German cinema

German actress Rosalie Thomass is in the spotlight as her new film 'Lügen über meine Mutter' ('Lies About My Mother') reaches cinemas, with FAZ reviewing its portrayal of an unsettled world. In a SZ interview she discusses women's bodies and why she negotiated sex scenes out of the film. She also appeared at the Rosenhof Lichtspielen cinema in Moosburg to promote the film.

Cinema fans in Germany are looking at the week's movie releases, with a roundup of the latest films hitting German theaters making the rounds. The overview highlights the biggest new titles of the week, prompting discussion among German-speaking filmgoers about which releases are worth seeing.

A German-language film about a mother is drawing attention among this week's cinema releases. The Tagesspiegel's weekly round-up of new films includes 'Papa sagt, meine Mama ist zu fett', a feature centred on a family story involving a mother and her son. German audiences are searching for and discussing the film ahead of its theatrical release.

Following the box-office success of the latest Avengers film, Spider-Man: Brand New Day is also set to come back to cinemas with newly added scenes. German tech and entertainment outlet Netzwelt reports the news, drawing parallels to the Avengers re-release strategy. Fans are discussing whether the extra footage will offer new story details ahead of the film's next phase.

Harrison Ford is trending again over a decades-old casting decision: 36 years ago, the star rejected a lead role in what became one of the biggest cinema hits of the 1990s. German film outlet Filmstarts revisited the story, with fans debating why Ford passed and how different the film might have been with him in it.

German actress and physician Marianne Koch, now 95, has spoken about her life marked by repeated strokes of fate. The interview, carried by Blick, revisits the career and personal losses of the former star of classic German cinema, prompting readers to revisit her story from acting to medicine.

German broadcaster Deutsche Welle has published a roundup of the ten most successful movies of all time, ranking the highest-grossing films in cinema history. Lists like this typically feature blockbuster franchises such as Avatar, Avengers: Endgame and the Star Wars and Titanic entries. Such rankings reliably spark debate among film fans over whether box office totals are a fair measure of a film's success.

The DOK Leipzig documentary and animation film festival is presenting 30 world premieres in its latest edition, with a programme placing a special focus on Eastern Europe. The festival in Saxony showcases documentaries, animated films and works by international directors and screenwriters, drawing attention from the German film community and cultural media.

Katrin Sikora's film 'Schwarze Häuser' ('Black Houses') will be shown in many cities starting in October. The film follows a woman whose arrangement with her parents was a secret code: when she was well, she sent them postcards with colourful houses, but the cards stayed black and white and no one came to collect them. Screenings are being announced across German-speaking regions.

The film 'Vaterland', a German-Polish-Italian-French co-production directed by Paweł Pawlikowski, will be shown in Leipzig on 7 October at 21:00. The 82-minute feature, rated FSK 0, stars Hanns Zischler, Sandra Hüller, August Diehl, Devid Striesow and Joachim Meyerhoff, and will screen in the original German and English with English subtitles.

German tech publisher Heise has reviewed the horror film Obsession as part of its 4K home cinema test series, asking whether Blu-ray, UHD disc and streaming can deliver the film at its best. The reviewer wishes the horror film entertained more than anything else in cinemas, and the test examines whether the home formats can fulfil that wish without side effects. The verdict on picture and sound quality is drawing attention among home cinema fans.

The film 'Für Immer 16' (Germany 2026, 74 min, rated FSK 16), directed by Brezel Göring, screens in Leipzig on 3 October at 17:15, shown in German with English subtitles. The cast includes Lilith Stangenberg and Chang Wang. The story follows Charlotte, Helena and Oskar, characters who meet up as part of the plot.

A German-language debate is unfolding about whether films can be watched "wrong". The argument: many people watch movies and series without questioning what they see, consuming them purely passively rather than engaging critically with form, choices and meaning. Commenters are weighing in on whether active viewing really matters, and whether most audiences miss what makes cinema worth watching.