October 24 – November 1, 2025

Autumn Festival 2025

The year 2025 has brought a fundamental change for the PERLEN team: We have taken over the task of organizing the festival from the state capital of Hanover, which also means we bear the financial risk. This means that from now on, we have to cover the film rental fees, the costs for printing and distributing the program booklet, advertising measures, travel and accommodation expenses for the guests, and much more on our own.

This realignment has meant a lot of additional effort, planning, and commitment for us this year beyond the actual festival work. Among other things, we successfully launched a crowdfunding campaign through "enercity Herzensprojekte" in August and, with your energetic support, were able to collect our targeted amount as a donation for the festival in just 36 hours – you are the best! Another way to support the festival financially in the long term: Become a sponsoring member! You can find the details under General -> About Us -> The Association.

Fortunately, we will continue to have KoKi Hannover as our cooperation partner and venue, with its unique atmosphere, and it will support us as usual with its wonderful staff and infrastructure, logistics, and expertise – thank you very much! We hope that for you nothing will noticeably change and that you can fully enjoy the festival week.

Some performances will be enhanced by exciting interviews or discussion panels with guests. During the festival week, you will also be able to participate in deciding via ballot which films will receive the audience award "Goldene Perle." We will announce the results on the last day of the festival in the cinema foyer as part of the raffle before the late screening.

Please note: The following subpages and the program booklet are only available in German. If you have questions about the content of the program, please do not hesitate to reach out via the contact form.

Short Film Day 2025

Have we mentioned that the PERLEN team has a heart for short films? On the shortest day of the year, the PERLEN – Queer Film Festival Hannover celebrates the queer NOW! We bring the passion for short films back to the big screen after the autumn festival and present a specially curated program with 8 queer short films from around the world – fresh, diverse, and emotional. All films will be lovingly subtitled in German.

At the Kommunales Kino (KoKi) in Hannover, we invite you to a special evening on December 21, 2025, that goes beyond just watching films. At the PERLEN short film evening "Queer Winter Pearls – Short Films for the Shortest Day of the Year", it’s about encounters, atmosphere, and a sense of community: taking a moment to consciously make time to go to the cinema, to dive into other countries and stories, to have conversations after the films – and to feel, for a small but wonderful moment amidst the pre-Christmas hustle and bustle, a part of something communal.

This year's motto for the Short Film Day is "NOW!" – we take literally: We celebrate the moment when queer life in all its facets and colors becomes visible. And we say: Now is the time to tell queer stories. Now is the time to listen, and now is the time to show ourselves.

Be surprised by the film gems that await you just days before Christmas – moving, colorful, and very close to life. Ticket sales start in early December at KoKi.