Catch this year's best assortment of German language cinema at locations across Australia this May.
Palace and German Films are bringing the 2025 HSBC German Film Festival to local screens this autumn, with a standout selection of 20 films spanning comedies, thrillers, documentaries and family flicks.
The festival kicks off with German box office smash Long Story Short, a rom-com featuring an all-star cast of Laura Tonke, Ronald Zehrfeld and Trystan Pütter that follows a group of mates through a series of special occasions.
HSBC German Film Festival
- Canberra: 30 April – 21 May, Palace Electric
- Sydney: 1 May – 21 May, Palace Norton Street, Chauvel Cinema, Palace Central, Palace Moore Park
- Melbourne: 2 May – 21 May, Palace Balwyn, Palace Brighton Bay, Palace Cinema Como, Palace Westgarth, The Kino, The Astor Theatre, Pentridge Cinema, Palace Penny Lane
- Ballarat: 2 May – 21 May, Palace Regent Ballarat
- Brisbane: 7 May – 28 May, Palace James St, Palace Barracks
- Adelaide: 7 May – 28 May, Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas, Palace Nova Prospect Cinemas
- Perth: 8 May – 28 May, Luna Leederville, Luna on SX & Palace Raine Square
- Byron Bay and Ballina: 8 May – 28 May, Palace Byron Bay, Ballina Fair Cinemas
Check out our gig guide, our arts guide, our festival guide, our live music venue guide and our nightclub guide. Follow us on Instagram here.
View this post on Instagram
For the festival centrepiece, things get decidedly darker with provocative Berlinale thriller Hysteria from Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay, starring Devrim Lingnau as an assistant director caught in a dangerous web of paranoia when a burned Quran is discovered on set.
Academy Award nominee Sandra Hüller leads the cast in box office comedy hit Two to One, a special presentation based on true events from 1990 when East Germans pull off a hilarious heist of soon-to-be-worthless East German marks.
Documentary lovers should mark their calendars for Riefenstahl, where director Andres Veiel gained unprecedented access to the private estate of the infamous Nazi propaganda filmmaker. In a coup for Melbourne cinephiles, Veiel will be in attendance for Q&A sessions across Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne.
Fresh from the 2025 Berlinale comes What Marielle Knows, a scathing comedy-of-manners that explores what happens when a family’s private secrets are suddenly exposed, while Nina Hoss stars in Cicadas, an intriguing drama about two women from vastly different backgrounds forming an unexpected bond.
For something completely different, catch Peacock, a surreal Austrian black comedy starring Albrecht Schuch as the head of a Rent-A-Friend agency experiencing an identity crisis, or The Tasters, a gripping drama about the women tasked with testing Adolf Hitler’s meals at his Wolf’s Lair headquarters.
Kids aren’t forgotten either, with Winners – the uplifting tale of a Syrian refugee with football talent – and The Chaos Sisters and Penguin Paul, where four sisters must rescue a dancing penguin from kidnappers.
Rounding out the programme is a special 45-year anniversary screening of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s iconic Berlin Alexanderplatz, screening across three weekends in selected cities – a hypnotic masterpiece that no self-respecting film buff should miss on the big screen.
Tickets for all sessions are on sale now here.
