Film festival director Malika Rabahallah and program manager Kathrin Kohlstedde presented the program for this year's Hamburg Film Festival together today in the Cinemaxx am Dammtor. 114 films from 64 countries will be shown in ten sections from September 24th to October 3rd. The festival opens with The Idiot(s) by Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert, the closing film is “Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!” by Josef Kubota Wladyka.
On October 3rd, the film festival once again invites you to its “Free Entry Day”. The Douglas Sirk Prize will go to Oscar winner Helen Mirren, who will receive it personally. She is currently playing the lead role of Patricia Highsmith in the film “A Talent for Murder” directed by Anton Corbijn, which is coming to German cinemas at the same time as “Ghosts”.
The film “Rehearsals for a Revolution – Fragments of Freedom” by Pegah Ahangarani is about political freedom. The Iranian director and actress, who has been living in exile since 2021, paints a panorama of the last four decades in her home country, in which hope for freedom continues to arise. The film “Biermann”, in which Jens Meurer portrays the songwriter and dissident Wolf Biermann, uses historical footage to depict a life between resistance and exile in his own country at its world premiere in Hamburg. Freedom is one of the three themes addressed in several films at the film festival. The other two are connection and new beginnings.
The world premiere “Call Me Queen” by Emily Atef describes the friendship between a single mother and an Irish journalist in 1990s Nairobi. The film “Frank and Louis” tells the story of two men who bond over caring in a US prison. In “Words of Love” by Rudi Rosenberg, a mother and a daughter set out to search for a missing father and get closer to each other on the Reiser.
In addition to the world premieres, several internationally award-winning films will also celebrate their German premiere at the film festival in the five festival cinemas. Among them is “Fjord” by Cristian Mungio, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes. Andrey Zvyagintsev returns to the screen with “Minotaur” and describes power, corruption and today's Russia in his thriller. He received the Grand Jury Prize in Cannes. In addition, many films by renowned directors will be guests, including some candidates for the current race for the Oscars, which will be awarded in Los Angeles in mid-March 2027.
A total of 21 productions are running at the Hamburg Film Festival this year, which were supported by the Moin film funding in Hamburg. These include Fatih Akin's poetic drama "Ghosts", Doris Dörrie's tragicomedy "Frau Winkler leaves the house" filmed in Hamburg and "Sternbrücke Forever", the new documentary by "Some Had Crocodiles" director Christian Hornung.
For the third time, the Hamburg Film Festival invites you to the “Day of Free Entry”. On October 3rd, the last day of the festival, 37 films can be seen. The screenings in the festival cinemas and nine other participating “Filmfest ums Eck” cinemas are free of charge. Up to five tickets per person can be booked online in advance; additional quotas will be gradually activated. Advance sales for the film festival start on September 10th.
Even before the start of the film festival, the free open air festival “Binnenalster Filmfest” runs from September 10th to 13th, where spectators gather at Jungfernstieg. This time the program includes the award-winning animated film “Flow” (September 10th) as well as the classics “Notting Hill” (September 11th), “Fuck you Göthe” (September 12th) and “Little Miss Sunshine” on September 13th. The film starts on the Binnenalster at 8.15 p.m.
The full program at: www.filmfesthamburg.de
