This years Portland German Film Festival (Oct. 5-9, 2018 @ CINEMA 21) and KINOFEST Seattle (Oct. 19-21, 2018 @ The SIFF Film Center) will both open with director Claus Räfle’s film ” The Invisibles” (Die Unsichtbaren – Wir wollen leben). Unbelievable, but true: During the Second World War, some young Jews managed to become invisible in the anonymity of Berlin.
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Romy Schneider would have turned 80 on September 23, 2018. The Austrian-born actress is considered one of the few big stars of cinema in Germany. No other German actress has made such an impact or has had so much written about her. Romy Schneider became a massive star on the back of her trilogy of “Sissi” films, made in the
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After surviving the Holocaust, he founded the film company CCC in postwar Berlin. Film producer Artur “Atze” Brauner celebrates his 100th birthday and nearly as many film hits, from “Europa Europa” to “Old Shatterhand.” His life story reads like a novel. Born on August 1, 1918 to a Polish Jewish family in Lodz, Poland, Artur Brauner fled the Nazis to the
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Zeitgeist Northwest will present the 9th Annual Portland German Film Festival from Oct. 5 – 9, 2018 @ at Cinema 21. Stay connected with us and get updates on the films we are showing with facebook. Over the next month we will release our upcoming schedule, here are this year’s children’s movies. (All films are in German with English subtitles.)
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The DEFA Film Library at UMass Amherst was set up by Barton Byg, professor of film and German Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His idea was to make films from the East German DEFA Studios more available and known in North America and to broaden popular and scholarly understanding of filmmaking in the GDR by critically exploring its
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After two extremely successful years at the Northwest Film Forum, KINOFEST Seattle 2018 will now move to the SIFF Film Center (305 Harrison St, Seattle, WA 98109). Thank you to everybody at the NWFF! Our 3rd annual KINOFEST Seattle will be October 19-21, 2018. Our annual festival showcases feature films, documentaries and short films that represent the state-of-the-art in German
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The German American Society of Portland in collaboration with the Portland German Film Festival presents a new children/youth and family film series of German language films from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. (All films will be shown in German with English subtitles.) The screenings will be at the German American Society of Portland, 5626 NE Alameda Street, Portland, OR 97213 and
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Since 1977, the Portland International Film Festival has been the Northwest Film Center’s annual showcase of new world cinema. Over three weeks in February, through the exhibition of nearly 100 feature films and 60+ short films, PIFF audiences across the City of Portland travel the globe in theater seats through our celebration of the world’s filmmakers and cinephiles. There are
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It is the most renowned German film production company: Ufa was founded in 1917 and produced films through the end of World War II, during which time it served as a propaganda tool for the Nazis. UFA: the name evokes classic German feature films as well as propaganda works from the Nazi era. More recently, the production company has been behind major TV
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The Portland German Film Festival, in collaboration with Northwest Film Forum, will present the 2nd annual KINOFEST Seattle, November 17 – 19, 2017 at the Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave. in Seattle. After our very successful start with KINOFEST Seattle 2016, we will return with our 2nd annual KINOFEST Seattle 2017, which will include the newest in German-language cinema with features, docs and
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Swiss film is a late developer by international standards. There was no established film industry in Switzerland by the time the era of the talkies dawned in 1930. One of the reasons for this is the cultural peculiarity that Switzerland is divided into three main linguistic regions. All the regions – French-, Italian- and German-speaking Switzerland – turn far more
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Little known yet widely influential, Austria’s film industry is unique among world cinemas. While naming your favorite Austrian films may be a challenging exercise, this landlocked country also boasts one of the world’s most controversial and influential directors: Michael Haneke. Without a doubt he is the most internationally successful Austrian filmmaker working today, and his cinematic impact resonates globally. However
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German actor Moritz Bleibtreu will attend the screening of his movie BYE BYE GERMANY (Es war einmal in Deutschland) on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2017 @ 7.00 PM, Q&A will follow directly after the screening and he will receive the Portland German Film Festival Award 2017! (Schedule permitted.) Moritz Bleibtreu is one of few actors to traverse from German cinema to
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Director Simon Verhoeven’s WELCOME TO GERMANY (Willkommen bei den Hartmanns) will be opening this year’s Portland German Film Festival 2017. An outlandish, laugh-out-loud comedy about politics, cultural identity, xenophobia and everyday modern family issues that transcends borders as it touches on the current issues of today and how the influx of refugees from Africa and the Middle East may change
