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Serienfieber Illustration of a hand clicking a remote control

Which German series and films are a must-see? Television “Made in Germany” is having a golden moment with the rise of international streaming services. German series and films that appeal to global audiences through smart and original writing, diverse themes, talented lineups and opulent productions have never received so much attention - in 2023 a German film even won the Oscar for Best International Feature Film.

Picture Palace TIFF23 & beyond: German Actors Go Global

The 48th TIFF boasted 14 German films—or 20+, depending on how you define ‘German Film’.

When Sisi falls in love with her cousin Franz Joseph, the Emperor of Austria, the tragedy plays out – because he was already engaged to her sister.

Picture Palace The Empress: A Rebel in a Gilded Cage

Are you one of those people rolling their eyes at the seemingly never-ending “Sisi” mania? Don’t despair! Netflix has knocked the proverbial dust off the celluloid legacy of Elisabeth, Empress of Austria and Hungary, for a six-part drama entitled “The Empress”. The series includes plenty of intrigue, rebellion at the palace, and a glimpse of skin.

Poster "All Quiet on the Western Front" in the rain

Oscars 2023 “All Quiet on the Western Front” – except at this year’s Oscars

A German picture picked up four gold statuettes at this year’s Academy Awards ceremony. And with that, Edward Berger’s “All Quiet on the Western Front” (Im Westen nichts Neues) has made film history.

What is going on here? Strange happenings on board the Kerberos.

Picture Palace “1899”: Sailing Into the Dark Unknown

There was immense hype in the run-up to its release: The team behind the wildly successful hit “Dark” promised even more mystery, even more thrills and chills, and even more riddles. So, was all the hard work worth it?

Key Atrt from the Netflix series "The Billion Dollar Code"

Picture Palace The Billion Dollar Code

Based on a true story, the Netflix miniseries The Billion Dollar Code recounts how two German developers sued Google for patent infringement, arguing that Google Earth blatantly appropriated their own Terravision program from the 1990s. The show makes the case into an enthralling, if sobering courtroom drama, and also a kind of parable, using parallel timelines to contrast the utopian dreams of the ‘90s with the disillusionment surrounding ‘Big Tech’ today.

Detail from the official Poster of the netflix series "Tribes Of Europa" shows its six Protagonists

Picture Palace TRIBES OF EUROPA

“Tribes of Europa” is a new Netflix miniseries produced in Germany that depicts a Europe in which society has broken down into tribal groups following an apocalypse. Can this dystopian Sci-Fi drama be interpreted as a declaration of love for the European ideal of a cohesive and united society?

Picture Palace High Quality or High Viewing Figures?

Sophisticated TV series are considered to be one of the most interesting narrative formats. Up to now Germany has had a hard time keeping up with it, but things are about to change.

Babylon Berlin: ambitious police typist Charlotte Ritter.

Picture Palace A fascination with the past

German television shows tend to have a bad reputation for poor writing and cheap productions not suited for an international market and audience. Now series like “Deutschland ‘83” and “Babylon Berlin” are putting a new shine on that tarnished image.

Key art from the series “Bauhaus - A New Era“: Anna Maria Mühe as Dörte Helm and August Diehl as Walter Gropius in front of a abstract spiral vortex painting.

Picture Palace ‘Bauhaus - A New Era’

How should the story of this laboratory for new art and architecture be told in the Bauhaus centenary year? Director Lars Kraume chose to portray it as a battle of the sexes. In an interview with DW, he explains why he found this aspect in particular so fascinating.

Bad Banks: Jana Liekam (Paula Beer) steht halb versteckt hinter einer Betonwand inmitten eines sonst leeren, tristen Raumes.

Picture Palace Bad Banks

How much are your morals worth? What would you sacrifice to be a player in the male-dominated banking world? The series is about the European financial market, but its relevance is global.

Picture Palace We Children from Bahnhof Zoo

Some 40 years after the twelve-part feature in Stern Magazine about the life of the then 16-year-old Christiane F. between drug abuse and child prostitution in West Berlin shook Germany to the core, the writers of the serie are injecting an overdose of zeitgeist into the biography of Germany’s best-known junkie.

Picture Palace Deutschland 83: Interview with producer Jörg Winger

A conversation with the director of the hit series Deutschland 83 about the research for the series and what resonance the topic is generating in other countries.

Promobanner Deutschland 83 Sundance Channel

Picture Palace Deutschland 83

The first original German-language drama to broadcast on a US TV network, “Deutschland 83” is a gripping coming-of-age story and spy thriller set in the divided Germany of the ‘80s.

"Das Boot" SKY / Hulu Series with the main actors

Picture Palace “Das Boot”: Plumbing the depths of wartime romanticism

Not really the thing for landlubbers: the series “Das Boot” is a brutally honest portrayal of the unrelenting horrors of the Second World War. In this series, it is not only hostile Navy personnel but also the Gestapo and the French resistance who are fighting a war within the war.

Stillframe from the Netflix series "Barbaren"

Picture Palace „Barbaren" - Latin Lessons on the Battlefield

In the year 9 AD, several Germanic tribes unite to to challenge the almost invincible Roman legions in a legendary battle: The battle in the Teutoburg Forest will change the history of Europe. At the center of this series about the bloody clash are three childhood friends who are linked by a tragic fate.

