A wealthy teenager from New York travels to Texas to stop a suspected school shooter – hoping to win the heart of his politically active crush.
What begins as a heroic impulse turns into a relentless journey through a moral labyrinth: caught between digital self-staging, youthful idealism, and the search for meaning in a world where every act is instantly judged.

More than a mafia film: The Godfather is a political epic about power, corruption, and the American dream. Coppola portrays capitalism as crime by other means, the family as a metaphor for a self-consuming system. A masterpiece about loyalty, violence, and the price of ambition – cool, majestic, and timeless.

A journey to the end of the world – and deep into human perception. Beyond the White accompanies researchers and artists into the endless expanses of the Arctic, where snow, ice and light merge into a hypnotic space of experience. Kalachikhin observes with a calm, poetic gaze how people try to find meaning in this white void – between beauty, isolation and climate reality.

A documentary essay about seeing, silence and the fragile balance between humans and nature.

The BFFF presents, in cooperation with the shorts film festival at Offenburg University, seven short films and student works. 

Especially exciting for young festival participants! FSK 12. With the filmmakers in attendance.

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The documentary follows Erich Finsches – a true Viennese original and Holocaust survivor. Over six years, director Matthias Jaklitsch accompanied him to memorials, journeys, and encounters with young people.
The result: a moving portrait of humour, courage, and humanity.
Not a classic survivor’s film, but a living encounter – between generations, between filmmaker and subject, and with the question of what remembrance means today.

An intense drama about rebellious teenager Vilma, who struggles against authority in a youth facility and a system that fails to see her needs.

Tickets available online and at the cinema box office.

Fairy Tales and Legends from the Black Forest, Alsace and Switzerland
An afternoon of stories from our region – mysterious, poetic, unforgettable.
Actor Robert Herzl reads and interprets classic and lesser-known tales from the Black Forest, Alsace and Switzerland.
Between forest clearings, lost souls and talking streams unfold stories where folklore meets early psychology – showing how close the fantastic lies to reality.
Reading and presentation.

Special guest Paul Frey is an author, journalist and radio writer.

From fairy-tale films to fantasy series, the fantastic remains timeless.
This panel asks why, in a world defined by facts and crises, stories of magic, transformation and the supernatural are flourishing again.
Where does escapism end and insight begin?
And how does artificial intelligence now play a role in shaping imagination, interpreting myths, and creating new worlds?

Torsten Dewi, author and former TV editor; Johannes Grenzfurthner, director, host, and so much more; Michèle M Salmony Di Stefano, fairy-tale storyteller, performer, psychosocial counselor.

A wealthy teenager from New York travels to Texas to stop a suspected shooter – hoping to win the heart of his politically active crush.
What begins as an act of heroism becomes an unflinching journey through a moral maze: between digital self-display, youthful idealism, and the search for meaning in a world where every act is judged instantly.
An intense, precisely observed film about responsibility, perception and the seductive power of being seen.

Artificial intelligence writes loglines, creates images and simulates voices. Fascinating and unsettling.
This panel looks boldly ahead but keeps its feet on the ground, showing what is already reliable today and where the line runs between technical assistance and artistic deception.

The more algorithms decide which stories “work”, the more authorship and responsibility shift.
AI can support and inspire, but also deceive and manipulate, blurring our sense of originality.
When a voice moves us but no one knows who it belongs to, or when data imperceptibly changes a genre’s emotional tone, it becomes clear:
the power of technology lies not only in what it creates but in what it makes us believe.

With Kay Meseberg (Head of Mission Innovation at ARTE Strasbourg) and Emil Winkler (media and copyright lawyer, Crown Entertainment Law).
Moderation: Johannes Grenzfurthner.
Panel discussion.

Anja Jonuleit (bestselling author) and Bianca Dombrowa (editor) reading and talk about writing between research, intuition and digital transformation.

Reading and discussion.

With Adrian Wootton, CEO of Film London and one of the most distinctive voices in international film culture, celebrating the unforgettable music of THE WHO.
(Event held in English.)

Tickets available online and at the cinema box office.

Four young women in supported housing try to build their own utopia in a world without rules.
One wants to die, another remains silent, a third faces deportation, the fourth is numbed by privilege.
Together they live in a space between protection and isolation, guidance and loneliness.
An intense debut about coming of age on the margins of society – honest, fragile and tenderly told.

