exground filmfest 38: Full Program Revealed!
Roughly 200 Films from 57 Countries // exground Xtras with Supporting Events // Cash and Non-Cash Prize Packages Worth Nearly 20,000 Euros
The program for the 38th edition of exground filmfest is now available online at www.exground.com. From 14 to 23 November, the festival will present around 200 short and feature films at its partner venues in Wiesbaden as well as cinemas in Frankfurt am Main. From nearly 2,050 submissions, the curatorial team has selected the most compelling films from 57 countries. In addition, exground filmfest’s YouTube channel will once again feature special content to accompany the in-person festival. In a total of nine competitions, exground filmfest will be awarding monetary prizes and prize packages valued at nearly 20,000 euros.
Countries Represented, Supporting Program and Festival Venues
The selected films include 16 world premieres, one international premiere, five European premieres and an impressive 39 German premieres. Germany is the most represented country, with 42 films, while France comes in second with 19 films and co-productions within the program. However, the program also features cinema nations that are often underrepresented or virtually absent in German cinemas, such as Bangladesh, Haiti, Iraq, Lesotho, Kenya, North Macedonia and Myanmar.
The exground Xtras offer industry events, art exhibitions, the beloved exground Gong Show and the annual Film Quiz held in the Marktkirche crypt. In the scope of the latter, host Rex Kramer invites the audience to join in shaping the program by choosing works from a rich film collection: from Almodóvar to Tarantino, from ALIEN to STAR WARS. In addition, a popular annual program presented by curator Bernd Brehmer brings together a wide range of film material this year under the motto UTOPIA VS. DYSTOPIA. What happens when utopian worlds degenerate into dystopian nightmares, “strange new worlds” become pure horror and “new civilizations” lead to human catastrophes? This sci-fi Viewer’s Digest-like excursion into the unknown worlds of Super 8 home entertainment from the ’60s to ’80s of the previous century joyfully explores all this and much more.
In addition to the festival venues in Wiesbaden – the Atelier at Apollo Kinocenter, Murnau-Filmtheater, the Marktkirche crypt, the cinema at Museum Wiesbaden as well as Nassauischer Kunstverein and Literaturhaus Villa Clementine – select films from the Thematic Focus program will also be shown again in Frankfurt am Main at Pupille Kino, on the campus of Frankfurt University.
Film Program: Germany, Europe, USA and the World
The selection at exground filmfest is divided into the sections Made in Germany, American Independents, European Cinema, World Cinema and the youth days.
The 2025 edition of exground filmfest features six Oscar submissions!
These include Ivona Juka‘s film noir drama BEAUTIFUL EVENING, BEAUTIFUL DAY (KR/PL/CA/CY/BA 2024), which already represented Croatia at this year’s Academy Awards in the Best International Feature Film category. Shot almost completely in black and white, the film is set in Communist Yugoslavia in 1957 and features charismatic lead performances. A group of former partisan fighters who now work as filmmakers in the propaganda department fall out of favour with the party: Emir, a party loyalist, is tasked with monitoring them – with the aim of exposing their clandestine homosexuality and punishing them brutally. As the harassment increases, the protagonists’ struggle for personal freedom becomes a fight for survival.
Chile’s official Oscar submission, THE MYSTERIOUS GAZE OF THE FLAMINGO,directedby Diego Céspedes (CL/FR/BE/DE/SP 2025), is also coming to Wiesbaden. Eleven-year-old Lidia grows up in the early 1980s in the magnificent Western-like desert landscape of Northern Chile. She was adopted by the members of an illustrious transgender troupe, whose nightly show is the only source of amusement for the workers of this dusty mining town. During the day, the men show contempt, but at night desire rises. The mood towards the queer community becomes increasingly aggressive when a mysterious illness begins to spread, said to be passed through a single gaze, when one man falls in love with another. Chile’s entry for the 2026 International Feature Oscar received the main award in this year’s “Un Certain Regard” section in Cannes.
The audience at exground filmfest can also look forward to seeing Simón Mesa Soto‘swonderful tragicomedy A POET (CO/DE/SE 2025). Oscar’s obsession with poetry hasn’t brought him much glory thus far. Instead, he has become the living, breathing cliché of a failed poet: moody, frequently drunk and constantly broke. When he encounters Yurlady – a lower-class teenage girl with astonishing lyrical talent – hope blossoms a little in his marginal existence. His idea to present her at a poetry festival in Medellin seems to be leading him to his next big disaster. Soto’s film, Columbia’s Oscar submission for 2026, was honoured with the Jury Award in Cannes’ “Un Certain Regard” section and the main prize at the Munich International Film Festival.
