KinoFest 2025, the German Film Festival to feature powerful stories of memory, family, belonging

The Goethe-Institut proudly presents the fourth edition of its annual German film festival, KinoFest, taking place across Southeast Asia and the Pacific from October to November 2025. This year’s program brings the newest German films to audiences in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand, Thailand, Vietnam, and Timor Leste.

KinoFest 2025 offers a diverse line-up spanning documentary, adventure, drama, comedy, animation, and thriller. In Manila, screenings will be held October 16–19, 2025 at Shangri-La Plaza Red Carpet Cinemas (Cinema 3 & Premiere Cinema).

This year’s festival showcases eight (8) contemporary German films and five (5) Filipino short films, fostering a vibrant exchange between two dynamic cinema cultures. The selections revolve around themes of memory, reimagining, and the confrontation of perspectives, while also exploring family, belonging, and care. Together, they invite audiences to reflect on personal ties, collective histories, and the power of cinema to connect communities across borders.

The Manila opening night on October 16, 6:00 PM presents the 2024 release Riefenstahl, a provocative documentary that revisits the controversial life and enduring legacy of filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl. Blending rare archival material with contemporary perspectives, the film confronts the tensions between artistic brilliance and political propaganda, asking how cinema can both shape and distort history.

The screening will be followed by a hybrid Q&A with renowned producer Sandra Maischberger, offering audiences the chance to reflect on one of the most debated figures in film history. Riefenstahl is presented in German with English subtitles.

A special highlight of the Manila program is KinoFest Special: Stories Across Continents on October 18, 2025, which brings together five Filipino short films engaging with climate change. These works imagine the climate crisis not only as an ecological challenge but also as a lived reality interwoven with love, myth, displacement, and grief. 

After the screenings, writer and transfeminist artist Jaya Jacobo will moderate a discussion with the filmmakers, including Krystahl Krystahl Guina and Miko Reyes (Baradiya), Carl Joseph Lara (Rumbles of the Earth), and Whammy Alcazaren (Water Sport).

The Manila screenings will conclude with another international exchange on October 19, 5:00 PM, when Svenja Vanhoeffer, producer of the German film Vena, joins audiences for an in-person talkback session following the screening. She will share her insights on the making of Vena and on contemporary German cinema.

KinoFest 2025 is jointly organized by eight Goethe-Instituts in Southeast Asia and New Zealand and made possible in Manila through the partnership with Shangri-La Plaza Red Carpet Cinemas under the Culture in Focus program, with support from the Film Development Council of the Philippines.

For full program details, visit: http://www.goethe.de/manila/kinofest

ABOUT THE GOETHE-INSTITUT PHILIPPINEN 

The Goethe-Institut is the Federal Republic of Germany’s cultural institute, promoting the study of the German language abroad, and encouraging international cultural exchange.

Film Line-up:

RIEFENSTAHL, Opening Film
2024 | Documentary | 115 mins | Rating: R16 | German with English Subtitles
Exploring possibilities of truths of the filmmaker who supports the Nazi regime and got away with it through archival materials of interviews. Ambiguity appears here in its darker tone.

ANOTHER GERMAN TANK STORY
2024 | Comedy | 95 mins | Rating: PG | German with English Subtitles
While Hollywood is filming a series about the Second World War in the small village of Wiesenwalde, the villagers are chasing their personal dreams - until a sudden power outage risk ruining all their plans and a tank appears in front of the mayor’s house.

FROM HILDE, WITH LOVE
2024 | Drama | 124 mins | Rating: R16 | German with English Subtitles
Berlin, 1942: Hilde is in love. With Hans. Their passion often makes them forget the dangers of war. They become involved with the anti-Nazi resistance group “Red Orchestra” until they are arrested. Hilde, 8 months pregnant, develops a quiet
inspirational strength.

GIANTS OF LA MANCHA
2023 | Animation, Adventure | 87 mins | Rating: PG | English
Alfonso Quixote is an 11-year-old boy with a huge imagination. As the rightful descendant and legitimate heir to Don Quixote and just like his great, great, great, great grandfather, he is constantly protecting his beloved town in La Mancha from
monsters, which no one else can see.

KÖLN 75
2024 | Drama, Music-Biopic | 115 mins | Rating: R13 | German with English Subtitles
KÖLN 75 tells the rousing true story of 18-year-old Vera Brandes who risks everything to bring Keith Jarrett to the Cologne Opera House in 1975—leading to the legendary “Köln Concert”, the best-selling solo jazz and piano album of all time.

THE LIGHT
2025 | Drama | 162 mins | Rating: R13 | German with English Subtitles
THE LIGHT tells the haunting story of the fractured Berlin-based Engels family, who are set on a journey into the unknown by the arrival of the mysterious housekeeper Farrah.

VENA
2024 | Drama | 116 mins | Rating: R16 | German with English Subtitles
VENA is the story of Jenny, a reluctant soon-to-be mother with a pending jail sentence. Living co-dependently with her boyfriend Bolle, the two live in a drug-fueled bubble. That is until she meets Marla - her midwife - who supports Jenny in
her growth in self-acceptance.