KINOFEST: German Film Festival 2025 at Red Carpet Shangri-La | October 16-19, 2025

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 on 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 ShangriLa Plaza Red Carpet Cinemas under the Culture in Focus program, with support from the Film Development Council of the Philippines.

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 drugfueled bubble. That is until she meets Marla - her midwife - who supports Jenny in her growth in self-acceptance.

WOODWALKERS

2024 | Animation, Adventure | 100 mins | Rating: PG | German with English Subtitles

Carag is not a typical 13-year-old: he can shapeshift into a puma. At a secret school

for shapeshifters, he soon learns to control his powers and, together with his

friends, must protect the world of the Woodwalkers.

KINOFEST SPECIALS: Stories Across Continents

BARADIYA

2025 | Drama | 30 mins | Rating: PG | Binukid, Bisaya with English Subtitles

A young Filipino indigenous trans woman faces her destiny and her spiritual past

amid the discrimination and destruction of her ancestral land in the Philippines.

NGATTA NADDAKI Y NUANG?

2022 | Social Realism, Eco-Cinema | 21 mins | Rating: R13 | Ibanag with English Subtitles

With memories of a flood and sights of industrialization, Oyo returns to his

hometown in Cagayan in search of a carabao, before he finally migrates to another country.

RUMBLES OF THE EARTH

2024 | Sci-Fi, Drama | 13 mins | Rating: PG | Cebuano with English Subtitles

Mysterious disappearances of people rise as earthquakes shake Mindanao. 13-yearold Munya investigates the strange phenomenon after her mother goes missing during a solar eclipse. Fantasy and reality blur as the mythical serpent dragon

“Bakunawa", devours a seemingly tranquil world.

SA ILALUM SA BALABAL SA ALITAPTAP

2024 | Drama | 20 mins | Rating: PG | Cebuano with English Subtitles

In a remote community, a girl named Joy faces a menacing land grabber, Rommel,

who violently coerces her grandfather into selling their ancestral land, culminating

in a dramatic and harrowing confrontation that threatens their future.

WATER SPORTS

2024 | Comedy, Romance, Sci-Fi | 19 mins | Rating: R13 | Tagalog with English Subtitles

Sad boys Jelson and Ipe harness the power of their love in an attempt to survive a

world devastated by climate change.

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