THE PRESIDENT’S CAKE by Hasan Hadi (IQ/QA/US 2025) is a further highlight in this year’s program. Iraq in the 1990s: Saddam Hussein has decreed that his birthday be celebrated throughout the country. 9-year-old Lamia tries everything in her power to stay away from class as they hand out associated assignments. Alas, her efforts prove in vain as she ultimately draws the dreaded straw: she must bring a birthday cake to school. A seemingly impossible task in light of rampant food shortages. Since disobeying the dictator’s orders would have drastic consequences, she sets off on a daring journey with her friend Saeed and the rooster Hindi to somehow find the ingredients. Iraq’s Oscar submission for 2026 received two awards in Cannes this year.
Sang-il Lee‘s KOKUHO (JA 2025) offers a fascinating look at the world of kabuki. Renowned actor Hanai Hanjiro takes 14-year-old Kikuo under his wing following the death of the boy’s father at the hands of a rival Yakuza gang. Hanjiro instructs him in the centuries-old stage art alongside his own son Shunsuke. Family origins play a predominant role in this tradition-conscious theatre community, but Kikuo’s great talent enables him to achieve success as an outsider. In rivalry and friendship, Kikuo and Shunsuke remain connected over the decades. The film is Japan’s official entry for the 2026 Best International Feature Film Oscar.
Slovenia’s Academy Award submission, LITTLE TROUBLE GIRLS (SL/IT/RS/HR 2025), directed by Urška Djukić, is also coming to Wiesbaden. The film tells the story of Lucija, an introverted 16-year-old who joins the girls’ choir at her Catholic high school. When the choir travels to a monastery in the countryside for an intensive rehearsal weekend and Lucija develops an interest in a dark-eyed restorer and other ambiguous desires, her values and convictions seem ripe for re-examination. The film was honoured with the FIPRESCI Award in the “Perspectives” section at this year’s Berlinale.
Made in Germany with High-Calibre Audience Competition
As in the previous five years, for the 38th festival edition the audience will choose the winning film in the Made in Germany section. First up: Franz Müller‘s DAS GLÜCK DER TÜCHTIGEN (DE 2025). Everything is going swell for 30-year-old Mira: she has a loving husband (a former rapper), two kids and now even her own supermarket branch. The required capital is provided by Robert, her mother’s ex-partner, in the form of an interest-free loan. Alas, soon everything starts to go wrong: Her husband invests the money in a crypto fund and becomes a victim of fraud. And Robert wants something in return for his investment.
Julian Radlmaier‘s romantic adventure film SEHNSUCHT IN SANGERHAUSEN (DE 2025) transports the audience to the eponymous town, where an unusual friendship and the longing for a different life dominate events: Ursula, an East German waitress with a broken heart, and Neda, an Iranian YouTuber with a broken arm, both feel trapped and lonely in their precarious lives. Through a series of coincidences, the two women are led on an unexpected ghost hunt into the mountains.
FASSADEN (DE 2025) is the title of a magnificent documentary by Alina Cyranek. “When I gave up everything, from that point on he had me completely under his control. It started with a shove, then a kick, and then it got worse and worse.” A woman escapes from an abusive relationship and encounters a system that ignores her cries for help. Through dance, animated passages, unflinching interviews with experts from real-life practice and off-camera narration by Sandra Hüller, the hidden power structures behind domestic violence are exposed. A brilliantly realised piece of work: uniquely structured, with an original approach to editing, and told in an extremely moving manner.
Hille Norden‘s strikingly unconventional drama SMALLTOWN GIRL (DE 2025) is also part of the program. School friends Nore and Jonna meet again by chance in their early-twenties and move in together. Nore’s wild lifestyle leaves its mark on life in their shared flat in the form of alcohol, cigarettes and lots of male visitors. Over the course of their conversations, it becomes clear that Nore was never the precocious “femme fatale” who admired as well as bullied Jonna, but that she had experienced sexual assault as a young girl. Hand in hand, the two women undertake a painful journey back into Nore’s past.
DER TOD IST EIN ARSCHLOCH (DE 2025), by director Michael Schwarz and producer Alexander Griesser from Mainz, quietly and precisely follows a funeral team in action. Nobody wants to die, but when our time does finally arrive, we should have organised our departure from this life to the best of our abilities – and this fraught exit can even be cool, as this documentary film about Eric Wrede and his funeral home team demonstrates. The taboos surrounding death and grief are in need of a radical change. The way forward: less reticence and avoidance, more honesty and empathy.
