8.–
18.
AUG 2024
About the program 24
News
The 39th Bonn Summer Cinema - International Silent Film Festival was a complete success and planning is already in full swing to make the 40th anniversary a very special year. The festival will take place as usual in a hybrid format from August 8 to 18, 2024. This year there will be a new edition of the long-awaited program booklet, for which we urgently need your support. We are using a very special donation format for this, where you can receive great prizes.
Silent Film Festival
For the 40th time, Europe's most popular silent filmfestival will take place in August 2024 in the heart of Bonn. Newly restored classics, rediscoveries, exotic rarities. The program brings together popular and unknown titles from the early days of cinema, whose technical sophistication will amaze. The films are also still convincing today in terms of aesthetics, dramaturgy and acting. The audience ranges from curious first-time visitors to proven film connoisseurs. Professionals mix with enthusiastic hobby cineastes. Young and old, families and groups of friends, couples of all ages, guests who come alone but do not remain lonely in thecourtyard. The event is also a place for meeting and exchange. An annual reunion with like-minded people, an experience for all the senses.
Live Music
The films are accompanied by a selection of renowned musicians from around the world, most of whom have dedicated themselves solely to silent film. As soloists or in small ensembles, they provide the films with sound. The accompaniments vary from composed scores to spontaneous improvisations. Pianos and violins are the classic instruments that accompany silent film. In Bonn, a flute, drums, an oboe and a harp complement the instrumentation. Sometimes a musician plays several instruments during one film. You can find more on the musicians at the festival further down on this page.
Open Air
The films are presented outdoors in the Arkadenhof at the University of Bonn. Nearly 1500 chairs are available for viewers (this year only 500 due to the coronavirus epidemic). In case of rain, there is standing room for several hundred people in the Arkaden walkway. You're well-equipped for the film evenings with a sweater, blanket and umbrella. Every weather condition has its particular charm. Events are free but donations are requested. This means you'll have to be there early some evenings to get a seat. If the courtyard is full, the gate will be closed. You can pass the time waiting for it to get dark, and for the screening to begin, by reading or chatting in the wonderful atmosphere of the Electoral Palace. Bonn's "most beautiful movie theater" has a 100-square-meter screen and 35 mm film projectors that are used in alternation, as well as the latest digital film technology.
Program
August 2023
August 2023
