FAMILY MATINEE | W. COAST PREMIERE
Presented as a free Family Matinee screening on
Sunday, October 19th @ 11:00 AM at the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles.
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.
GRÜßE VOM MARS | GREETINGS FROM MARS
Germany (2024), 85 min., German with English Subtitles
Director:Sarah Winkenstette
Assistant Director:Malte Grosche,
Screenplay Sebastian Grusnick and Thomas Möller
Director of Photography Jakob Berger
Cast Theo Kretschmer, Lilli Lacher, Anton Noltensmeier, Hedi Kriegeskotte, Michael Wittenborn, Eva Löbau, Jona Volkmann, Luk Slomka
Producers Anette Unger, Sven Rudat, Rüdiger Wolf
Co-producer: Matthias Greving
Production Company Leitwolf Filmproduktion GmbH in coproduction with Kinescope Film
Tom (Leo Kretschmer) is not your average ten-year-old. He doesn’t like change, and chaos and loud noises quickly become too much to handle. What he loves is space exploration, especially the planet Mars. He dreams of being the first human to travel to the red planet, although the color red upsets him. His life is structured, but if things become overwhelming, he puts on his space suit for protection and imagines he’s exploring space. When his mother, Vera (Eva Löbau), has to travel to China for a few weeks for work, Tom and his siblings, Nina (Lilli Lacher) and Elmar (Anton Noltensmeier), are sent to spend the summer with their Grandparents, whom they barely know, in the countryside in Lunau. Such a disruption in his routine is a catastrophe for Tom. “If you can do Grandma and Grandpa,” his mother assures him, “then you can definitely do Mars too.” Equipped with a logbook, his laptop, and his siblings as his crew, Tom embarks on a mission to explore “planet Lunau” and understand Grandma and Grandpa, who seem to live by their own rules.
Based on Sebastian Grusnick and Thomas Möller’s book of the same name, Filmmaker Sarah Winkenstette’s multi-award-winning film is an intelligently crafted comedy about the importance of family and community and a thought-provoking story of an outsider whose uniqueness becomes his strength.
AWARDS
Kristiansand International Children’s Film Festival 2024 Best International Feature, Best European Youth Film
GOLDENER SPATZ Deutsches Kinder-Medien-Festival 2024 Best Actor
Cinepänz Youth Film Festival Köln 2024 Best Kid’s Film, Winner Audience Award
Vienna International Children’s Film Festival 2024 Winner Audience Award
International Young Audience Film Festival Ale Kino! 2024 Best Film - Intl. Jury
Filmtage Oberschwaben 2024 Best Children’s & Youth Film
Smile International Film Festival for Children & Youth 2025 Best European Youth Film, Best Children’s Film, Best Director
Sarah Winkenstette was born in 1980 in Rheda-Wiedenbrück. Following internships and traineeships at Medienfabrik Bertelsmann, and the RTL School of Journalism, she studied Film at the Cologne Academy of Media Arts (KHM). Her Graduation film KIDNAPPED (2011) has received numerous awards, including “Gyphon” at the Giffoni Film Festival. Since 2011 she has worked as a freelance director. Her debut feature film TOO FAR AWAY (2019) premiered in Los Angeles at German Currents 2021. Her second feature film, “Grüße vom Mars” premiered in German cinemas in May 2025.
WORLD SALES
farbfilm verleih GmbH
farbfilm-verleih.de
The German Currents Film Festival 2025 is a co-production of the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles and the American Cinematheque, with the support of The Friends of Goethe, ELMA, Condor, the Austrian Consulate General in Los Angeles, go-international, Tupetz Wine Connection, Paulaner USA, Paulaner Sunset, Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House e.V., the German Film Office, our media partners Deutsche Welle, KPFK Radio, Campus Circle, our educational outreach partners Creating Creators, and in cooperation with the German Consulate General in Los Angeles
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