The 41st Munich International Film Festival – A cultural network across the city

Young Night, Photo: Museum Brandhorst

The Munich International Film Festival is expanding its cultural network across Munich by adding brand-new partnerships, ranging from theaters to clubs and centers of subculture, to its long-standing collaborations with cultural institutions. 

Focus on Canada
This year’s CineCoPro Conference is focusing on Canada as its host country. The Munich International Film Festival will also be emphasizing the variety found in contemporary Canadian filmmaking by presenting a total of ten feature and documentary films from that country and by holding two FilmTalks. The 2024 Munich International Film Festival CineCoPro Conference is made possible by the FFF Bayern, Telefilm Canada, the Canadian Embassy in Berlin, and Creative Europe Desk München. 

’80s New York – Museum Brandhorst
The festival’s fifth cooperation with Museum Brandhorst is celebrating the underground culture of 1980s New York. As part of the exhibition “Andy Warhol & Keith Haring: Party of Life”, selected works by video artists Courtney Harmel and Tom Rubnitz will be presented in Museum Brandhorst’s media room. Audiences will be able to immerse themselves in a decade of queer (club) culture in New York’s vibrant East Village and discover a creative community obsessed with television, caught up in nightlife, and affected by the AIDS epidemic. In cooperation with Museum Brandhorst, the Munich International Film Festival is presenting three iconic films at the University of Television and Film Munich (HFF): “Variety” (1983), a feminist classic of American underground film, “Wild Style” (1982), perhaps the most formative portrait of hip-hop and graffiti art of the time, and “Downtown 81” (1981), a film set in New York's Lower East Side and long thought to have been lost. 

On June 28, the Munich International Film Festival is for the first time part of the Young Night at the Museum Brandhorst, in what is also the big kick-off of CineYou, the Munich International Film Festival’s hands-on laboratory for young Munich filmgoers. On this evening, the museum exhibition will be open until midnight. There will be workshops, art talks, music, and a party by Public Possession and the Blitz Club — all in all, a vibrant evening offering endless inspiration. 

Photo exhibition by Jessica Lange – Deutsches Theatermuseum
From July 2 to September 8, the exhibition “Through Her Lens: Photographs by Jessica Lange” by this year’s CineMerit award-winner, Jessica Lange, will be presented at the Deutsches Theatermuseum. This exhibition will showcase a personal selection of black-and-white images reflecting different phases of her photographic oeuvre as presented in her two most recent photo books, “Highway 61” (2019) and “Dérive” (2023). 

Science fiction theater film – Münchner Kammerspiele
In cooperation with the Münchner Kammerspiele, the Munich International Film Festival is celebrating the world premiere of the science fiction film project “Planet Magnon”. Director Luis August Krawen and the ensemble of the Münchner Kammerspiele will transform a novel by Leif Randt novel into a dazzling theatrical feature film. Tickets are available from the Münchner Kammerspiele. 

Sohrab Shahid Saless – Munich Documentation Center
As part of this year’s homage to Iranian filmmaker Sohrab Shahid Saless, a discussion entitled “Stunde Null? Sohrab Shahid Saless and Outsiders’ Perspectives” will be held at the Munich Documentation Center for the History of National Socialism with panelists Dr. Behrang Samsami and Prof. Daniel Wiegand (University of Zurich), moderated by Sapir von Abel (Jewish Museum, Ausarten Festival), following a screening of Saless’s film “Empfänger Unbekannt” (1983) in the auditorium. Find out about the other films by Saless that are being screened at the festival by clicking here. 

Michael Althen’s VHS Collection – Pavillon 333
Pavillon 333 is presenting the personal film collection of film journalist Michael Althen, who passed away in 2011, under the title “What Must Remain”. From the 1980s to the early 2000s, this legendary Munich film critic recorded, numbered, and archived more than 5,500 films on VHS cassettes, from the great classics to B-movies and his favorite films, with film award ceremonies and baseball games in between. 

Sophie Mühe and Artur Althen, the son of Michael Althen, will search for classics and forgotten films in this VHS collection. On July 2 at 3 pm, Artur Althen will talk to director and author Dominik Graf and critic and cinema operator Doris Kuhn (Werkstattkino) about collecting and remembering. 

Subcultural partners – Café Mona and karaoke.bayern
The festival is delighted to once again be working with Café Mona at the Monacensia im Hildebrandhaus. On July 4, there will be activities for young audiences all day long, from film screenings and workshops to concerts. At 9 pm, also on July 4, the Goldener Reiter bar will host karaoke.bayern, an evening that will breathe new life into the karaoke format by linking film and music. 

Further information
The Munich International Film Festival is being held from June 28 to July 7, 2024. Its opening gala will be held at the Gasteig HP8 on Saturday, June 29 (by invitation only). The festival center is again at the Amerikahaus in the museum district. 

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