The Festival of German Films is being held for the 13th time in Madrid from 31 May to 4 June, 2011. In total, seven new feature films, a documentary, the first ever presentation of a complete television series and numerous shorts will be screened in the festival cinema at „Cine Palafox“. Moreover, the programme will be completed by a retrospective dedicated to the „German Film Award“.

On the evening of 31 May, 2011, the festival will be opened in Cine Palafox with a gala screening of GOETHE! by Philipp Stölzl in the presence of the lead actor, Alexander Fehling, Germany‘s Shooting Star in 2011, and the producer Christoph Müller.

The new German feature films KOKOWÄÄH by Til Schweiger, PICCO by Philip Koch, THE POLL DIARIES (POLL) by Chris Kraus, ROMEOS by Sabine Bernardi, SLEEPING SICKNESS (SCHLAFKRANKHEIT) by Ulrich Köhler and VINCENT WANTS TO SEA (VINCENT WILL MEER) by Ralf Huettner, the documentary TRANSIT by Angela Zumpe and the children/young people’s film WINTERTOCHTER by Johannes Schmid will also be shown at the festival. The directors Sabine Bernardi, Angela Zumpe and Ralf Huettner and the producers Tobias Walker, Philipp Budweg and Janine Jackowski will be travelling to Madrid to present their films in person to the Spanish audiences.

A particular highlight in the festival programme will be Friedemann Fromm’s TV series WEISSENSEE which will be introduced by the lead actor Florian Lukas.

This year will see the main programme once more featuring the showcase of short films by film students, NEXT GENERATION SHORT TIGER 2011, which is presented by German Films and the German Federal Film Board (FFA) and supported by Kodak. Erik Schmitt and Stephan Müller will represent 2011’s lineup of short filmmakers and introduce their film NOW FOLLOWS (NUN SEHEN SIE FOLGENDES). The following shorts will screen as supporting programmes in the main section: CHICA XX MUJER by Isabell Suba, FUTURE PAST PERFECT by Carsten Nicolai, LOVE AND THEFT by Andreas Hykade and REPITU by Jana Richtmeyer.

The retrospective dedicated to the „German Film Award“ will present the following four films which have not yet had a commercial release in Spain: WHEN WE LEAVE (DIE FREMDE) by Feo Aladağ, A YEAR AGO IN WINTER (IM WINTER EIN JAHR) by Caroline Link, JOHN RABE by Florian Gallenberger and STORM (STURM) by Hans-Christian Schmid.

The event’s partners are: Lufthansa, Fundación Goethe, the German Embassy in Madrid, Espacio de encuentro hispano-alemán 2011, the Goethe-Institut in Madrid, NH Hoteles, Kodak, Radeberger, AG Kurzfilm, AG Dok, Casa Westfalia, AG Dok, AG Kurzfilm, Fotogramas, RNE, Notodo.com, Madrid für Deutsche, Filmin and www.Sensacine.com. The prizes in kind for the Audience Award were donated by Kodak.

Further information about the festival can be found at www.cine-aleman.com.