Munich Film Festival

Filmfest München in early summer, student shorts in November and documentaries in May. Here’s your guide to Munich’s film festivals.

MUNICH FILM FESTIVAL: Munich is a bigger film town than most people realise. Bavaria Film has been making films and TV down in Geiselgasteig for over a century, the city has one of Germany’s best-known film schools, and every summer the whole lot of them come out to play at Filmfest München.

It’s one of Germany’s biggest film festivals, and a lot more relaxed than the Berlinale. Most screenings are open to the public, and plenty of them come with the director or cast on stage afterwards for a Q&A.

Filmfest München

The festival has run every year since 1983 and takes over the city for ten days at the end of June and the start of July. In 2026 it ran from 26 June to 5 July, and the 2025 edition showed 164 films from 54 countries, almost all of them premieres.

Around 80,000 people go each year. That sounds a lot, but spread across a dozen cinemas over ten days it never feels packed.

The programme is huge and all over the place, in a good way. Big international titles sit next to brand-new German films, TV series get their own strand, and there’s a strong lineup of debuts from young directors. Lots of the foreign films are shown in the original language with English or German subtitles, so check the listing before you book.

The festival’s big award is the CineMerit Award, handed out to a star for a lifetime of great work. Gillian Anderson picked it up in 2025.

Where the screenings are

The festival hub is in the museum quarter around the Amerikahaus on Karolinenplatz and the film school (HFF) next to the Pinakotheks. Screenings are spread across cinemas in the centre, including the Gloria Palast on Karlsplatz (Stachus), the City-Atelier, the Rio Filmpalast, the Theatiner Filmkunst, the Filmmuseum and the ASTOR Film Lounge in the ARRI building.

Look out for the free open-air screenings too. Summer evening, a deckchair and a film under the sky – hard to beat.

Tickets

Tickets usually go on sale about two weeks before the festival starts, through the Filmfest München website and at the cinemas. The big gala screenings sell out fast, but there’s plenty of space at the smaller films, and that’s where the best surprises tend to be anyway.

Short films: the Festival of Future Storytellers

If short films are your thing, come back in November. The same people who run Filmfest München also put on the Festival of Future Storytellers, which most locals still know as the Filmschoolfest Munich.

It’s been going since the early 1980s and shows the best student films from film schools around the world, all of them under 30 minutes. There’s an international competition, a competition for shorts from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and talks and masterclasses alongside.

Next on: 13 to 20 November 2026. Some of these students will be the big names at Filmfest in a few years’ time, so it’s a fun place to spot them early.

Documentaries: DOK.fest München

Every May, DOK.fest München takes over cinemas across the city with documentaries from all over the world. It’s one of the biggest documentary festivals in Europe. The 2026 edition ran from 6 to 18 May, with a home-streaming edition carrying on for another week afterwards, handy if you can’t get to Munich.

The festival’s base is at the Gasteig HP8 cultural centre in Sendling. Programme and tickets are on the DOK.fest website.

Films under the stars

Munich does open-air cinema really well. Kino, Mond & Sterne in the Westpark puts on films most summer evenings on a stage by the lake, with the audience sitting on the steps of the old amphitheatre. Bring a cushion and a jumper because it gets chilly once the sun goes down. Details on the Kino, Mond & Sterne website.

And if you want to see how films actually get made, the Bavaria Filmstadt studio tour is a great day out, especially with kids.

The details

Filmfest München:	Late June to early July, every year. Website: filmfest-muenchen.de
Festival of Future Storytellers:	November. Next on 13 to 20 November 2026.
DOK.fest München:	May, plus a streaming edition. Website: dokfest-muenchen.de
Getting there:	Most cinemas are in the centre. For the Amerikahaus take the U2 to Königsplatz. For the Gloria Palast take any S-Bahn to Karlsplatz (Stachus). Gasteig HP8 is near the Brudermühlstraße U-Bahn stop on the U3.

Map

The map shows the Amerikahaus on Karolinenplatz, the heart of Filmfest München.

If you’re just after a night at the pictures outside festival time, see my guide to cinemas in Munich, including where to catch films in English.

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