The 43rd edition of the Munich International Film Festival (26 June-5 July) has revealed the 16 titles selected for this year’s New German Cinema section. Continuing its role as a key platform for emerging German-language voices, the programme brings together fiction features and documentaries reflecting a wide range of contemporary concerns, from family histories and identity politics to memory and social fracture.

Memory, inheritance and the weight of the past run through several works. My Mother’s Mirror by Jutta Brückner, whom the festival is honouring via an homage, stars Corinna Harfouch as an archaeologist haunted by memories, illusions and repressed truths following her mother’s death. Memories of a Forest by debutante Katharina Rabl follows Julia Windischbauer as a young woman whose grandmother’s death forces her to make a decision between family expectations and her own plans. In the dystopian Echo of Tomorrow’s War by Nicolas Ehret, Ulrich Matthes and Enno Trebs star as an estranged father and son in a politically fractured Europe sliding towards military escalation.

Questions of family, intimacy and emotional rupture shape another batch of films. Sisters in Arms by Milena Aboyan (Elaha), based on Shida Bazyar’s novel, is a story centred on female solidarity and shared experience in a socially tense environment. The Miserable Mother, the sophomore outing by Susanne Heinrich (Aren't You Happy?), explores motherhood and emotional fracture through a Pop Art-inspired musical register. Dear Future Self by Ella Cieslinski and Nina Wesemann focuses on female friendship and its fragility, as two friends gradually drift apart. The dark comedy Let Sleeping Dogs Lie by Pauline Roenneberg sees a birthday celebration turn into a darkly humorous reckoning when the death of a grandfather on his 100th birthday brings buried family secrets to the surface (see the news). In Beautiful Souls by Tom Schreiber, August Diehl stars as a man attempting to start over on the Costa Brava – but he must first confront unresolved personal issues.

Youth, identity and coming-of-age trajectories emerge in Forever 16 by Brezel Göring, which adapts an unfinished novel by his musical partner Françoise Cactus, who passed away in 2021, and was shot on Super 8, following three friends on a shared holiday as they fall in love with the same person. Roots and Wings by Anatol Schuster (Chaos and Silence) centres on a restless search for belonging, as a young street performer takes her little daughter to Italy in pursuit of a dream.

Society, politics and contemporary dislocation are explored in The Ballad from Wednesday to Thursday by Christoph Otto, which unfolds over a single night in the microcosm of Cologne’s bars, putting the fragile balance of everyday democracy to the test. Identitti by Randa Chahoud (The Interpreter of Silence, The Accidental Rebel) adapts Mithu Sanyal’s acclaimed novel, exploring questions of representation and the legacy of colonialism. So Happy It Hurts by David Helmut, co-produced with Indonesia, follows the filming of a reality show in Bali that leads an influencer towards a mysterious jungle commune. Bearhunting by Peter Meister (The Black Square) is set in a pseudo-historical 19th-century context, in which a murder is attributed to a bear, despite the fact that such animals have not existed in Germany for a long time.

Claudia Müller’s documentary Rebecca Horn – The Secret Life of Things offers a portrait of the titular influential artist, tracing the lasting impact of her installations, films and kinetic objects on the way contemporary art is perceived. Meanwhile, the other documentary in the section, Hiddensee by Annekatrin Hendel (Beauty and Decay), focuses on the titular Baltic Sea island and traces different phases of German history, from 1920s artist communities and bohemian enclaves throughout the East German state to contemporary political developments.

This year’s curators, Christoph Gröner, Julia Weigl and Urs Spörri, emphasised: “The 16 world premieres in the New German Cinema section reflect the delicate and rapidly changing state of our society. The issues of today are approached in a refreshingly controversial and varied manner that is often satirical and tongue-in-cheek. Dystopian visions of the future exist side by side with fairy-tale escapism. And all of this boasts a level of quality that can hold its own alongside any international equivalent.”

The section will once again culminate in the German Cinema New Talent Awards, recognising achievements in directing, producing, screenwriting and acting. The prizes, valued at €70,000, are supported by DZ Bank AG, Bavaria Film and Bayerischer Rundfunk. The 2026 jury consists of actress Haley Louise Jones, producer Trini Götze and film director Visar Morina.