New features by Emily Atef, Danny Boyle and Martin McDonagh are among the line-up of Malika Rabahallah’s third edition as director of FilmFest Hamburg, which will take place from September 24 – October 3 in Germany.
Venice titles heading to Hamburg include Boyle’s Ink and McDonagh’sWild Horse Nine, as well as Wim Wenders’ 3D documentary From Inside Out - The Architecture of Peter Zumthor, and Ali Asgari’s A Bit Of Light.
Atef’s Call Me Queen, about the friendship between a single mother and an Irish journalist in 1990s Nairobi, will screen in Hamburg fresh from its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).
The Filmfest’s programme includes German premieres of seven films submitted as national candidates for the 2027 Oscars, ranging from Lee Chang-dong’s Possible Love (South Korea) and Andrius Blaževičius’ How To Divorce During The War (Lithuania) to Manuela Martelli’s The Meltdown (Chile) and Palme d’Or winner Cristian Mungiu’s Fjord (Romania).
This year’s Filmmakers in Focus sidebar is dedicated to Belgian filmmaker Lukas Dhont and Polish director Malgorzata Szumowska.
Dhont will be in Hamburg for the German premiere of his latest film Coward and screenings of his previous two features, Close and Girl, while Szumowska’s The Idiot(s) will open the festival. She will also present her two Silver Bear-winning films Body and Mug.
Helen Mirren will be the recipient of the 2026 Douglas Sirk award (named after the director born in Hamburg as Detlef Sierck). The UK actress will receive the honour on September 29 ahead of the German premiere of Anton Corbijn’s A Talent For Murder in which she plays crime writer Patricia Highsmith.
The 2026 edition of FilmFest will also hold its ‘Day of Free Entrance’ for the third time on German Unity Day (October 3), to celebrate the power of cinema and the shared film experience with its audience.
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