German cinema only knows drama and comedy? Not at all! Since the 2000s, German audiences have been increasingly confronted with fear! From atmospheric psychological thrillers to effective splatter, young filmmakers are increasingly taking up the genre and delivering their own self-confident contributions.

The cinema spectacle returns!

We are pleased to announce: From July 4 to August 25, Frankfurt's open-air cinema will enter its eleventh season! To our great surprise, the courtyard of the old police headquarters has once again been secured for our summer cinema - a fascinating location with a hauntingly beautiful atmosphere! Week after week, from Thursday to Sunday, we will be showing the latest movie highlights there!

We are happy and full of anticipation to announce: Our festival program is ready, pre-sales have begun! It has become a wonderfully daring and, above all, jam-packed program! We are bringing more than 100 films from all over the world to Frankfurt for you: visionary, tender, forward-looking, queer, visually stunning, hopeful, experimental, short and long films.

HISTORY, PRESENT AND FUTURE OF THE FUTURE

From June 29 to August 27, Freiluftkino Frankfurt enters its tenth season. As in the past three years, the inner courtyard of the old police headquarters could be won for the Frankfurt summer event - one of the most exciting off-locations of the city! Current cinema highlights are shown there week after week from Thursday to Sunday. 

Films, panels and a lot of reviews. The 16th edition of the LICHTER Filmfest Frankfurt International started on the 18th of April 2023. But even before the first film was exhibited, students had already gotten together for the Workshop der Filmkritik, where each one would practice writing and learn more about film critics. 

The excitement is great! After all, the 16th edition of the LICHTER Filmfest is a very special one for us. "Back to the roots" could be the broad outline of our slogan this year. What does that mean? With the former Massif Central, which has found a new home west of the Römer, this year we are once again climbing a mountain that reminds us of old times.

Today we would like to introduce you to a long-awaited project and take you on a cinematic journey of superlatives: HIGH RISE CINEMA!

From June 30 to August 21, the Frankfurt open-air cinema had its ninth season. As in the two previous years, the courtyard of the Old Police Headquarters has been won over for the popular Frankfurt summer event - one of the most exciting off-locations in the city! Week after week, current cinema highlights were shown there on the evenings from Thursday to Sunday.

Courage is the attitude of freedom, and the result of freedom overwhelms the courageous because it surprises him - for it is happiness. (Peter Brückner)

SUMMER, SUN, FRANKFURT

FINALLY CINEMA AGAIN! THE LICHTER SUMMER CINEMA SHOWS FIVE SELECTED FILM HIGHLIGHTS FROM THIS YEAR'S PROGRAM

The director of "Flashwood", Jean-Carl Boucher, in an interview with Rüdiger Suchsland.

The director of "Valentina" in an interview with Luis F. Raguá. The feature film by Cássio Pereira Dos Santos can be seen online at the 14th LICHTER Filmfest (27.04.-09.05.2021). -> online.lichter-filmfest.de

The director of "The Year of the Discovery" in an interview with Luis F. Raguá. The feature film by Luis Lopez Carrasco can be seen online at the 14th LICHTER Filmfest (27.04.-09.05.2021). -> online.lichter-filmfest.de

Over the past year, cinemas in Germany have been mostly closed - apart from a few weeks in summer and again in early winter, audiences in various stages of lockdown had to enjoy films from the isolation of their own homes. It was therefore all the more exciting for the 23 participants of the film criticism workshop held in participation with the 14. Lichter

The director of "Acasa, my home " in an interview with Ludwig Sporrer. The feature film by Radu Ciorniciuc can be seen online at the 14th LICHTER Filmfest (27.04.-09.05.2021). 

The directors of "Gagarine" in an interview with Stefan Müller. The feature film by Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh can be seen online at the 14th LICHTER Filmfest (27.04.-09.05.2021). 

The director of "Souterrain " in an interview with Leila Haschtmann. The feature film by Sophie Dupuis can be seen online at the 14th LICHTER Filmfest (27.04.-09.05.2021). 

The director of "Moon, 66 Questions" in an interview with Stefan Müller. The feature film by Jaqueline Lentzou can be seen online at the 14th LICHTER Filmfest (27.04.-09.05.2021). 

The filmmakers of "Madly in life" in an interview with festival director Johanna Süß. The feature film by Ann Sirot and Raphaël Balboni at the 14th LICHTER Filmfest (27.04.-09.05.2021) to be seen online. 

