2025 FILMFEST HAMBURG
by Becky Tan
Filmfest Hamburg celebrated its thirty-third year from September 25 through October 4, 2025. There were 118 films from fifty-five countries showing in six local cinemas and specials in nine more cinemas, as well as open air on the Alster Lake. Festival director Malika Rabahallah, in her second year here, was delighted to welcome over 62,000 guests, five percent more than last year. More than 2,000 professionals from the film business, e. g., producers, filmmakers, distributors, actors, etc., visited Hamburg during the festival, including 814 invited guests from thirty-six countries.
The films showed in ten divisions, such as Kaleidoscope( worldwide), Grosse Freiheit( Germany), Transatlantic( North America), as well as Asia, France, Spain, etc. There was a special event for children, the Michel Children and Youth Film Festival. There was a new category called Branchentreff Filmfest Hamburg Industry Days, which supported German films. October 3 is a German holiday, Tag der Deutschen Einheit, which celebrates the reunification of Germany in 1990. On this day, all Hamburg Festival films were presented for free in seven cinemas.
Some films premiered in Hamburg. Many arrived from prior festivals such as the Cannes, Venice, Locarno, Sundance, Karlovy Vary, Tribeca, Saarland, Taiwan, San Sebastian, Berlin, and Nyon( Switzerland) festivals.
28 AT THE MOVIES