Germany's annual film festival is back, and this year it's getting a deep look at how we define family in the modern world.
Fresh off the heels of the German Christmas Market, Goethe-Institut Thailand is gearing up for KinoFest, its annual celebration of contemporary German cinema across Southeast Asia. The festival brings carefully selected films to both Bangkok and provincial cities, and this year's lineup looks particularly compelling.
From December 9-21 at Goethe-Institut Thailand under the theme ‘Family: Extended’, the 2025 programme ditches traditional stereotypes to explore how our understanding of family is shifting. You'll find films that tackle motherhood through lenses of both power and anxiety, shine a light on the often-invisible world of care work and dig into the tensions that simmer beneath family dynamics. The festival wants you to see family not as some fixed ideal but as a space where complexity, conflict and change actually happen.
The genre spread is impressive too. You'll find intimate dramas sitting alongside animation, comedies, thrillers, action and documentaries – something for whatever mood you're in.
Two films worth flagging: Greetings from Mars (Grüße vom Mars) follows a boy who transforms a stay with his grandparents into an imagined Mars mission, turning the countryside into an intergenerational adventure. Then there's Two to One (Zwei zu Eins), a satirical comedy about three friends who spot an opportunity in chaos, trying to turn soon-to-be-worthless East German currency into something valuable as reunification looms. It's the kind of premise that could only come from that specific moment in history.
The full programme runs at Goethe-Institut Thailand from December 9-21, with screenings also happening across seven provinces: Nakhon Pathom, Chiang Mai, Ubon Ratchathani, Phayao, Phitsanulok and Nakhon Ratchasima.
Head to the Goethe-Institut website for the complete film list and screening times.