Equality in the change of time. Traffic in the change of the time. Living in the change of the time. Work in the change of the time. And - it almost sounds mocking - the changing climate. Five macro trends and five examples that somehow make us feel that the transformation of our world is unstoppable. There are enormous opportunities in change, as digitalization shows, and dangers, if we consider the climatic changes of recent years. Whichever way the pendulum swings,…

For already 7 years we have organized the open air cinema in Frankfurt and 2 years ago in Rüsselsheim. These years we have enjoyed with you every summer night with the best movies of the year. 

For many people, the number 13 is associated with bad luck. However, a small minority associates it with exactly the opposite: happiness. The antipode of luck is bad luck, of truth the lie, of chaos the order and of nature? Well, let's call it destruction. The festival focal points of the past years. The dialectic exploration of these spheres is one of the very principles of the LICHTER Film Festival.

Natural disasters are merciless events with maximum attention potential. The more deadly the disaster, the greater the wave of solidarity that follows it. The decisive factor is the moment that makes tragedies palpable. Global warming, however, shows us the limits of controllability. This is because temperature changes occur slowly and are not usually recognizable as a catastrophe to our human perceptual system. A single cold winter in this country would probably be enough to cast doubt on the research findings…

WE HAVE PUT TEN YEARS OF LICHTER BEHIND US, NOW NUMBER ELEVEN IS COMING. Over all these years, we set ourselves new goals, found new locations, moved into them temporarily, and grew from a regional festival to the lively film scene in the Rhine-Main region to an international film festival with over 10,000 visitors.

When, in 2007, five people from Frankfurt had the idea of setting up a film festival that would give visibility to the small but lively film scene in the Rhine-Main region, it was by no means certain that there would one day be a 10th edition. The best expression was the slogan "The festival in the here and now".

In the ninth LICHTER year, there is a small anniversary: For the fifth time, we are showing an international program on a special theme in addition to the showcase of regional filmmaking. It has never been more topical than this time: "Borders". In Europe, border fences are being erected again.

For the past seven years, we have accompanied filmmaking in Frankfurt, Rhine-Main and Hesse with an important part of our program. Our message has always been clear: there is a lot of potential for good cinema in this region - there are filmmakers, critics, film institutions and enthusiasts, and all kinds of interesting things to talk about. In short, all the ingredients are there for what marketing German likes to call a "location".

LICHTER does not live on numbers, but on the spirit that a community of cinema enthusiasts musters year after year to put film culture at the center of the region's cultural life for just under a week. Last year, however, this spirit also manifested itself in numbers. With almost 10,000 visitors and 16 sold-out screenings, LICHTER can claim to have arrived not only as a regional but also as an international film festival.

"I don't want to live in a city whose only cultural achievement is that you can turn left on a red light." - With these words Woody Allen describes the deficits that Los Angeles had in the 70s from a New York perspective.

Looking Back & Looking Forward Five years of LICHTER Filmfest! A good moment to pause, look back and look forward: I look back on five festival years full of continuity and innovation, which have provided a lively, sustainable and expandable platform for filmmakers in the Rhine-Main region. During these years, the LICHTER audience has always been able to enjoy a varied and high-caliber film and supporting program, which has grown with each year both in terms of quality and in the…

LIGHTER, round four. Slowly we are really turning up the heat. Because the LICHTERs are present all year round, both in the region and abroad. With our cooperation partners, for example the Maincafé, the Frankfurter Kunstverein, the eDIT Filmmaker's Festival, the Capitol Kino in Mainz or the E-Kinos in Frankfurt, we present the most exciting films from the Rhine-Main region in a wide variety of locations. With our friends in Lyon, Birmingham and Bologna, we have recently also succeeded in…

We have never complained about too much money. On the contrary, the LICHTERs agree with the widespread complaints about the inadequacy of public cultural funding, especially for independent projects (and rightly so). The fact that the financial balance sheet for 2009 was subsequently dragged into the red by bureaucratic hurdles has once again raised some doubts in the team about the principles of cultural funding. On the other hand, the expansion of our festival center last year showed us that…

For several months, the continued existence of the LICHTER Film Festival was uncertain - now we rub our eyes in amazement and realize: we have become a real film festival. In the Turmpalast, one of Frankfurt's most traditional cinemas, we play in two halls, one of them with an impressive 270 seats, with modern digital technology and the good old 35mm film.