Movies & Cinema in Munich

Independent & arthouse films, cinema program with documentaries, open air cinema in summer in Munich

Munich and film is a love story with depth that goes far beyond the red carpets rolled out every year. If you live in this city or are just visiting, you are in luck, because the film scene is lively, diverse and offers events all year round where cinema is more than just sitting in a dark room for two hours. FILMFEST MÜNCHEN is one of the most important film festivals in the German-speaking world and takes place every summer with a program of national and international productions, premieres and retrospectives that you won't see anywhere else. If you don't want to wait until the summer, the Munich Film Museum is the place to be: The house in the Stadtmuseum regularly shows film series, retrospectives and special screenings, ranging from silent film classics to avant-garde and rediscovered masterpieces, in an atmosphere that makes you feel like you're really seeing something special . Also firmly anchored in Munich's film calendar are the Film Art Weeks, where twelve Munich arthouse cinemas join forces to put on a joint summer festival, with guest appearances by directors and actors, who you sometimes simply meet at the bar after the screening, which makes the whole thing that little bit more interesting. When the temperatures rise, cinema life in Munich moves outside: the Arena in Westpark is considered a classic among Munich's open-air cinemas and shows a varied program of arthouse, classics and mainstream films every summer, surrounded by trees and natural stone, which somehow makes even mediocre films better . The Kinoliebe Summer Festival on Königsplatz is another highlight in the city's open-air film calendar, where premieres, classics and parties in the open air form a combination that is hard to resist, and where the backdrop of Königsplatz is an experience in itself . For all those who love cinema away from the big screen, Munich also offers a dense arthouse cinema landscape with houses such as the Monopol, the City Kino and the Werkstattkino, which regularly offer curated programs, themed evenings and film discussions where you can talk about what you have seen for a long time after the screening. Cinema in Munich is not a passive experience, but an active part of the city's cultural life, and if you look closely, you will regularly find film events, screenings and festivals on Rausgegangen in the calendar of events, where the program is just as good as the company before and after. So: popcorn is optional, good movies are not.