Feature film + Q&A with the director.

The BFFF presents, in cooperation with the shorts film festival at Offenburg University, 3 short films and student works. 

Especially exciting for young festival participants! FSK 12. With the filmmakers in attendance.

Read more

Documentary film with brief introduction

In 1897, Swedish engineer Salomon August Andrée and his companions Nils Strindberg and Knut Fraenkel set out in a hydrogen balloon to reach the North Pole – a daring attempt to conquer the Arctic from the air.
After just a few days, contact was lost. Thirty-three years later, a Norwegian ship discovered their remains, along with diaries, medical supplies and 93 preserved photographs documenting their final days.
This film reconstructs the expedition between delusion and vision, between scientific ambition and human fragility.
Through the voices of historians, writers and researchers emerges a haunting mosaic – an archaeological thriller about the price of discovery, the beauty of the unknown and memory melting away in the ice of time.

The legendary producer looks back on five decades in music – from the Olympic Studios in London to The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and beyond.
In conversation with Adrian Wootton.

Masterclass & Q&A (in English).

A portrait of Germany’s most unconventional undertaker, following him through a life between farewell, grief and an irrepressible joy of living.

In the 1970s, young Jeanne escapes into an abandoned film studio – a place full of shadows, memories and unplayed roles.
There she encounters the mysterious actress Cristina, who draws her into a world of illusion and desire.
A hypnotic interplay between reality and fiction, longing and the loss of identity.
Lucile Hadžihalilović tells of female self-discovery, artistic obsession and the dangerous beauty of cinema itself.

With Schwarzwaldmädel, the post-war Heimatfilm began its triumphant rise in 1950.
In glowing colour and idealised images, Hans Deppe created a world of order, innocence and romantic harmony – a cinematic counter-image to the hardships of the time.
Today, the film stands as a cultural document: a mirror of collective longing for healing and new beginnings, and an early example of how cinema shapes dreams to hide wounds.

A sparkling romantic comedy about the adventure of everyday life: Paul and Corie, newly married and opposites in every way, move into a tiny New York apartment – and discover that love needs more than romance.
A light-footed, witty time capsule of 1960s optimism, carried by the irresistible energy of Jane Fonda and Robert Redford.

Based on Wilhelm Hauff’s classic fairy tale, The Cold Heart tells the story of Peter Munk, a charcoal burner who trades his heart for a stone – and only too late realises what he has lost.
A parable against greed and alienation, told in striking imagery between expressionism and folklore.
A classic of East German post-war cinema showing how fairy tales reflect the search for humanity.

Poster: © DEFA-Stiftung / Kurt Geffers

The film follows renowned photographer Martin Schoeller on a deeply personal journey through portraits, encounters and questions of identity.
A powerful, humanist plea for empathy in a divided world.

From London schoolgirl to icon of a generation: Twiggy traces the life of a girl who became the face of the 1960s – a symbol of change, youth and self-determination.
Sadie Frost’s documentary reveals the woman behind the image: resilient, creative and constantly reinventing herself.
An energetic, precise portrait of fame, femininity and the right to self-definition.

Two contemporary literary voices discuss writing between intuition and structure.
A conversation about creativity, storytelling and what it means to write today.

A sensitive portrait of Felix Rottberger, who survived the Holocaust as a child and now shares his story as a member of Freiburg’s Jewish community.
A deeply human film about loss, faith and the miracle of survival – and a gentle plea for remembrance and reconciliation.

While searching for Nazi documents in a remote Austrian farmhouse, a team uncovers a hidden evil.

Known worldwide for her beloved children’s characters, Astrid Lindgren is revealed here in a new role: as a chronicler of the Second World War. Based on the diaries she kept between 1939 and 1945, the film uncovers a lesser-known side of the author – a woman who recorded the turmoil of her time with empathy, clarity and an unwavering moral compass.

Hidden for decades in a wardrobe and only published in 2015, the diaries document war, terror and hardship from the perspective of a mother and early feminist. Wilfried Hauke’s sensitive documentary weaves these remarkable texts together with archival footage and contemporary voices to create a moving portrait of humanity, responsibility and the enduring power of language.

In the presence of the director, Wilfried Hauke

A hypnotic film about desire, illusion and identity.
Lucile Hadžihalilović tells, in dreamlike images, of female self-discovery, artistic obsession and the dangerous beauty of cinema itself.