Following screenings of all submitted films on August 24 and 25 in Munich, an independent jury decided that Sandra Wollner’s feature film EVERYTIME will compete in the “International Feature Film” category at the 99th Academy Awards. In addition to this film, two other German productions, SHAME AND MONEY and YELLOW LETTERS, have qualified for submission.
German Films received eleven film submissions for the 99th Oscar Competition in the category "International Feature Film". The German entry is chosen by a selection committee newly appointed each year. This committee consists of nine representatives from eight different trade associations and institutions from the German film industry.
This year, Locarno Film Festival took place from August 5 - 15, 2026. A total of 19 German productions and co-productions were in the program. German Films also cooperated once again with Locarno Pro in the “Match Me!” program. On the first weekend of the festival, German Films and Film Fund North-Rhine Westphalia hosted the Locarno Pro Meet & Greet with about 300 guests.
The 26th edition of the Festival de Cine Alemán in Buenos Aires will take place at the cinema Cinépolis Recoleta from September 17 to 23, 2026, celebrating German cinema in all its diversity and facets. The festival will open with Welf Reinhart’s film A FADING MAN and, amongst other films, will present a selection of outstanding short films from the NEXT GENERATION SHORT TIGER 2026 program.
FACE TO FACE WITH GERMAN FILMS ambassador Anna Roller presented her film ALLEGRO PASTELL at the 26th TAURON New Horizons International Film Festival in Wrocław, where it screened in the curated section "Third Eye: Broken Hearts Club". Based on Leif Randt’s bestselling novel, the film follows the long-distance relationship of a couple between Berlin and Frankfurt and will continue its international festival journey this fall.
German director Matthias Strasser is among the 16 winners of the 53rd Student Academy Awards with his Film Academy Baden-Württemberg production THE PANIC INSIDE, one of three films selected in the Animation category. The awards ceremony will take place during Toronto International Film Festival.
GERMAN FILMS ABROAD – FIRST HALF OF 2026: KEY FIGURES
From January to June 2026, 410 German films reached cinema audiences in 67 countries, generating over 110.2 million euros in international box office revenue and attracting more than 17.9 million admissions. Presented with a newly designed layout, the latest German Films Abroadreport highlights the key figures, leading titles, and most important international markets in the first half of 2026, and is now available online.
The next session of KINO! FILM SALON online film club on September 13, 2026, will focus on Valeska Grisebach's masterpiece WESTERN, live from Toronto International Film Festival.
Once again, our September episode has something special in store. We usually record our episodes remotely, but for this one, we spoke face-to-face with actor Nick Romeo Reimann. Nick Romeo Reimann is a German actor and performance artist who is well-known, among other things, for his roles in the series THE WILD SOCCER BUNCH and THE CROCODILES.
In our upcoming episodes of the DEEP DIVE TALK podcast, we spoke first with director Hannu Salonen. He is known, among other things, for the films THE MIDWIFE and SHADES OF GUILT. In the second episode in September, we were delighted to welcome producer Jonas Dornbach. Jonas is part of the production company Komplizen Film and was involved in the production of, the recently released films GENTLE MONSTER, and THE DREAMED ADVENTURE, among others.
Award for German production at Hiroshima Animation Season For its third edition, Hiroshima Animation Season (HAS) received a record-breaking 3,181 submissions from 110 countries and regions. A total of 76 works, including 71 short films and five feature films, were officially selected and screened at HAS 2026 from August 19 to 23, 2026. The winning films were determined by an international jury and an audience vote. From a German perspective, Heinrich Sabl’s feature-length animated film MEMORY HOTEL won the Grand Prix in the Feature Films Competition at Hiroshima Animation Season.
International Film Schools Dominate 2026 Student Academy Awards International film schools achieved a record result at the 2026 Student Academy Awards, winning nine of the twelve awards presented this year. As Steve Pond reports for TheWrap, schools from Canada, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom secured the majority of prizes, while U.S. schools received three awards. Pond noted that international schools “swept two of the four categories, winning all three awards in animation and narrative,” marking the highest number of Student Academy Awards ever won by schools outside the United States. Since domestic and international schools began competing in the same categories in 2022, international institutions have won almost 60 percent of all the awards.
Gerd Conradt Short Film Program M.O.V.I.N.G. at Verona With support from German Films and the German Short Film Association (AG Kurzfilm), the 32nd edition of San Gio’ VeronaVideo Festival (July 23-27, 2026) invited film and video artist Gerd Conradt to present a screening of the special program M.O.V.I.N.G (trailer here). For the program, Gerd Conradt selected eleven of his short works that were produced between 1966 and 2026, such as EIN-BLICK (1987) and FARBTEST 6 (2008), combining them into a feature-length journey through topics of political activism, poetry and music. The festival’s jury awarded M.O.V.I.N.G. with the Special Jury Prize and the “Cinema is Politics” Award (ex aequo). The German feature RED STARS UPON THE FIELD (ROTE STERNE ÜBERM FELD) by Laura Laabs won the festival’s awards for Best Feature, Best Music and Best Acting (Hannah Ehrlichmann).
German short film candidates for the Academy Awards 2027 German Films is planning to publish a list of all German short films submitted to the 99th Academy Awards and asks all producers to inform us about their submission and film before October 1, 2026 by contacting Martin Scheuring (scheuring@german-films.de). The final deadline to submit qualified shorts to the Academy Awards is on Thursday, October 8, 2026.
Calls for Submission
DOK Preview Germany: Call for documentary projects: German Films Service + Marketing GmbH and DOK Industry are looking for the most exciting new German documentary projects. DOK Preview Germany is a presentation platform for German productions, newly completed or in their final stages, with an estimated release date in winter/spring 26/27. The teams can present their projects to international buyers, editors, world sales, festivals, curators and distributors. With the project presentation and subsequent opportunity for networking and exchange, we support selected projects for international marketing. Last year, productions such as SIRI HUSTVEDT – DANCE AROUND THE SELF and FINDING CONNECTION, took part before premiering their films at the Berlinale and CPH:DOX. The call is open until September 3, 2026. Find more information on DOK Leipzig’s website.
