23nd Silent Film Concert Festival 2026

This year, ‘only’ Berlin premieres are being offered, but they are two extraordinary films. Films that are so good that they will ascend into the canon of the best German silent films. If you haven't seen these films yet, you won't believe how good they are:

DER STUDENT VON PRAG (1926) and ALRAUNE, both restored by the Munich Film Museum.
Incidentally, Der Student von Prag is the first auteur film, i.e. it is the first book that was written directly as a screenplay for a film. However, it was for the 1913 version by the same director.

And then we will also be screening the premiere of the German version of DIE HERRIN VON ATLANTIS (F 1921).


THE MUSIC
All ten concerts of the 23rd festival are so closely interwoven with the films that they can be called fantasy film symphonies. This is not silent film music, but reinterpretations of the films. Compositions that reveal the soul of the old masterpieces and catapult them into the present with the expressiveness of state-of-the-art instruments, the maturity of 27 years of film music composition and the precision of the pianist.


Stephan Graf v. Bothmer plays all live film music at CineTonium, a setup of acoustic instruments and keyboards that he developed specifically for his live film music.

Venues:

• Zwölf-Apostel-Kirche (Schöneberg) – Ideal, absolutely charismatic space with candles
  
• Moviemento (Kreuzberg, Germany's oldest cinema)
  
• Central Kino (Mitte, Hackescher Markt)
  

Programme:

• Thu 05/03 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
  
• Fri 06/03 Nosferatu – live film music orchestra + choir
  
• Sat 07/03 Georges Méliès
  
• Sat 07/03 Nosferatu – live film music orchestra + choir
  
• Thu 12 March The Lost World
  
• Fri 13 March The Student of Prague
  
• Sat 14 March Sherlock Jr. (Buster Keaton)
  
• Sat 14 March Metropolis
  
• Tue 17 March The Mistress of Atlantis
  
• Tue 24 March Alraune
  

The 23nd Silent Film Concert Festival combines cinematic tradition with innovative interpretation. It invites you to discover film heritage with new ears and eyes and to be enchanted by the synergy between image and sound.


Stephan Graf v. Bothmer

Bothmer transcends the “silent film” genre, his events are almost concerts with films. The music is extremely delicately matched to the films, which makes the films even greater: they seem to emerge from the screen with the music.

His newly composed live film music is gripping and virtuoso at the same time. It constantly changes perspective, so that the characters' contrasting personalities become vivid, their motives convincing and their failures painful - or the audience can't stop laughing, as the case may be. Bothmer not only uses the compositional techniques of the silent film era, but also masterfully integrates what has been developed by the best film composers in more than 100 years of film music history. The result is a modern soundtrack that draws the audience into the film in a way that is otherwise unknown from silent films. They experience the movie immersively, almost as if from within.

The pianist and composer is one of the leading international silent film musicians and has played at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival as well as in Hamburg at the Laeiszhalle and in Berlin at the Admiralspalast, the Wintergarten Varieté and Berlin Cathedral. At the rock-pop festival “Berlin-Festival” at Tempelhof Airport, he performed alongside Björk, Blur and the Pet Shop Boys. He played in the National Concert Hall Budapest and opened the 3rd International Organ Festival in the Philharmonie Kazakhstan with two concerts.