International Feature Film Competition

Home Fest 2026 Programme International Feature Film Competition

Confident, curious, desperate – women push back against entrenched patriarchal structures and confront the challenges of poverty, exile, loss and motherhood. Eight outstanding debut and follow-up films from Germany, Ecuador, Great Britain, Kenya, Croatia, India, Slovakia and the United States are competing for the € 10,000 prize. New this year is that the competition in Cologne is also open to second feature films by directors.

The competition films ask for patience. The characters are complex: women who are guarded or strategic, sometimes physically or mentally at the end of their tether – women who make mistakes, stumble, but get back up again. Young men who sense that well-worn paths leave them disconnected from themselves and from others. Taken together, the films are a powerful farewell to the patriarchy – only fitting in times of an antifeminist backlash. These films are encouraging; they show that we are part of a community built on solidarity, not least because more women than ever are telling stories and asserting their right to interpret the world – turning the camera on lives and experiences that for far too long went largely unseen.

Trailer Competition 2026

Curators:

Stefanie Görtz

Jennifer Jones

Jury

Athina Tsangari

…won the IFFF Feature Film competition in 2011 (for Attenberg) and is considered a master of the »genre-crossing screwball tragedy«. Her debut, The Slow Business of Going, is part of the permanent collection at MoMA. She has directed numerous short films, the series Trigonometry and the feature films Chevalier and Harvest. Under her label HAOS FILM, she has (co-)produced films by Yorgos Lanthimos, Georgis Grigorakis, Richard Linklater and others. She has taught film at Harvard, Austin and Le Fresnoy, and served as artistic director of the Oxbelly Screenwriting and Directing Labs.

Annouchka de Andrade

…is the founder and executive director of the Association Friends of Sarah Maldoror & Mario de Andrade, which was established in 2018. With over 30 years of experience in international cultural cooperation, her focus is on cultural heritage and audiovisual productions from France, Spain, Colombia, Bolivia, Venezuela, Peru and Ecuador. For many years, she was technical assistant to her mother, director Sarah Maldoror, and artistic director of the Amiens International Film Festival. She is currently developing her own creative work.

Bettina Brokemper

…founded Heimatfilm in Cologne in 2003 and has since produced over 50 films, including Hannah Arendt, Wild, Till the End of the Night, The Blood Countess and The Education of Jane Cumming. She teaches at film schools and, as managing director of Zentropa Cologne, has been involved in almost all of Lars von Trier’s films since Dogville. She is a member of the Deutsche Filmakademie and the European Film Academy and has received numerous awards, including the Prix Eurimages. The Hollywood Reporter named her one of the 40 most influential women in international film three years in a row, from 2023 to 2025.