The six films in “Extreme Tension” are only the beginning.

German productions and co-productions are represented across numerous sections of VIFF 2026, making this year’s German presence much broader than the dedicated Focus.

Among the most prominent titles are three films connected to Germany’s Oscar campaign:

• Sandra Wollner’s Everytime was selected as Germany’s official submission for the 99th Academy Awards in the Best International Feature Film category. The film won the Un Certain Regard Award at Cannes and will screen in VIFF’s Panorama section.
• Also in Panorama is Visar Morina’s Shame and Money, while İlker Çatak’s Yellow Letters will screen in Showcase. Both films have also qualified directly for consideration in the Best International Feature Film category under the Academy’s new regulations. Yellow Letters arrives in Vancouver after winning the Golden Bear at the Berlinale.

Other German productions and co-productions appearing throughout the festival include:

The Dreamed Adventure — Valeska Grisebach

No Good Men — Shahrbanoo Sadat

Rose — Markus Schleinzer

Rebecca Horn – The Secret Life of Things — Claudia Müller

Gentle Monster — Marie Kreutzer

Afterlives — Kevin B. Lee

I Plant My Hand in the Garden — Hoda Taheri & Boris Hadžija

Elephants in the Fog — Abinash Bikram Shah

The Difficult Bride — Rubaiyat Hossain

Daughters of the Late Colonel — Elizabeth Hobbs

Going Home — Kamal Aljafari

“Vaterland” or a Bule Named Yanto — Berthold Wahjudi

Display Nature — Nicolas Gebbe

Together — NEOZOON

The result is a remarkably diverse cross-section of contemporary German filmmaking — from narrative features and documentaries to shorts, experimental works and international co-productions.