The 29th Festival du Cinéma Allemand took place in Paris from October 9 to 13, 2024. The event was hosted in cooperation with the Goethe Institute Paris and with the support of ARTE and the DFJW/OFAJ.
Three German filmmakers, directors Aslı Özge and Natja Brunckhorst, and actor and FACE TO FACE ambassador Banafshe Hourmazdi travelled to Chicago to present their films at the 60th Chicago International Film Festival, which was celebrating its 60th anniversary. Several other German films were shown, which were well-received by the audience, as all screenings were sold out.
Writer-director Soleen Yusef, one of this year’s talents of our FACE TO FACE WITH GERMAN FILMS campaign, toured two cities in the US this October to present her current film to American audiences.
With the support of German Films, the Swiss Embassy, the Austrian Cultural Forum and the Goethe Institute Hungary organized the 13th Sehenswert Filmfestival in Budapest.
In 2024, German Films attended the MIA Market in Rome for the fourth time. The event featured over 80 panels, including the panel organized by German Films "The new German Film Law in 2025" with guests Philipp Kreuzer, Jonas Dornbach and Birthe Klinge.
As in previous years, German Films hosted the GERMAN PAVILION at this year’s MIPCOM in Cannes. The umbrella booth has existed since 2006 and was organized together with seven partners at the Festival Palais.
The German-French-Iranian co-production THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG by Mohammad Rasoulof has won this year’s Arab Critics' Award for European Films.The producer of the film, Mani Tilgner (Run Way Pictures), gratefully received the trophy on the director’s behalf at the award ceremony, which was held at this year’s El Gouna Film Festival.
Zethphan Smith-Gneist is the German Black Nights Star 2024 at PÖFF Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. Together with seven other actors from the Baltic Sea region, Zethphan will receive the Black Nights Stars Discovery Campus ICDA Award as part of the program.
In October, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honored its student winners from colleges and universities around the world at the 51st Student Academy Awards® ceremony. The German director Jens Kevin Georg won Silver with his film CRUST.
Anastasia Veber and Rudolf Fitzgerald-Leonard are two Berlin-based filmmakers amongst the six new faces of the 48th session of La Résidence du Festival de Cannes.
In 2024, German Films celebrates its 70th anniversary. As part of this anniversary, we will be reviewing impressive and outstanding German films throughout the whole year in our monthly newsletter - all curated and evaluated by Oliver Baumgarten. The October movie is from 2007 - the German-Turkish drama THE EDGE OF HEAVEN by Fatih Akin.
The focus of the next session for the English-language KINO! FILM SALON online film club on November 17 will be Wolfgang Becker's historic cult comedy GOOD BYE, LENIN!
In November the guest of our podcast SHORT TAKE is multi-talent Raman Djafari, who is known for his work on music videos for Elton John, Dua Lipa and Squid. And he's no stranger in the animation sector, either.
We are continuing the 5th season of our DEEP DIVE GENRE podcast focusing on our 70th anniversary. In 2024 German Films celebrates 70 years of German cinema abroad. In this episode we talk to producer and film expert Alfred Holighaus.
German Films Umbrella Booth at the American Film Market German Films will once again be present at the last major film market of the year. The American Film Market (November 1-5, 2024)will take place as a face-to-face event at the Palm Casino Resort in Las Vegas for the first time. Seven German world sales companies are on board in the hotel suites on the 10th floor, welcoming international buyers and distributors from all around the world: Beta Cinema (Suite 227), Epsilon (Suite 225), Kinostar (Suite 219), Media Luna new film(Suite 224), Picture Tree International (Suite 226), The Playmaker Munich (Suite 223), Sola Media (Suite 221)
German Short Films 2024 – Update Online Catalogue With the third and final update for 2024, 32 new shorts have just been added to the Online Short Film Catalogue. The members of the AG Kurzfilm – German Short Film Association and a jury have selected a broad spectrum of short films - fiction films, animated films, experimental films and documentaries as well as various hybrid forms. The update includes films that have premiered since May at festivals such as Oberhausen, Cannes, Annecy, Toronto, Locarno, and many more. Everyone interested can search for German short films in the online catalogue using a wide range of functions, keywords, themes, categories, etc. International film professionals can also screen the films online after registering. Short documentaries and animations from the update were registered on DOK Leipzig’s Market Library as well.
The 2024 catalogue selection is now complete, with a total of 88 short films added this year. More than 1,100 short films produced since 2004 are now available for viewing. The selection process is currently underway for the films of the next update which will go online in February 2025 in time for the festivals of Clermont-Ferrand and Berlin.
Next Generation Short Tiger 2025 – Call for Entries Submissions are open for next year’s 15th edition of NEXT GENERATION SHORT TIGER and the SHORT TIGER AWARD: German films schools can submit student productions up to 15 minutes to German Films. German short films up to 7 minutes directed by non-student filmmakers can also be submitted for the SHORT TIGER AWARD to the AG Kurzfilm. Non-student productions up to 15 minutes can be submitted to the AG Kurzfilm for NEXT GENERATION SHORT TIGER, if the filmmaker is based in Germany, and either no older than 40 years or it is their first film after graduation, and if the film has been selected for the AG Kurzfilm’s online catalogue GERMAN SHORT FILMS 2024. The detailed call for submissions is available here, the deadline is November 30, 2024.
SCHLiNGEL on tour: Next stop KINEKO Filmfestival in Tokyo The children's and youth festival SCHLiNGEL takes German films to other international film festivals abroad. The next stop is the KINEKO Film Festival in Tokyo. MORGEN IRGENDWO AM MEER will celebrate its Asian premiere there. Director Patrick Büchting will present the film on location. GREETINGS FROM MARS by Sarah Winkenstette will also be screened in Japan.
Calls for Submission
EURODOC: The comprehensive training initiatives for creative documentary film producers throughout Europe and beyond have opened their call for the EURODOC 2025 annual training. An information session in English can be found here, and further information here. Deadline is November 24, 2024.
DOK.fest München: Submissions for the 40th DOK.fest München (May 7-18, 2025 @cinemas, May 12-25, 2025 @home) are open. There are five different categories with deadlines on December 16 and February 3. All the information about calls for entries and regulations can be found here.
Hot Docs: The 32nd annual Hot Docs Festival will take place in Toronto from April 24 to May 4, 2025. Submissionsare now open. Deadline is December 12 and January. All the information and regulations can be found here.
DocsBarcelona: The Barcelona International Documentary Film Festival has opened the call to submmit documentary films for the 28th edition, to be held from May 8 to 18, 2025. Early Bird deadline is November 1, 2024, Regular Entry deadline is November 15, 2024. Rules and regulations can be found here, submissions here.
Visions du Réel: The call for non-fiction films and projects for the 56th edition of Visions du Réel (April 4–13, 2025) is now open. The festival is looking for films for the official selection and for projects for VdR–Industry activities. The films in competition will be screened as world, international or European premieres. Early deadline November 4, 2024; final deadline December 13, 2024; deadline VdR–Development Lab October 25, 2024. More information and submissions can be found here.
