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Join us November 6-9 for the 4th annual Twin Cities German Film Festival (TCGFF), a celebration of contemporary German-language cinema inviting audiences to explore stories of belonging, identity, and reinvention. There is something for everyone at the festival: family-friendly, documentary, drama. TCGFF films are shown in German with English subtitles at The Main Cinema in Minneapolis, a non-profit neighborhood movie theater. This year’s festival features six films that revolve around characters in motion: across borders, through grief, toward connection, and into self-discovery. The festival, produced by the Germanic-American Institute in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut, celebrates the courage to rebuild, the humor to adapt, and the shifting borders that define modern life.
Tickets available soon directly from The Main Cinema!
Grüße von Mars (Greetings from Mars) (2024)
Thursday, Nov. 6 at 10:30 AM (Field trip opportunity, open to the public)
Ten-year-old Tom is different from other kids. He doesn’t like change, red things and anything loud quickly becomes too much for him. But his specialty is space. When he is sent with his siblings to spend a month at their grandparents’ rural home, it feels like landing on another planet.
Framing the visit as a “Mars mission,” Tom navigates unfamiliar terrain, eccentric grandparents, and his own fears with imagination and heart. Greetings from Mars is a tender, funny film about discovery, understanding, and how seeing the world differently can be its own kind of superpower.
Bon Schuur Ticino (Bonjour Switzerland) (2023)
Thursday, Nov 6 at 7:30 PM
One of the most viewed Swiss films of all time! Presented as part of the Germanic-American Institute’s Spotlight on Switzerland.
After a surprise referendum declares French the sole national language of Switzerland, chaos erupts among the country’s German- and Italian-speaking populations. Walter Egli, an officer with the Federal Police, is charged with helping manage the nation’s transition to monolingualism—despite his own shaky grasp of French. Paired with a French-speaking colleague, he travels undercover to the Italian-speaking region of Ticino, where a defiant resistance movement is rising up against the new law. This quirky yet profound satire highlights the cultural complexities of Switzerland through a story of unlikely allies, clashing identities, and the absurdities of bureaucracy turned upside down.
Bagger Drama (Excavator Drama) (2024)
Friday, Nov 7 at 7:30 PM
Presented as part of the Germanic-American Institute’s Spotlight on Switzerland.
In this modern Heimatfilm, a family devoted to their excavator business is shaken to its core after the sudden death of their daughter. As grief fractures their routine, the film tenderly follows their struggle to find meaning and connection amid the noise of machines and memories. With sensitivity and honesty, Bagger Drama portrays the protagonists of a working-class family learning to rebuild after loss.
Alles Fifty Fifty (Everything Fifty Fifty) (2024)
Saturday, Nov 8 at 4 PM
In this family comedy, divorced parents Marion and Andi pride themselves on being the perfect co-parenting team until a family holiday in Italy exposes cracks beneath their carefully balanced arrangement. Between their son’s first crush, awkward revelations, and the presence of Marion’s overly eager new boyfriend, simmering emotions resurface. Warm, witty, and full of sun-soaked charm, Everything’s Fifty Fifty is a heartfelt comedy about love, rivalry, and rediscovering what truly holds a family together.
Ellbogen (Elbow) (2024)
Saturday, Nov 8 at 7:30 PM
Ellbogen is a raw and compelling coming-of-age story about Hazal, a 17-year-old Berliner on the cusp of adulthood, yearning for a life beyond the confines of job center training and closed doors. On her 18th birthday, a night of celebration with friends turns into a moment of reckoning after a violent confrontation shatters the illusion of belonging. Forced to flee to Istanbul, the film follows Hazal’s fight for recognition, equality, and a future of her own making. Adapted from Fatma Aydemir’s award-winning novel, Aslı Özarslan’s powerful debut is a gripping portrait of a young woman on the run, awake to the tensions of multicultural Berlin and unafraid to confront uncomfortable truths about identity, justice, and belonging.
Zirkuskind (Circusboy) (2025)
Sunday, Nov 10 at 4 PM
Eleven-year-old Santino is a child of the circus. He loves to spend time with his eighty-year-old great-grandfather, one of Europe‘s last great circus directors, who has become his best friend. Together, they share heartwarming stories: Stories of friendship with an elephant, of farewells, of new beginnings and life on the road. CIRCUSBOY chronicles the lives of these modern nomads, capturing a young boy‘s experience growing up among an extended family and animals – a life without a safety net, as free as a bird.
Tickets available soon!
Presented as part of the 4th annual Twin Cities German Film Festival, produced by the Germanic-American Institute in partnership with the Goethe-Institut.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
The Main Cinema, 115 SE Main Street,Minneapolis,MN,United States
Tickets
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups - all the happenings, one place.
