Festival Record: Over 17,000 Visitors at 37 Filmfest Dresden

The 37 Filmfest Dresden ended on Sunday after recording a clear increase in the visitor numbers: Between 8 and 13 April more than 17,000 guests (2024: 15,000) attended a total of 191 festival screenings and events in 15 venues throughout Dresden. Likewise, the cinemas noted higher audience numbers: 10,400 cinemagoers (2024: 9,750) enjoyed the wide-ranging programmes. Thanks to the good weather and despite having a smaller screen this year, the Short Film Open Air programme on Schloßplatz square maintained its popularity – 4,550 visitors came to the screenings, representing almost a doubling of the numbers compared to last year (2024: 2,230). The audiences of just under 2,000 at the Kids and Youth Programme remained at a consistently high level. With 666 registered for the event, 200 more children and youth came to the school screenings compared to last year. The events in the etc. – events. trainings. connections. special programme attracted 2.300 media professionals. At the official awards ceremony on Saturday evening in the Filmtheater Schauburg festival cinema, ten Golden Horsemen and seven special prizes worth €70,500 in total were awarded.

The 38 Filmfest Dresden is being held from 14 to 19 April 2026.

“We’re delighted about the increase in the visitor numbers – and we see it as a valuable confirmation of our work and of the festival’s great popularity, and it really shows just how important it is to continue investing in culture, especially in these times,” said Festival Director Anne Gaschütz. “At the same time, we hope that our appeal for more solidarity, as well as the intercultural exchanges we had and our willingness to listen to each other will resonate beyond the festival. We’ve very grateful for all the important messages that were shared and heard in the cinemas and other venues.”

In terms of the audience numbers, the most successful filmic events at the 37 Filmfest Dresden included the International, National and Central German Competitions, which were seen by more than 4,300 viewers overall. Likewise in the Kids and Youth Programme, the Kids 2 programme proved to be highly successful and recorded the best audience numbers of 520.

The special events and programmes in this year festival “Focus: Let’s Stick Together!” enjoyed great interest yet again, especially the “Focus 4: Home – Is Us, Not a Place”. Likewise high audience numbers were noted at the “Animated 2: Transitions in Animation – Innovative Works from the Dresden-based DEFA-Studio”, the “Focus Québec”, the two programmes in the “Discourse Europe 1: Swedes for Beginners” and the “Experiments: Forces of Nature” experimental format, as well as at the three almost completely sold-out “Cinema Digestif” late-night screenings in the Thalia cinema.

In the etc. – events. trainings. connections. events programme, the highlights included the Industry Rendezvous with Dresden-based Film Institutes with its fishbowl discussion format “Networked and Trained for the Future?” as well as the “10 Things I Hate About Shorts” discussion. The latter event provided some exciting insights into the selection processes of curators – and which short films are more likely to have a hard time being chosen for programmes.

Several prominent names attended this year’s Filmfest Dresden: The journalist and TV presenter Ingo Dubinski (“Elf 99”) came on the festival on Sunday and, in his role as ambassador for the Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk child welfare organisation, presented at the Kids 1 screening a cheque for €10,000 to support the children and youth programme.

Likewise, the TV personalities Julian Janssen (“Checker Julian”) and Anna Shirin Habedank (“Invisible Sue”) guested at the festival. At the “In Fritzi’s Footsteps” animated docu-series matinee screening on Sunday, they explored the question of what life really was like in the GDR.

“We’re so pleased about the generous support from the Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk organisation – and it’ll really strengthen our media education work,” Sylke Gottlebe, Deputy Festival Director commented. “This funding provides a critical message: It shows just how crucial investments in the future are right now and that we must not tire of supporting children and youth projects over the long-term.”

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