The first films from our program have been selected

The first highlights from this year's film program have already been announced! Once again this year, you can discover numerous German premieres by international directing talents and established auteur filmmakers. These include Christoph Hochhäusler's neo-noir thriller ›Death Will Come‹ and the latest work by Hong Sang-soo, ›By the Stream‹. Our ON THE RISE competition includes productions from Morocco, India and Georgia.

In ›Across the Sea‹, French-Moroccan director Saïd Hamich Benlarbi tells a moving immigrant story. Another French-Moroccan production is ›Cabo Negro‹, the second fictional feature film by Abdellah Taïa, the first openly gay Arab author. In it, Taïa explores the existential value of cohesion and community. Solidarity is also the theme of the two Indian entries in our competition. In her debut film ›Girls will be Girls‹, Shuchi Talati tells a coming-of-age story about a boarding school student who gets to know both her first love and her rebellious nature. Recognizing one's own path - this motif is also at the heart of the plot in ›Santosh‹, which received great acclaim at its world premiere in Cannes. In her debut film, Sandhya Suri vividly tells the story of what it means to assert oneself as a woman in India against patriarchal power structures, arbitrariness and the caste system.

After remarkable films from Georgia have already caused a sensation at the IFFMH in recent years, this year the festival is presenting the next young voices from this country: George Sikharulidze's ›Panopticon‹ draws a portrait of an entire society caught between ultra-conservative and progressive ideas, based on the story of an insecure 18-year-old. In contrast, Tato Kotetishvili takes his audience on a wild trip into the heart of his home city of Tbilisi in ›Holy Electricity‹. Our program also includes the German premiere of the animated film ›Memories of a Snail‹ by Oscar-winning Australian filmmaker Adam Elliot, who is known for his clay figures. We are also looking forward to the regional premiere of ›April‹, the second film by Georgian Dea Kolumbegashvili, whose internationally acclaimed first film ›Beginning‹ was screened at the IFFMH in 2020.

Our complete program will be published on 17 October - so stay tuned!