In SCHWESTERHERZ (DE/ES 2025), Sarah Miro Fischer explores a very close relationship between siblings. Rose and her older brother Sam share an incredibly strong bond that seemingly nothing can shake, until a heavy charge calls everything into question: Sam is accused of rape and their deep connection is threatened when Rose stands to testify against her own brother in the scope of the investigation.
The competition is organised by Wiesbadener Kinofestival e. V., which also sponsors the Award for the Best German Feature Film, endowed with 3,000 euros in prize money.
European Cinema: A Dynamic Collection of Dramas and Comedies
The European Cinema section assembles nine highlights from the big A-list festivals. A particular stand-out here is Anders Thomas Jensen‘s quirky comedy THE LAST VIKING (DK/SE 2025). The magnificent Mads Mikkelsen plays Anker, who wants to finally enjoy life after serving 15 years in the pen for a robbery conviction. There’s only one little problem to solve first: he’s going to need to get his schizophrenic brother Manfred to reveal the secret location where he buried the loot. Alas, these days Manfred thinks he’s John Lennon and claims not to remember. A rather dubious psychiatrist advises Anker to amplify his brother’s delusional worldview and bring him in contact with other patients who are also dead certain they’re members of the Beatles.
Petr Kazda and Tomás Weinreb‘sromantic drama NOBODY LIKES ME (CZ/SK 2024), which takes the audience along to Prague and features fantastic cinematography and unusual editing, is a further highlight in this section. 29-year-old Sára works as an assistant at the army headquarters in the Czech capital. She is an attractive woman surrounded by young men, yet still without a partner. When she meets the gallant and charming Martin, she finally experiences the love of her life. Alas, when Sára wants to take their relationship to a deeper and more physical level, Martin unexpectedly rejects her.
Sophie Beaulieu‘s tumultuous comedy THE DOLL (FR 2025) is also an exceptional work of contemporary cinema. Rémi’s last breakup is still eating away at him. At the office, he’s already talking up his new girlfriend though, and his co-workers would love to meet her in person. Alas, that’s not as simple as it sounds, since Rémi has been withholding a crucial detail: Audrey, with whom he shares his table and bed, is just as fake as the artificial turf he sells. To further complicate matters, when temporary worker Patricia is hired, Audrey somehow, inexplicably, becomes animate. The two women proceed to turn Rémi’s life completely upside down.
Harris Dickinson‘s social drama URCHIN (GB 2025), whose male lead Frank Dillane was named best actor in the “Un Certain Regard” section in Cannes, is also very noteworthy. The film also received a FIPRESCI Award at the renowned festival. The film follows Mike, who, though young, has already been living unhoused in London for several years. He sleeps on the streets, begs, steals, eats at charity food trucks and numbs his pain with drugs. When he assaults a man that is actually trying to help him, he ends up in prison. However, his sentence is also a chance to rehabilitate himself. He makes a sincere attempt at a fresh start, but the old abyss of self-destruction is never far away. With URCHIN, actor Harris Dickinson (BEACH RATS, TRIANGLE OF SADNESS, BABYGIRL) makes the transition to directing and impresses with an unvarnished social drama.
Guillaume Giovanetti and Çagla Zencirci‘s gripping thriller CONFIDANTE
(TR 2025) is set in Ankara in 1999. Under her pseudonym Arzu, 40-year-old Sabiha takes one call after another at an erotic hotline. When a sudden earthquake hits Istanbul, a young man she’s been on the phone with is trapped under rubble and begs her to save him. In a desperate attempt to help him, Sabiha calls one of her regular customers, which inadvertently draws her into a political conspiracy that seems impossible to escape. Based on a true story.
American Independents: From Gripping Documentaries to Dramatic Comedies
The American Independents section features six strong feature films from the USA. Festivalgoers can look forward to Lloyd Lee Choi‘s magnificently shot, hard-hitting indie film about an exploited migrant worker. LUCKY LU (US/CA 2025) tells the story of the eponymous protagonist, a delivery driver in New York City whose world is turned upside down when his e-bike is stolen, cutting off his only source of income. Plus, he has trouble with his landlord, and, to top it all off, his family picks precisely this moment to come from Asia to stay with him. Lu is forced to find his way in the merciless city and fight for the fragile life he has built for himself over the years.
The section for contemporary American indie gems also features the brilliant documentary co-production COEXISTENCE, MY ASS! (US/FR 2025), directed by Amber Fares, which was honoured with awards at Sundance and Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival. This one-woman show from Israeli comedian Noam Shuster-Eliassi grapples with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the struggle for equality. Shuster-Eliassi confronts her audience with uncomfortable truths, even if her quest for peaceful coexistence seems absurd. She herself grew up as a poster child for the peace movement, before turning to stand-up comedy and political satire.
