About KINDERFILMFEST MÜNCHEN

Hello and welcome to KINDERFILMFEST MÜNCHEN! Every summer, we present the latest and most extraordinary children’s and teen films from Germany and around the world.

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The Kinderfilmfest is a place where children can discover, marvel, learn and dream. We show films that are full of imagination and adventure; funny, exciting and sometimes sad and serious stories that deal with everyday life and the special experiences of children from all over the world.

The films for young people 14 and older, meanwhile, focus on the hopes and challenges involved in growing up, and the urge to go out into the world, to try to understand it and find one’s place in it.

Feature films, animated films, documentaries, and short films: all different formats and narrative styles of cinema are presented here. Our goal is to make children and young people marvel and contemplate things, and to have them discover new ways of thinking about the world and about cinema.

 

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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.

Tobi Krell, program director of Kinderfilmfest
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What can you experience at KINDERFILMFEST MÜNCHEN?

The focus of KINDERFILMFEST MÜNCHEN is, of course, on the films. Seeing children’s eyes light up in fascination as they follow the stories on the big screen in a dark movie theater is one of the finest moments of the festival. And whenever the children can’t wait to ask questions of the filmmakers and actors after a screening, we’ve certainly done our job.

Since most of the international festival films have not yet been dubbed into German, all of them are shown in their original language and are dubbed into German live at the theater by our professional voice-over artists. Although all of the dialogue is dubbed, the original soundtrack can still be heard, which retains the atmosphere of the film. This way, the variety in children’s films can be experienced up close and without restriction.

Marvel

Learn

Dream

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

Ulrike Seyffarth

The festival also thrives on events outside of the film screenings. Special events related to our films, film appreciation workshops, and panel discussions by experts offer audiences that are young or young at heart, as well as educators, an attractive setting in which to discuss films, their production methods and themes with filmmakers and media experts, or to discover how to approach the medium itself in a fun way. Additionally, accompanying material is made available as a free download [link], summarizing interesting facts about the films shown and providing teachers with educational tips on using films in the classroom.

 

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About the history of KINDERFILMFEST MÜNCHEN

Taking children seriously was the principle that Hans and Christel Strobel followed when they established the Kinderfilmfest as a separate section for children’s films at the very inception of FILMFEST MÜNCHEN in 1983. The lively and diverse culture around children’s films that we take for granted today simply did not exist in West Germany in the early 1980s. Hans and Christel Strobel, who established the Kinderkino München in addition to the Kinderfilmfest, took this to heart. Screening films from Denmark, Sweden, what was then Czechoslovakia, and Iran, they showed Munich audiences right from the start how varied and sophisticated children’s films can be.

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

Katrin Hoffmann, Leiterin des Kinderfilmfest (2005-2018)
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The directors of KINDERFILMFEST MÜNCHEN

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.