The ongoing critical encounter with cinema, a task left mainly to such film journals as "Filmkritik" and "Film" in the 1960s, today takes place primarily in the arts pages of the Germany's national daily and weekly newspapers. "Die Zeit" (Hamburg), "Süddeutsche Zeitung" (Munich), "Frankfurter Rundschau" (Frankfurt) and "Der Spiegel" (Hamburg) are regarded as the opinion-forming papers.. The weekend sections of a few daily papers occasionally include essays on film. Other dailies offer film pages on a regular basis. On the other hand, many newspapers have relegated film criticism to the background, replacing it by texts obviously intended as an information service.
Since the 1980s film journals have lost their significance and influence. A major signpost along this path came in 1987 with the last issue of "Filmkritik," a journal with a major influence on west German film criticism extending from the 1950s until the 1970s. At present there is no central film journal dedicated to theoretical analysis.
The ARD broadcasters regularly present film criticism, usually in general cultural broadcasts, and occasionally in specialised film programmes. Public radio broadcasters occasionally present full-length special programmes on film-related topics. In the programming of private radio stations, there is hardly any independent, critical discussion on cinema. The ARD television broadcasters are not very active in the film criticism field. There are few regular programmes offering critical reviews (usually in the third programmes)..