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Zeitgeist Northwest will present the 8th Annual Portland German Film Festival from Oct. 3 – 10, 2017 @ at Cinema 21. Stay connected with us and get updates on the films we are showing with facebook. Over the next month we will release our upcoming schedule, here are this year’s children’s movies. (All films are in German with English subtitles.)
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Rainer Werner Fassbinder was a German director, film producer, author and actor, and a representative of the New German Film movement. The international film world sees him as Germany’s most significant filmmaker after World War II. He passed away 35 years ago on June 10, 1982. While Fassbinder maintained a professional career that lasted less than fifteen years, he completed
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German film actress Romy Schneider died on May 29, 1982. Her incomparable charisma, versatility and turbulent private life, however, continue to fascinate. Schneider was born Rosemarie Magdalena Albach in Vienna into a family of actors that included her paternal grandmother Rosa Albach-Retty, her Austrian father Wolf Albach-Retty and her German mother, actress Magda Schneider. Romy Schneider’s first film, made when
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Born August 5, 1935 in Germany, Ballhaus was an accomplished cinematographer, working closely with Rainer Werner Fassbinder on 16 films, beginning with 1970’s Whity and The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, Satan’s Brew, Chinese Roulette, The Marriage of Marie Braun and Lili Marleen among others. Working with Fassbinder on the film “Martha,” he developed the 360-degree tracking shot that
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After a very successful inauguration of the NEXT GENERATION SHORT TIGER program at last years Portland German Film Festival and KINOFEST Seattle, we will continue with this short film program and show NEXT GENERATION SHORT TIGER 2016 at both of this years festival. The short film program NEXT GENERATION was created by German Films in 1998 to introduce young talents
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The Portland German Film Festival, in collaboration with Northwest Film Forum, will present the 2nd annual KINOFEST Seattle, November 17 – 19, 2017 at the Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave. in Seattle. After our very successful start with KINOFEST Seattle 2016, we will return with our 2nd annual KINOFEST Seattle 2017, which will include the newest in German-language cinema with features, docs and
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The first female filmmaker to achieve international acclaim, Margarethe von Trotta is referred to as a “leading force” of the New German Cinema movement. As she turns 75, here are the highlights of her career. New projects in the making Margarethe von Trotta is now preparing her next film and working on a documentary on scriptwriter and director Ingmar Bergman, whose
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“Toni Erdmann,” a German-language tragicomedy that is one of the most surprising and lauded films of the year, capturing the well-meaning fumble that can occur when parents and children try to connect and it was just nominated in the Foreign Language Film category. But while centering on the relationship between a shaggy elderly jokester and his uptight adult daughter, “Toni Erdmann”
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STEFAN ZWEIG: FAREWELL TO EUROPE (Vor der Morgenröte)   Sunday, February 5, 2017, 7:00PM @ CINEMA21 Director: Maria Schrader Screenplay: Maria Schrader, Jan Schomburg Austria, Germany, France, 2016, 106 min. ,German, English, Spanish with English subtitles. Starring: Josef Hader, Barbara Sukowa, Aenne Schwarz, Matthias Brandt, Charly Hübner     Discussion with writer-director Maria Schrader following the screening. Schrader’s film episodically
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The BAMBI award was brought into being in 1948. In a time when the fabric of everyday life was weaved from resignation and ruins, the symbol of the deer gave people hope. Originally, the BAMBI was a film prize for which the readers of Filmrevue magazine chose their favorite big screen star. As TV sets found their way into more
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In November of 2014 the Portland German Film Festival started to show a variety of GERMAN and GERMAN language films from Germany, Austria and Switzerland to give our audience the chance to experience the diversity, history and progress of German-speaking countries in Europe. Audiences having the chance to see these films on a regular basis at the CLINTON STREET THEATER on
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Swiss film director and screenwriter, Xavier Koller will attend the screening of his movie SCHELLEN-URSLI (The little mountain boy) (Schellen-Ursli) on Sept. 24, 2016 at CINEMA 21 (schedule permitted). Koller made movie history when he was the first Swiss native to win an Academy Award ® for his film Journey of Hope (Reise der Hoffnung), which won the Academy Award for
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In 2015, the Portland German Film Festival started its series of German classic movies which will be shown at a matinee on Sundays @ 1.00 PM during the festival. This year’s classic film will be “GIRLS IN UNIFORM” (Mädchen in Uniform), starring Lilli Palmer and Romy Schneider.   Romy Schneider (1938 – 1982) was born as Rosemarie Magdalena Albach in
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Zeitgeist Northwest will present the 7th Annual Portland German Film Festival from Sept. 23 - 27, 2016 @ at Cinema 21. Stay connected with us and get updates on the films we are showing with facebook.

