Kino), St. Georg (Savoy Filmtheater), Volksdorf (Koralle Lichtspielhaus), Winterhude (Magazin Filmkunsttheater), HafenCity (Astor Filmlounge & Kinopolis), and Schanzenviertel (3001 Kino). All ten FILMFEST UMS ECK cinemas will also take part in the »Free Admission Day« and show one free festival film each on October 3. Following last year’s great success, the »Free Admission Day«, made possible with funding from the Behörde für Kultur und Medien, enters its second round. A total of 36 films are on the programme, including The President’s Cake, Divine Comedy, The Life of Wishes, The Secret Agent, Time We Lost, the MICHEL film Honey as well as the international TV series The Kollective. Free tickets for October 3 will be available from September 11 both online and at advance booking offices, and during the festival also at the evening box offices. Ticket contingents will be released gradually so that as many people as possible have the chance to get tickets for their desired screenings. Thanks to additional funding from the Hapag-Lloyd Stiftung, many of these films could be subtitled in German. HaspaJoker is also supporting the event, enabling, among other things, barrier-free versions for visually impaired, deaf, or hearing-impaired people. The range of barrier-free versions available via the Greta app has been significantly expanded for this year’s program.

 

Binnenalster Filmfest, Special Screenings & Free Masterclass

 

Friendship films are on the programme of this year’s Binnenalster Filmfest from September 11 to 14. Screenings include My Neighbour Totoro (Sept 11), E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (Sept 12), The Intouchables (Sept 13), and The First Wives Club (Sept 14). The four-day programme with films on the big screen right in the middle of the Binnenalster begins daily at 20:15 and is organized together with City Management Hamburg and the Verein lebendiger Jungfernstieg e.V.

 

The Hapag-Lloyd headquarters on Hamburg’s Ballindamm will once again become a pop-up cinema hall and present two films about strong women outside the official programme as Special Screenings with guests, including Sadie Frost’s Twiggy (Sept 26, 8:00 p.m.) and So oder so ist das Leben – Hildegard Knef (Sept 29, 7:30 p.m.), directed by Andreas Schäfer. Tickets are available in the official advance sale.

 

With the new FILMFEST UMS ECK cinema Kinopolis, Northern Germany now has its first Dolby Cinema, where a new format will premiere this year, highlighting the crafts involved in filmmaking and the people behind them. The series kicks off with DEEP DIVE SOUND. In a free Masterclass (Sept 29, 18:00), Oscar-winning sound designer Sylvain Bellemare will provide a deep, personal insight into his working methods. How do aliens sound in an emotional, psychological science-fiction universe? This was one of many questions the French-Canadian sound editor grappled with when developing the soundscape for Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival. Following the Masterclass, FILMFEST HAMBURG will screen Arrival in Dolby Cinema at Kinopolis.

FILMFEST HAMBURG INDUSTRY DAYS

 

Thanks to political support from the Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg as well as funding from MOIN Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein and the Kulturbehörde, Hamburg is strengthening its profile as a film location and industry hub in the North. With the consolidation of European Work in Progress (EWIP), the International Film Distribution Summit (IFDS), the Explorer Konferenz, and the new series Made in Germany, FILMFEST HAMBURG creates a new forward-looking international interface between production and distribution. The initiative has been met with positive resonance throughout the northern film industry and is concretely supported by the corporate network Northern Stars, which co-sponsors the expanded industry program. The FILMFEST HAMBURG INDUSTRY DAYS bring these formats together in one overall concept, making Hamburg one of the two largest B2B events in Germany for the media industry. For producers, distributors, and other industry participants, this means better networking, new impulses, and for FILMFEST HAMBURG, a strategic upgrade of the festival. The Explorer Konferenz and IFDS will feature high-caliber international speakers – among them Adolescence producer Peter Carlton and Ruby Walden, producer of the Academy Award-winning The Brutalist – addressing future topics such as technology, business insights, and creative innovation. At the same time, programmes like #ATELIER25 (in cooperation with the First Steps Nachwuchsinitiative and La Semaine de la Critique in Cannes) as well as the mentoring programme ENCOURAGE will put young talent in the spotlight.

Hamburg thus positions itself not only as a platform for emerging filmmakers but also as a European hub for the national and international film industry. FILMFEST HAMBURG is looking forward to welcoming further delegations, including ten European producers from the European Film Promotion (EFP) initiative PRODUCERS ON THE MOVE, who will meet ten northern German colleagues in Hamburg. As part of FILMFEST HAMBURG, the new Nordic NEST will also launch: Together with the FFA Filmförderungsanstalt and the Produktionsallianz, MOIN Filmförderung and the Five Nordics will invite 60 experienced producers from Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland to Hamburg for a kickoff event. In addition, the African-European Distribution Academy (AEDA) will be welcomed in Hamburg, bringing together representatives of the African film industry with their European counterparts.

The FILMFEST HAMBURG INDUSTRY DAYS are aimed at accredited industry visitors and accredited media representatives. The Explorer Konferenz and IFDS events are accessible only with an Industry Accreditation PLUS.

Meeting Points & Parties

 

Festival meeting points for all visitors and industry representatives during the festival period include the MOIN FILMFEST CAFÉ at CinemaxX Dammtor (Sept 25: 12:00–17:00; Sept 26–Oct 4: 9:30 until late) and the FILMFEST BAR @ CODA CLUB, Congressplatz 2 (Sept 26–Oct 3 from 21:00), directly opposite the CinemaxX. Parties, DJ sets, concerts, and karaoke will be held here.

Sponsors and Partners

 

FILMFEST HAMBURG is funded and supported by the Behörde für Kultur und Medien der Freien und Hansestadt Hamburg, as well as by its loyal main partners: Deutsche Fernsehlotterie, Hapag-Lloyd Stiftung, Studio Hamburg Gruppe, Grand Elysée Hotel, and mobility partner MOIA. Other supporters include the Karin und Walter Blüchert Gedächtnisstiftung, ARTE, main media partner NDR, as well as over 60 additional partners, sponsors, and supporters. Since last year, HaspaJoker and MUBI have also joined, both expanding their commitments.

FILMFEST HAMBURG 2025

FILMFEST HAMBURG takes place from September 25 to October 4, 2025. 118 productions from around the world will be presented as world, European, German, or Hamburg premieres. Festival cinemas are Abaton, CinemaxX Dammtor, Metropolis, Passage, and Studio Kino. On October 3, FILMFEST HAMBURG celebrates the »Tag des freien Eintritts«. All festival films screened that day in the five festival cinemas will be free of charge. The FILMFEST UMS ECK cinemas will also participate, each presenting one free festival film on October 3, 2025.

 

Pre-sale starts on September 11, on September 10, tickets can be purchased during the »Gelbe Stunde« (18:00–20:00) at Levantehaus. On September 16, MOIN Filmförderung, the Freundeskreis Filmfest Hamburg e.V., and FILMFEST HAMBURG will host the Programme Presentation & Surprise Film at Abaton Kino (19:30). The Binnenalster Filmfest as a prelude to FILMFEST HAMBURG will take place from September 11 to 14 at Jungfernstieg.