NEXT GENERATION SHORT TIGER 2026

Presented in cooperation with German Films

FREE ADMISSION | TICKETS WILL BE AVAILABLE STARTING MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 21st @ 10.00 AM Admission is free with above RSVP link | Capacity is limited | Light refreshments provided

RSVP holders will be admitted on a first-come, first-served basis.


NEXT GENERATION SHORT TIGER 2026
Presented by German Films and the German Federal Film Board (FFA), the 16th edition of this beloved annual showcase presents the year’s most promising young directors and remarkable award-winning student short films from Germany. Selected by an expert Jury from the German film Industry: Director Anna Roller, Sarah Dombrinck (interfilm Berlin) and Andreas Heidenreich (Municipal Cinema Weiterstadt & German Association of Municipal and Cultural Cinemas), NEXT GENERATION SHORT TIGER 2026 combines new talents – the NEXT GENERATION of German cinema – with the best German short films up to 7 minutes – the winners of the FFA’s SHORT TIGER AWARD 2026.   Representing Germany’s diversity of forms, genres, and skillful filmmaking talent that international audiences have come to expect from German shorts, these deeply personal and universal stories confirm the notion that short film is an independent art form deserving of the big screen and the awareness of audiences worldwide.

 
COMPLETE PROGRAM RUNTIME: 97 min

THE ADVENTURES OF THE BLACK GIRL IN HER SEARCH FOR MABEL DOVE
Nnenna Onuoha (Experimental Documentary, 2025, 14:56)
When The Great Erasure interrupts her reading of Dove‘s story, The Black Girl goes in search of the author. After the Feminist Bookseller and Africanist Professor do not help her, she turns to The Revisionists, in whose cyberarchive she is able to locate Dove and the two spend an afternoon together. Told in the style of a cinéroman, the film is an homage to George Bernard Shaw and Mabel Dove‘s “Adventure“ novellas.

AT LEAST | IMMERHIN
Jens Rosemann (Animation, 2026, 2:31)
Two construction workers are arguing about braking distances, and a couple are talking about disaster films, in which humanity only has a week to live. Anyway.

BRAVE NEW PAST
Erik Schmitt (Fake Documentary, 2026, 4:32)
A man revisits his childhood through Super 8 footage – from birth to first steps to fantastical adventures with his grandmother. As the memories grow more surreal, a question emerges: what happens to us when our past can not only be remembered, but newly generated?

FRAGILE | FRAGIL
Miri Klischat, Laurenz Otto (Fiction, 2026, 6:33)
Between the cooing of pigeons and the clatter of trains, three young women meet beneath a bridge to negotiate the end of an era.

GAÏA
Gwenola Heck (Animation, 2025, 4:08)
Gaïa is a living planet whose body is inhabited by humans. As their resources begin to diminish, her inhabitants attempt to impregnate her in order to create another planet - a new habitat.

IN RETROSPECT | RÜCKBLICKEND BETRACHTET
Mila Zhluktenko, Daniel Asadi Faezi (Experimental Documentary, 2025, 14:56)
Immigrant workers built a shopping mall for the 1972 Munich Olympics. In 2016 this same place became the site of a racist shooting. “And now this hate,“ a woman concludes in the Sohrab Shahid Saless film ADDRESSEE UNKNOWN from 1983.

MY BROTHER, MY BROTHER
Abdelrahman Dnewar, Saad Dnewar (Animation, 2025, 14:57)
The complexities of a past shared by identical twins: Omar and Wesam. A split narrative retells the two sides of their memories — from the instant they were fused together in their mother‘s womb to the moment they are parted by the tragic death of one of them.

RADIX
Anne Breymann (Animation, 2025, 4:14)
Two creatures meet on a tree. Their encounter goes deep down to the roots and beyond.

A SOIL A CULTURE A RIVER A PEOPLE | YOU JIAN CHUI YAN
Viv Li (Fiction, 2025, 14:28)
In a dystopian future where borders between countries are indefinitely closed, a replica of Hanover becomes the only way to experience Western culture. Citizen Yu roams around this nostalgic yet eerie town built by the memories of the past. What does he really see?

WITH TAPES AND TOASTS IN THE CAR | IM AUTO TAPES UND BUTTERBROT
Kiana Naghshineh (Animation, 2025, 14:17)
In the face of her body fading into stardust, Shari realizes what truly matters to her.



NEXT GENERATION SHORT TIGER 2026
German Films Service + Marketing GmbH
www.german-films.de



The GERMAN CURRENTS Film Festival 2026 is a co-production of the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles and the American Cinematheque with the support of The Friends of Goethe, ELMA (European Languages and Movies in America), Condor, the Consulate General of Switzerland in San Francisco, the Austrian Consulate General in Los Angeles, the Italian Cultural Institute of Los Angeles, the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Los Angeles, Paulaner USA, Paulaner Sunset, Tupetz Wine Connection, KRUU.COM, and in cooperation with the German Consulate General in Los Angeles, the Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House e.V., the  German Film Office, the Wende Museum, and DEFA Film Library as well as our media partners Deutsche Welle, KPFK Radio, Campus Circle, and our educational outreach partners ELMA and Creating Creators.