Over the next weeks we will release our upcoming schedule, starting with this years children's movies: SCHELLEN-URSLI (The little Mountain boy), HORDUR and MY FRIEND RAFFI.

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The 7th annual Portland German Film Festival is introducing their first short film program. In 2015, ELLA a film by Paula Romy Riemann was the first short ever to be screened in our festival.   The short film program NEXT GENERATION was created by German Films in 1998 to introduce young talents from Germany to international audiences. Selected from film school
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The Portland German Film Festival, in collaboration with Northwest Film Forum, will present KINOFEST Seattle, October 7-9, 2016 at Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave. in Seattle. KINOFEST Seattle will include the newest in German-language cinema with features, docs and shorts from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. All films will be in German with English subtitles.  Additionally, the festival will host filmmakers from all over the world to present
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In 1946, just a year after Nazi Germany’s surrender, the Soviet Military Administration granted the first post-war license to the newly founded Deutsche Filmaktiengesellschaft (DEFA). Comprised of filmmakers who had returned from exile and others who had been waiting for a chance to work in the film industry of a democratic Germany, DEFA moved onto the old UFA premises and
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The Weimar Republic period of German history, from 1918-1933, saw economic, stylistic and cultural changes in the German film industry that would have profound effects on the history of German cinema. World War I ended with the Treaty of Versailles, and any hopes of post-war prosperity were destroyed for Germany. Germany was blamed as the sole instigator of the war
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In November of 2014 the Portland German Film Festival started to show a variety of GERMAN and GERMAN language films from Germany, Austria and Switzerland on every 2nd Wednesday of each month. Audiences having the chance to see these films on a regular basis at the CLINTON STREET THEATER. (Children movies will be playing on Sunday afternoons – please check our
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If you missed this year’s Portland German Film Festival, you will have a second chance to see some of our films at the Seventh Annual International Film Festival at OSU in Corvallis from October 12th-18th, 2015.

The festival is hosted by the School of Language, Culture, and Society in the College of Liberal Arts and the screenings take place at Darkside Cinema, 215 SW 4th Street, Corvallis.

All films are free and open to the public. You need to obtain a ticket at the Darkside Cinema BEFORE entering the auditorium. Seats are limited - come early for guaranteed seating.

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Katja Riemann, will be in attendance and receive the 2015 Portland German Film Festival Award for her body of work including dozens of movie roles and TV acting credits as this year’s festival kicks off with the American Premiere of A MISPLACED WORLD (Die abhandene Welt), the latest from legendary director Margarethe von Trotta on September 25, 2015. This will
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