Volker Bruch as Gereon Rath in „Babylon Berlin“

Picture Palace Symphony of a Great City in 28 Parts: Babylon Berlin

In the current boom in German TV dramas, no show has drawn more rave reviews worldwide than “Babylon Berlin”. The first season follows a police detective into the nightlife and political turmoil of Weimar Berlin.

A reliable Sunday primetime viewer magnet since 1970: Tatort.

Picture Palace Hunting serial offenders

Every Sunday evening, around ten million people settle down in front of the telly to watch the German police procedural, Tatort, or “crime scene” in English. Regional mysteries and thrillers are also flying off the shelves in bookstores. So what is it that makes a good murder mystery so riveting?

Still Frame from the TNT Series “4 Blocks” Toni, Vince und Abbas in their car.

Picture Palace 4 Blocks: Berlin is ours now!

“4 Blocks” is or was without doubt the most influential German-language television series of recent years. It is far more than just proof that joining forces with the German hip hop scene can result in a TV series that will appeal to the Instagram and Tik Tok crowd.

The actors in the “Druck” young adult series share some similarities with their characters, and many are armatures.

Picture Palace “A little flippant and imperfect”

“Druck” (Pressure) is a young adult television series that features authentic actors and dialogue. Most of the actors are amateurs, and the transgender character is played by a trans man. The show has been a run-away success.

Picture Palace Biohackers

What if students secretly experiment with biohacking technologies that could change humanity? Biohackers tells a gripping story about friendship, love and revenge at a German University that is overshadowed by a revolutionary biohacking-technology and its ethical implications.

Still from the Series "Oktoberfest: Beer and Blood "

Picture Palace Oktoberfest 1900: Beer and Blood

"Oktoberfest 1900" tells the story of two beer dynasties fight for supremacy at the world's largest festival. The series takes the audience to a fantastic and mysterious Munich at the turn of the century and unfolds a modern myth about fateful love and the inexorable rise of capitalism.

Unorthodox Netflix Image: A composite of the lead character Esty in front of a New York Skyline with an image of her jewish othodox wedding superimposed on her chest.

Picture Palace Unorthodox: Escaping to a new life

“Unorthodox” (Netflix), celebrated by TV fans and critics alike, not only tells the stirring tale of a young woman’s escape from New York to Berlin, it also offers a fascinating insight into the parallel universe that is an ultra-orthodox Jewish community, where life is cut off from the rest of the world.

Ein junger Mann in einem gelben Regenmantel am Eingang einer Höhle im Wald

Picture Palace Dark

Sic Mundus Creatus Est...Creepy forests, sinister nuclear power plants, eerie time-bending storylines and a host of stellar performances make Dark “Must See TV”. Commissioned by Netflix from duo Baran Bo Odar and Jantje Friese, the TV thriller is the company’s first original German-language series, which was written, shot and produced in Germany.

Picture Palace The Last Word

Death suits her. In “The Last Word”, her first Netflix series, Germany’s most versatile entertainer Anke Engelke plays a eulogist, exploring the taboos that surround the subject of death. The result is a touching and bitter-sweet (family) story about lies, secrets, unexpected endings, and bumpy new beginnings.

Robert Finster als Sigmund Freud in der Netflix Original Serie "Freud"

Picture Palace To hell with Dr. Freud... and back

Netflix teams with Austria’s ORF network for an eight-part series about Sigmund Freud. The diagnosis: Freud is no history lesson, more like a lurid graphic novel come to life. FREUD skims a few biographical details but in the service of a period-piece crime thriller blended with supernatural fantasy and horror. The result is a full-blown Mitteleuropa phantasmagoria.

Stillfoto ZDF Serie Parfum: Die Ermittler Brettschneider (Marc Hosemann, l.) und Köhler (Juergen Maurer, 2.v.r.) sowie Staatsanwalt Grünberg (Wotan Wilke Möhring, 3.v.r.) untersuchen mit Profilerin Nadja Simon (Friederike Becht, 2.v. l.) den Tatort und das Opfer.

Picture Palace The Parfume

Is there any such thing as the ultimate fragrance? One whose aroma is so irresistible that it renders people powerless? Inspired by Patrick Süskind’s international bestseller “Perfume. The Story of a Murderer”, “Perfume” is about a monstrous killer and explores the question of whether humans are in fact capable of true love.

Titelbild der Netflix Serie "How To Sell Drugs Online (Fast)"

Picture Palace How To Sell Drugs Online (Fast)

Since Netflix, drug dealers are even more popular in the television world than in the eighties. The first German drug fairy tale tells the story of an 18-year-old from Leipzig who called himself "Shiny Flakes" in the darknet and in whose children's room the police found 320 kilograms of narcotics. No instruction manual.

Still frame from the Netflix Series "We Are The Wave" | © Netflix/ Photo: Bernd Spauke / RatPack Filmproduktion GmbH

Picture Palace We Are the (Next) Wave

A group of teenagers dream of a better future. Their leader, a newcomer at school, recruits four friends to start a youth movement. But their ideas develop a dangerous momentum. With one of their latest German production, the teen drama WE ARE THE WAVE, Netflix is going daringly political.