Rethinking Weimar Cinema (17-19 June 2026, Worcester College, Oxford)

The GSSN is delighted to announce that registration for the “Rethinking Weimar Cinema” conference is now open! Please visit the registration portal to secure your place! Full programme can be found at the bottom of this page and further information can be found on the conference website. The centennial years of the Weimar Republic (1918-1933) have seen a rise in academic engagement with and public interest in this period of … Read more

UK screening tour of prize-winning German documentary Das deutsche Volk [The German People]

The UK screening tour of the acclaimed new German documentary film, Das deutsche Volk [The German People] (dir. Marcin Wierzchowski, 2025) will be taking place next week. All screenings will be fully subtitled in English and followed by a Q&A with the director.  The film is a prize-winning documentary about the aftermath of the terror attack carried out by a right-wing extremist in Hanau in 2020 and marks an important intervention in contemporary public memory debates. The film … Read more

‘In Focus: Pia Frankenberg’

The GSSN was delighted to hear about the ‘In Focus: Pia Frankenberg’ retrospective of the films of Pia Frankenberg, taking place 19–23 September 2025 at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London. Pia Frankenberg started writing and directing films soon after assisting on Ulrike Ottinger’s Freak Orlando (1981). Over the next eleven years, before leaving Germany for America and authoring novels, she made three features and two shorts. Her films are animated by … Read more

New Publication: Charting Asian German Film History, ed. by Qinna Shen, Zach Ramon Fitzpatrick and Qingyang Freya Zhou

An exciting new edited collection, Charting Asian German Film History: Imagination, Collaboration and Diasporic Representation, by Qinna Shen, Zach Ramon Fitzpatrick and Qingyang Freya Zhou, has just been released with Camden House! Here, Zach reflects on how the book was conceptualised and provides an insight into the contents of the book! BACKSTORY:During the pandemic, I found other colleagues in the sub-field of “Asian German studies” who were interested in researching … Read more

GERMAN FILMS IN RAINDANCE FILM FESTIVAL 2025

We are pleased to share that this year’s Raindance Film Festival in London features 3 German films that members of the German Screen Studies Network community may be interested in! A discount code for 15% (RDFF25) is valid for one purchase per customer. The Lonely Musketeer by Nicolai SchümannStar investor Rupert Bauman wakes up in a locked, windowless room with no memory—only his phone. As he investigates, fragments of his past begin … Read more

THOMAS BRASCH: A LIFE BETWEEN EAST AND WEST

Wed 28 May – Wed 11 June 2025, Goethe-Institut London & Online THOMAS BRASCH: A LIFE BETWEEN EAST AND WEST Born just a few months before the end of World War II, playwright, poet, translator, and film director Thomas Brasch emerged as one of the most distinctive intellectual voices of the German post-war period. In the year of his 80th birthday, we present Andreas Kleinert’s acclaimed 2021 fictional portrait DEAR … Read more

UK Documentary Release Riefenstahl

We are pleased to share news of the UK release of Andres Veiel’s documentary Riefenstahl, on behalf of Dogwoof film distribution. From award-winning German director Andres Veiel, Riefenstahl offers a captivating insight into one of the most controversial figures of the 20th century, filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl. Despite becoming world-famous with her Nazi propaganda film Triumph of the Will, Riefenstahl continued to deny any deeper ties to the Nazi regime throughout her life. Drawing … Read more

Zwei zu eins (UK Cinema Release)

We were delighted to hear from film distribution company Tull Stories about the UK cinema release of Zwei zu Eins on 2nd May 2025! Natja Brunchkorst’s hit German heist comedy stars Sandra Hüller, Max Riemelt and Ronald Zehrfeld, and was Runner Up in the Glasgow Film Festival 2025’s Audience Award competition. It’s the long, hot East German summer of 1990. Maren (Oscar nominee Sandra Hüller), Robert (Max Riemelt – Berlin … Read more

Gundermann screening + discussion with director Andreas Dresen (15 April 2025, Limerick)

We are delighted to report on the ‘Gundermann in Limerick’ event organised by Christiane Schönfeld as part of the German Screen Studies Network’s programme of events sponsored by a ‘Promoting German Studies Networking Grant’ from the German Academic Exchange Service. The acclaimed filmmaker Andreas Dresen travelled to Limerick for a screening of his film GUNDERMANN about East-German singer-songwriter and excavator operator Gerhard Gundermann. The event was well-attended and there was … Read more

New Writings: ‘People on Sunday’ and the Cultural Networks of Weimar Berlin with Dr Jon Hughes (14 April 2025, British Film Institute)

Dr Jon Hughes (Royal Holloway, University of London) explores the making of one of the landmark films of the Weimar Republic: Robert Siodmak and Edgar G. Ulmer’s People on Sunday. His BFI Film Classic on the 1930 film focuses on the formative role played by the social and cultural networks in Berlin’s coffeehouses, evaluating how they informed the filmmakers’ methods, facilitated the film’s funding, casting and exhibition, and shaped the … Read more