Also making an appearance in Wiesbaden, fresh from a successful world premiere in Venice, is Alexandre O. Philippe‘s KIM NOVAK’S VERTIGO (US 2025), a striking portrait of the 20th century cinema legend. The star of Hitchcock’s VERTIGO remains one of Hollywood’s most enduring enigmas – a luminous star who, at the peak of her fame, turned her back on the spotlight to embrace a life of solitude, self-expression and authenticity. Once the top box office draw in the world, she defied the expectations of the studio system and the confines of celebrity, choosing individuality over image, and art over artifice.
World Cinema: Film Treasures from Around the Globe
The World Cinema section presents current highlights from this year’s festival season from around the globe. The Iranian film THE DAUGHTER (IRN 2025), directed by Pourya Kakavand, is also extremely compelling. Faced with the economic strain of raising a child in Iran, Nima and Mahshid choose not to have a biological child. Instead, since Mahshid wants more than anything to be a mother, they create an imaginary daughter – Sayed. In their shared imagination, they experience the joys and struggles of parenthood. At first, Nima plays along, but as he realises that Mahshid is beginning to lose her grip on reality, he sees no choice but to let his daughter drown. But Mahshid even has an “answer” to this unfortunate development. With great settings and performers, this spooky story develops an irresistible pull.
The Maw Naing‘s film MA – CRY OF SILENCE (MM/KR/SG/KR/NO/FR 2024) is deeply affecting. Myanmar is in the midst of a civil war. Mi-Thet, a young Burmese woman, works in a textile factory in the old capital city of Yangon, far away from her home village. After two months of waiting for their late wages to be paid, a group of workers organise a strike. But soon the strikers are attacked by henchmen of the military regime, a terrifying ordeal for Mi-Thet due to her traumatic past.
The section also features Michal Cohen‘s candid documentary FULL SUPPORT (IL 2024). Nothing is more important than a bra that fits right. In a Jaffa bra shop’s fitting room, a diverse range of customers find the perfect bra with the help of the experienced proprietor: including Jews, Arabs, tourists – and even a transwoman. In the process, each heroine bares not just her chest, but her soul, sharing tales of triumph, tribulation and the occasional wardrobe malfunction. The result is a charming undergarment microcosm that simultaneously functions as an entertaining reflection of contemporary Israeli society.
The wonderful documentary film GERMAINE ACOGNY (SN/DE/FR 2025) by Greta-Marie Becker is also coming to Wiesbaden. Germaine Acogny is the “mother of contemporary African dance” and one of Africa’s most significant artistic voices. Rooted in traditional West African dances and influenced by European dance forms, she developed her very own Acogny technique. More than 50 years of success on stage and her work as a mentor for young dancers in Senegal and around the world have made the 81-year-old a dance icon of an entire continent. In 2021, she was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Dance Biennale for her work.
Competitions at exground filmfest
In a total of nine competitions, exground filmfest is awarding monetary prizes and non-cash prize packages worth nearly 20,000 euros, including in the German Short Film Competition and the International Short Film Competition (IC), as well as in the Wiesbaden Short Film Competition. The jury for the 24th IC is composed of Dunja Bialas, festival director at UNDERDOX, film curator and renowned film critic from Munich, award-winning Israel-based director Yotam Knispel and Daniela Weber, Berlinale programmer and film curator from Berlin.
The AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL WIESBADEN FILM AWARD is also presented by a three-member jury. This year’s jury is composed of the Amnesty International activists from Frankfurt am Main and Wiesbaden Dr. Houman Amjadi and Dr. Ute Hellwig and award-winning documentary filmmaker Stella Tinbergen.
In the scope of exground youth days, the best films for a young audience are competing for awards in the International Youth Film Competition and the Wiesbaden Youth Film Competition. The “exground Golden Cucumber” will also be awarded once again to the trashiest film from the Gong Show program.
Following the festival, select films will once again be screened in the Rhine-Main region beyond Wiesbaden, at Pupille – Kino in der Uni (Mertonstraße 26–28, 60325) in Frankfurt am Main.
The full festival program will be announced following the annual festival press conference (29 October, 11 am, in room 107 of Rathaus Wiesbaden) and subsequently available online at www.exground.com.
For press accreditation at exground filmfest 38, please feel free to contact us by 3 November at the latest – we would be happy to send you our registration form.
exground filmfest would like to thank all of its supporters and co-operation partners!
ex38_Partners_Sponsors_2025.pdf
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Press contact:
Wiesbadener Kinofestival e. V.
exground filmfest
Marta Moneva-Enchev
presse@exground.com
www.exground.com