Berlin & Beyond Film Festival

05/02/2026

📽️✨🎶 Congratulations to our friends at on their 29th San Francisco Silent Film Festival, happening May 6-10, 2026 at The Castro Theatre, with 22 programs, 8 different countries, and 23 musicians from around the world.

Don’t miss these four illuminating and sensational German silent films:

- Gennaro Righelli’s 'Sensation im Wintergarten' (1929) on May 7 at 5:30 PM. Starring Paul Richter and Claire Rommer. Music by Guenter Buchwald and Frank Bockius.

- Harry Piel’s 'His Greatest Bluff' (1927) on May 9 at 7 PM. Starring Harry Piel, Albert Paulig, and Marlene Dietrich. Music by Guenter Buchwald and Frank Bockius.

- Julia Wallmüller’s 'Bookkeeper Kremke' (1930) on May 10 at 1 PM. Starring Herman Valentin and Anna Sten. Music by Guenter Buchwald and Frank Bockius

- Carl Th. Dreyer’s 'Love One Another' (1922) on May 10 at 5 PM. Starring Vladimir Gajdarov and Polina Piekowskaja. Music by Guenter Buchwald, Mas Koga, and Sascha Jacobsen.

🎟️ Tickets & All Details at SilentFilm.org

Use discount code BERBE for a $2 off these four titles. Max of 2 discounted tickets per order.

04/03/2026

📽️✨ : We had a fabulous time with all of you at the Berkeley program of the 30th Anniversary Berlin & Beyond Film Festival 2026 this March 22nd & 23rd with 6 sensational films, including a very special encore of KÖLN 75 with Director/Screenwriter Ido Fluk and Lead Actor Mala Emde in person (photos 1, 2, 8-10).

❤️ Vielen, vielen Dank to Luminary Sponsor Excelsior German Center and the Board of Directors for all your support for 9 consecutive years for the expanding Berkeley program, and for over two decades of festival funding. Vielen Dank to Rialto Cinemas Elmwood Berkeley and Team. Vielen Dank to all the cinemagoers!

🖼️ Photos 4 & 5 include Goethe-Institut San Francisco Director Alexander Behrmann; Excelsior German Center President Petra Specht; Excelsior German Center VP Petra Kubler; Berlin & Beyond Director Sophoan Sorn.

🖼️ Guests in the photos from the Berkeley Brunch, hosted by the Excelsior German Center, included: German Consulate General San Francisco Deputy Consul General Franciska Obermeyer (photo 14), Actor Thomas Prenn ('A Land Within' and 'Blind at Heart') and Mill Valley Film Festival’s Director of Programming Zoë Elton (photo 15); GISSV - German International School of Silicon Valley Board President Shamala Hinrichsen and Consulate General of Switzerland in San Francisco Cultural and Public Diplomacy Officer Jale Yoldas (photo 17); GISSV Communications Manager Katja Koehler (photo 18).

📸:

04/03/2026

🏆 Congratulations to the 30th Anniversary Berlin & Beyond Film Festival 2026 Audience Award Best Feature Film winner: AMRUM. Directed by Fatih Akin, and starring Jasper Billerbeck, Laura Tonke, Lisa Hagmeister, Diane Kruger, and Matthias Schweighöfer.

✨ Statement by Director Fatih Akin:

Dear Berlin & Beyond Festival, dear audience,
Thank you so much for this wonderful award! I wish I could be there with you to thank you in person, but I’m knee-deep in post-production on my new film, which has to be finished in the coming days. I am thrilled to receive this award for ‘Amrum’ in San Francisco! At the beginning of my career, I attended the Berlin & Beyond Festival with my very first film, ‘Kurz und Schmerzlos’ (‘Short Sharp Shock’). I think that was in January 2000. I will never forget those ten days there. It was my first trip to the West Coast of the U.S. I really wanted to see the Pacific Ocean, which I managed to do. The waves emerging from the gray fog gave me strength. At least, that’s what I imagine. San Francisco is a city where I would have loved to live - and especially to write! Maybe in another life. ‘Amrum’ is a special film in my career; it’s a film by another director. The director is Hark Bohm, who sadly passed away last year. He asked me to shoot the film for him, which I did. This award from the audience itself shows that the work has borne fruit and that we’ve touched your hearts. Thank you again! I hope we’ll see each other again soon with one of my films. Until then: so long!

📽️✨ Amrum is a release in the US. SF Bay Area theatrical dates to be announced. Amrum was produced by Bombero International, , and Rialto Film. World Sales:

📷: © Bombero International GmbH/Rialto Film/Warner Bros. Entertainment GmbH/Gordan Timpen.

04/01/2026

📽️✨ We are honored to have presented the NorCal Premiere of Christian Petzold’s psychological drama and gothic fairytale MIROIRS NO. 3 at our recent 30th Anniversary Berlin & Beyond Film Festival. If you missed the film, you can catch it now in Bay Area theaters: Now playing at Rialto Cinemas Elmwood in Berkeley and the Vogue Theater in San Francisco. Opening April 3rd at Rialto Cinemas Sebastopol and the California Film Institute’s Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael.

🚗 A 1-2 Special release: “After surviving a traumatic car crash, a young pianist (played by the mesmerizing Paula Beer) finds refuge with a local family, forming a healing but fragile bond that is soon threatened by the stirring ghosts of their collective pasts.” For showtimes & trailer, visit: https://miroirs.film

03/26/2026

🥰❤️ Merci vielmal, Consulate General of Switzerland in San Francisco! ✨

03/26/2026

📽️✨ Vielen, vielen Dank! Thank you ALL so very much for attending, supporting, empowering, and celebrating our 30th Anniversary Berlin & Beyond Film Festival!

💛 presented by .sanfrancisco
Luminary Sponsors .gfta and
Premiere Sponsors , , and
Signature Sponsors , , and
📸:

03/22/2026

✨ Vielen Dank to our very special film guests of the 30th Anniversary Berlin & Beyond Film Festival for being with us in San Francisco & Berkeley: Charlotte Taschen (Actor & Producer, “Bad Painter”), Ido Fluk (Director & Screenwriter, “Köln 75”), Mala Emde (Actor, “Köln 75”), Thomas Prenn (Actor, “A Land Within”), and Burhan Qurbani (Director & Screenwriter, “No Beast. So Fierce.”)
📷:

03/19/2026

✨ Vielen Dank German Film Office! Tickets for Bad Painter and Köln 75 are still available at BerlinBeyond.com or at door.

03/18/2026

✨ San Francisco & Berkeley: Join us March 19-23 for the 30th Berlin & Beyond Film Festival! Tickets at BerlinBeyond.com

Home

03/18/2026

✨ 🎞️ 🎶 Join us March 19th at 6:00 PM for the 30th Anniversary Berlin & Beyond Film Festival Opening Night at , San Francisco, featuring KÖLN 75, joined by Director Ido Fluk and Lead Actor in person.
Tickets: BerlinBeyond.com

A release in association with .

Presented by .sanfrancisco
Opening Night Film presentation sponsored by Grants for the Arts, the Excelsior German Center, , and . Community support from .

03/18/2026

2 days away! 🤩🥳 Get tickets for our 30th Berlin & Beyond Film Festival March 19-23, 2026 in SF & Berkeley at BerlinBeyond.com
Presented by Goethe-Institut San Francisco