(Re-)Born to Be Wild: The Complete Schedule of #FFMUC

„Rumours“ von Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson, Foto: Rumours 2024

The Munich International Film Festival is the number-one platform for German filmmaking. Its 41st edition will see the premieres of 150 films from 53 countries, with the usual large number of guests attending. Both the general public and the film industry will find much to discover here. The complete festival schedule, which includes German co-productions involving Canada, Argentina, Somalia, and India, is now online, as are all of the events and talks, which feature lots of big names in filmmaking. Tickets will go on sale on Friday, June 21.  

The works competing for the new CineWaves award trophies in the international and national competitions will be screened at twelve venues. This year also sees the return, after a four-year break, of the competition for Germany’s most valuable co-production prize, the 100,000-euro CineCoPro Award.  

The 150 feature-length fiction and documentary films address themes that cover the entire spectrum of human and societal experience. Some 40 % of the films are directed by women. All of the films are being screened in Germany for the first time. 62 productions are even celebrating their international, world, or European premiere in Munich.  

“As this is the first festival at which we’ve teamed up to set the creative tone, it’s naturally very special to us. We’re taking the festival back to its roots by presenting genuine finds alongside star-studded cinema, but are doing this in new, grand, and great locations. The return of the CineCoPro Competition makes the festival more complete, and CineYou, our laboratory for young audiences, finally gives us an avenue for making young people from Munich an active part of the festival. We and our fantastic team are looking forward to 10 days of unparalleled interactions, unforgettable experiences with cinema, and inspiring, open-minded discussions,” say Christoph Gröner, festival director, and Julia Weigl, artistic co-director. 

Dive in and discover: Isabelle Huppert, Viggo Mortensen, and lots of rising stars

Plenty of cinematic gems that we’re able to present come to us straight from the Cannes and Tribeca film festivals. In “The Substance”, Demi Moore returns to the big screen in a breathtaking female body horror film by Coralie Fargeat. Also fresh from Cannes is “Rumours”, an absurdist satire starring Cate Blanchett, Charles Dance, and Alicia Vikander. Fourteen films in total are from the Croisette. “Samia”, an Italian-German co-production, offers the perspective of a young sportswoman who confronts injustice in Mogadishu. In “Motel Destino”, another film involving Germany in its co-production, Karim Aïnouz turns desire, intoxication, and violence into a colorful spectacle. From Brazil, there is the horror drama “Continent”, which is celebrating its world premiere at the Munich International Film Festival (more information on the international world premieres here). “Xoftex” will be presented in a joint world premiere with the Karlovy Vary Festival.  

The star-studded comedies “Everything’s Fifty Fifty” by Alireza Golafshan and “Blame the Game” by Marco Petry as well as the music documentary “Born to Be Wild: The Story of Steppenwolf” add even more diversity to the German films in the New German Cinema, New German Television Productions, and Spotlight sections. 

The selection of films reflects the widest possible variety of perspectives. Viggo Mortensen presents his take on the western genre in “The Dead Don’t Hurt”. In “Sidonie in Japan”, writer-director Élise Girard sends the magnificent trio of Isabelle Huppert, August Diehl, and Tsuyoshi Ihara on a journey involving the supernatural. “A Boy and a Girl” from Taiwan is a radically rebellious romantic drama about two outcasts, and “Tatami” is the first feature film to have both an Iranian and an Israeli director: Zar Amir and Guy Nattiv.  

In choosing “Touch” as its closing film, the Munich International Film Festival is very deliberately leaving things on a sensitive note. This thoroughly entertaining film by Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur tells a touching story of love and remembrance.  

Not just at the movies: The festival has partners all across town
Collaborations with local institutions, many of them long-standing, form an integral part of #FFMUC. Mutual trust and a cooperative spirit are the foundations upon which a network of partners extending across the entire city has been built. 

“Sparkling and Wild: ’80s New York in Film” is now our fifth cooperation with Museum Brandhorst. This program of films and videos portrays a decade of queer (club) culture in a New York dominated by television, nightlife, and the AIDS epidemic.  

On June 28, Museum Brandhorst and CineYou will also host the Young Night, offering workshops, art talks, music, and a lineup of films to accompany the exhibition “Andy Warhol & Keith Haring: Party of Life”. 

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 from July 2 to September 8. The Oscar-winning actress captured moments in black and white during the lockdown in New York.  

Starting this year, it’s also been Deutsches Theater meets the Munich International Film Festival. The event series “An Evening with...” creates a stage for exclusive film screenings, inspiring talks, and one-of-a-kind CineMerit award ceremonies – with Jessica Lange, Kate Winslet, Natja Brunckhorst’s “Two to One”, and Checker Tobi.  

On July 3, the Münchner Kammerspiele and the Munich International Film Festival will present the world premiere of the science-fiction film “Planet Magnon”. Luis August Krawen and the cast transform the eponymous novel by Leif Randt into a theatrical feature film. Tickets are available from the Münchner Kammerspiele.  

As part of a homage to Iranian filmmaker Sohrab Shahid Saless, the Munich Documentation Center for the History of National Socialism will host a discussion entitled “Stunde Null? Sohrab Shahid Saless and Outsiders’ Perspectives”. Prior to this, Saless’ film “Addressee Unknown” will be screened in the auditorium. 

At Pavillon 333, the movie collection of German film critic Michael Althen, who died in 2011, will be presented under the title “What Must Remain”. Althen archived more than 5,500 films on VHS tapes, including classics, B-movies, his favorite films, and baseball games. Sophie Mühe and Artur Althen, his son, will rummage through the collection in search of classics and lost films. On July 2, Artur Althen will discuss collecting and remembering with director Dominik Graf and critic Doris Kuhn. 

The Munich International Film Festival – for the public
The Munich International Film Festival is serious about engaging with audiences to an even greater extent! That’s why the Munich International Film Festival has added even more subculture venues and places to mingle. These include Cafébar Mona and Karaoke Bayern at Goldener Reiter. CineYou is an interactive laboratory whose highlights include the Young Night, a party where everyone can dance for free under the fantastic visuals of Su Steinmaßl at the walls of the Pinakothek der Moderne. There are also more than 30 free FilmTalks at the festival center at the Amerikahaus, where the festival expects such amazing guests as Viggo Mortensen, Anke Engelke, and Bastian Pastewka.  

Details on all the films at the 41st Munich International Film Festival are found here.

Further information on the individual competitions can be found here. 

You can read all the details about the juries here. 

More information on the event series “An Evening with ...” can be found here. 

Details regarding the interactive activities at CineYou can be found here.

An overview of all the events can be found here. 

Subscribe to the industry newsletter here. 

Tickets go on sale online on June 21 at the festival webshop and the München Ticket website. For more information about ticket sales, click here.