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 already mentioned that the PERLEN team has a heart for short films? Therefore, we are particularly pleased to participate again in Germany's largest action day dedicated to short films, the Short Film Day, with a self-curated program in 2025!

The AG Kurzfilm - Federal Association of German Short Film is organizing nationwide short film screenings for the 14th time, in line with the theme of the shortest day of the year - December 21st - and invites cinema operators, festival organizers, and all film enthusiasts to organize their own events. Last year, over 400 organizers responded to this call. The PERLEN team also participated in the Short Film Day in 2022 together with KoKi, under the motto "Girls Boys Mix – Queer Films for the Longest Night." Perhaps some of you still remember? This year's overarching theme for the Short Film Day is simply: NOW!

Save the Date: The PERLEN short film roll for the Short Film Day will be screened on Sunday, December 21, 2025, at 6:00 PM at KoKi Hannover! Get ready to be surprised by the film gems that await you just a few days before Christmas!