Award-winning and honoured

“No Good Men” by Shahrbanoo Sadat opened the Berlinale at the start of the year and is now being screened at Filmfest Hamburg. The director has been living and working in Hamburg since her evacuation from Afghanistan in 2021. Produced by Katja Adomeit from Lübeck, the film was shot over eight days in various districts of Hamburg, which stand in for Kabul in the film. Find out in the article what makes an Afghan rom-com and what it was like for Sadat to play a role so close to her own heart for the first time.

Today marks the start of the first CineHamburg at the Congress Centre Hamburg (CCH) and CinemaxX Dammtor, transforming this city of culture into the hub of the German cinema industry for four days. From 7 to 10 July, industry representatives from across Germany will come together to discuss new films, business models, technologies and audience groups. Just in time for this industry gathering, Hamburg also has some good news to announce: the Senate’s draft for the forthcoming 2027/28 biennial budget provides for the budget increase for the MOIN Film Fund – introduced in 2025 and amounting to 5 million euros per year – to be made permanent.

For her film *Frau Winkler verlässt das Haus*, Doris Dörrie returned to Hamburg for a shoot for the first time in almost 30 years – and was delighted with her team. In the film, the directors explore themes of death and grief, robotics and care in their own unique style. In the process, they have once again developed a “sporting ambition”, as they explain in the interview.