CineKindl (formerly KINDERFILMFEST MÜNCHEN) is the competition for our youngest audience and for everyone else. Every summer, a selection of the latest and most unusual films from Germany and around the world are screened here.

Photo: Bojan Ritan

CineKindl is a place to discover, marvel, learn and dream. We show films full of fantasy and adventure; funny, exciting and sometimes sad and serious stories that tell of everyday life and the special experiences of young people from all over the world. The hopes and challenges of growing up are just as much at the center as the urge to go out into the world, to learn to understand it and to find one's own place in it. The films take the audience on a journey: into new worlds, other cultures and also into cinematic forms that are different and sometimes challenging.

Feature films, animated films, documentaries, short films - all possible forms and narrative styles of cinema come into their own here. Last but not least, our aim is to introduce young audiences to the cinema as a unique cultural venue. Because the young people of today are the moviegoers of tomorrow.

Foto: Bojan Ritan

A good children’s film takes its young audience on a journey to new environments and unfamiliar cultures, and introduces them to styles of film that are different and that might challenge them.

The films are the focus of our program section. Seeing enthusiastic faces following the stories on the big screen in the dark of the movie theater is one of the best moments of the festival's work. And when the young audience can hardly hold back their questions to the filmmakers and actors after the screening, the work is more than successful.

FILMFEST MÜNCHEN attaches great importance to the presentation of the films. The majority of the films are presented in the presence of the filmmakers. In order to facilitate an exchange between the filmmakers and the young audience, there is an opportunity for a discussion after each film screening. This allows children to ask all questions they may have about the films.

This FILMFEST MÜNCHEN's program section is aimed in particular at school classes, families and extracurricular group visits. The program with a large number of morning screenings and all the necessary information for a visit to the cinema will therefore be made available in good time via the CineKindl newsletter. Discounted tickets and ticket reservations for groups of 10 or more are available to all interested parties at ticketing@filmfest-muenchen.de

Educational materials summarizing interesting facts about the films shown and providing teachers with media education tips for film work in the classroom are available to download free of charge.

As most of the international festival films are not yet available in German dubbing, most films are shown in their original language and dubbed into German live in the cinema by our professional speakers. While the dialog of all characters is simultaneously dubbed, the original sound of the film can still be heard.This preserves the atmosphere of the movie.In this way, the diversity of children's films can be experienced up close and without restrictions. Films recommended for audiences aged 12 and over are shown with German subtitles.This is our way of introducing young audiences to reading subtitles.

Marvel

Learn

Dream

Photo: Kurt Krieger

Foto: Ronny Heine

The greatest compliment is when the children in the audience follow the film without noticing that it is being dubbed.

In addition to the young cinema audience, we also want to promote children's films in their aesthetic and narrative diversity. For this reason, the CineKindl Award has been presented to the director of the best film since 2022. An international jury of experts reviews the films and decides who receives the award. The prize is sponsored by the production company megaherz. With the CineKindl Audience Award, the audience also awards a prize to their favorite film at the end of the festival.

Taking children seriously - that was the basic idea of Hans and Christel Strobel when they established a separate children's film section at FILMFEST MÜNCHEN in 1983. What is taken for granted today simply did not exist in West Germany in the early 1980s: a lively and diverse children's film culture. Hans and Christel Strobel, who founded the Kinderfilmfest as well as the Kinderkino München, took this to heart. With international films from Denmark, Sweden, what was then Czechoslovakia and Iran, they showed Munich audiences from the very beginning just how varied and sophisticated children's films could be.

There’s no need to pretend that children don’t understand certain things.

Photo: Ronny Heine

A legend: Children's book author Astrid Lindgren together with festival director Eberhard Hauff and children's film festival director Hans Strobel

Hans and Christel Strobel directed the Kinderfilmfest for 22 years. In 2005, they were succeeded by Katrin Hoffmann, who had already worked for the Kinderfilmfest for several years and who upheld the Strobels’ founding idea in her work. In 2019, after 14 years, she passed the baton to Katrin Miller, who had directed the SchulKinoWoche Bayern for ten years. In 2021, Tobias Krell took over as program director. As “Checker Tobi” (KiKA), he, like his two predecessors, had spent a number of years in the children’s media sector and will continue the legacy of Hans and Christel Strobel in providing a platform for children’s films in all their variety and creativeness.