Full Program for HSBC German Film Festival 2025 Revealed
This year’s festival features the Australian premiere of conspiracy thriller Hysteria.
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The HSBC German Film Festival is back for 2025, returning to Adelaide for three weeks from Wednesday, May 7 to Wednesday, May 28.
The annual event showcases the best contemporary cinema from Germany and its fellow German-speaking neighbours, Austria and Switzerland, with the 2025 program featuring 20 films, including six offerings direct from the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale).
Film fans can get lost in charming family flicks, thought-provoking dramas, delightful comedies and compelling documentaries, headlined by the premiere of conspiracy thriller Hysteria.
Long term collaborators German Films commented, “We are having another successful year for German cinema – you can see the strong presence of German films at the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) with films like What Marielle Knows and Hysteria. We wish all our Australian viewers a wonderful cinematic experience.”
Opening the festival is the romantic comedy Long Story Short (Feste und Freunde – Ein Hoch auf uns!), one of Germany’s biggest box office hits in recent years, while Austrian director Johanna Moder’s chilling thriller Mother’s Baby will close out the event.
Other highlights include the hit comedy Two To One (Zwei zu eins), intriguing drama Cicadas (Zikaden), documentary I Want It All (Ich will alles. Hildegard Knef), which showcases the unwavering spirit of German actress, singer and writer Hildegard Knef, historical drama Münter & Kandinsky – The Blue Rider (Münter & Kandinsky), and satirical comedy Old White Man (Alter weißer Mann).
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This year’s German Film Festival also includes a special anniversary screening of German New Wave director Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s iconic Berlin Alexanderplatz, along with the charming ode to books and readers, The Door-To-Door Bookstore (Der Buchspazierer), which is based on the best-selling novel by Carsten Henn.
The always popular ‘Kino for Kids’ returns with a wonderful selection of films for the whole family. Winners tells the story of an eleven-year-old refugee from Syria who is a prodigious football talent. Circusboy (Zirkuskind) chronicles one year in the life of eleven-year-old Santino, who is part of a traveling circus. Then there is the hilarious The Chaos Sisters and Penguin Paul (Die Chaosschwestern und Pinguin Paul), which is adapted from the popular book series about four sisters trying to save a dancing penguin kidnapped from the local zoo.
The HSBC German Film Festival runs from Wednesday, May 7 to Wednesday, May 28 at Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas and Palace Nova Prospect Cinemas. Check out the full program here.
