From 18 to 21 December 2025, the Christmas Film Festival invites you to its 7th edition at the Moviemento cinema in Berlin. This year, the festival once again presents a selection of unconventional short and feature films that take a loving but also unusual look at the theme of Christmas.
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Key Visual: Weihnachtsfilmfestival
Works from a total of 25 different countries and international guests will be welcomed. Celebrate the festive season at the cinema and vote for your favourite short film. All films will be shown in their original version with English subtitles.
The festival opens on 18 December with Ken Wardrop's heart-warming documentary ‘So This Is Christmas’. Behind the façade of tinsel and festivity, the film explores the connections between expectations and reality around the Christmas season through five households in a small Irish town who share their worries and hopes. In the international premiere of the Dutch comedy ‘This Is Not a Christmas Movie’ by Michael Middelkoop, the chaotic Swan family tries to do good but completely misses the mark. Issues such as racism, masculinity, loyalty and tolerance cause quite a stir, and not just at Christmas dinner. Emir Kapetanović's ‘When Santa Was a Communist’ tells the story of a theatre group that wants to spread Christmas cheer in small towns in Bosnia and Herzegovina with a play about Santa Claus. While the children are thrilled, their appearance reignites old conflicts between the adults. Things take a sinister turn in Viking Almquist's ‘Sankta Lucia’ when Sweden's most famous winter holiday takes a gruesome turn in this homage to the Christmas slasher films of the 1980s. In the suspenseful ‘The Uncle’ by David Kapac and Andrija Mardesic, a family hastily prepares for Christmas celebrations. Their uncle from Germany is due to arrive any moment and expects perfection at any cost.
Short films are a must at the Christmas film festival – a total of 40 will be shown at the festival, including many premieres. The ‘Merry Madness Shorts’ celebrate the wild and dark side of Christmas with a dash of black humour. Customs and traditions from around the world are questioned in the ‘Custom Customs Shorts’. Especially in difficult times, we need stories of courage, valuable encounters, happy coincidences and enlightening insights, which are brought together in the ‘When Life Gives You Lemons Shorts’ programme. And in the ‘We Need To Talk Shorts’, everything revolves around communication, because experience shows that there is a lot to talk about at Christmas.
The festival offers a home for films from a wide variety of cultures and opens up horizons that often find no place elsewhere due to their thematic specificity. Embark on a journey into diverse worlds and get into the festive spirit – or enjoy a soothing dose of anti-Christmas spirit, if that's more to your liking.
