Following last year's focus on unusual film countries and the thematic focus on "Flight and Displacement", exground filmfest is breaking new ground this year: In the "Courage for Utopia" section, a freely designed cooperation with the World Design Capital Frankfurt RheinMain 2026 puts central questions about utopias, solidarity-based action and positive perspectives at the heart of the program.

The focus is on empowering stories that are not created in a vacuum, but are embedded in the challenges and conflicts of our time. In a selection of short and feature-length films from various regions of the world, fiction, documentary and experimental films combine current references with the legacy of the past festival: violence and war as causes of flight and displacement are used as a starting point to make glimmers of hope visible.

Films will be shown that search for potential for the future in the past, travel into space or design new, earthly models of communal coexistence. The "Courage for Utopia" section invites reflection, inspiration and critical visualization of future possibilities.

This year, exground will once again create a space for exchange and discussion in which the films serve as a starting point for dialog about a better future. These special films invite reflection on how we as a society can overcome the challenges of the present and lay the foundations for a fairer and more liveable future.

The exground filmfest in Wiesbaden is one of Germany's most important film festivals for international, independent productions. It is also an important meeting place for guests from the film and press industry.

Every year, for ten days in November, exground filmfest is not only a magnet for film enthusiasts from near and far, but also an important discussion forum for around 250 accredited journalists, trade visitors and guests from the film industry - in other words, for important multipliers from the industry and beyond.

From the very beginning, the organizing team has focused on cinema far removed from Hollywood productions and offers a "sophisticated programme of international feature-length and short films beyond first-run cinema" (Frankfurter Rundschau, November 13, 2001), many of which are European or German premieres. The festival features independent US productions ("American Independents"), local arthouse films ("Made in Germany"), award winners from other festivals and other current cinema highlights in the "European Cinema" and "World Cinema" series, as well as short film programs, feature-length and short film competitions and the exground youth days, the youth film festival within the framework of exground filmfest.

The festival has existed since 1990 and is organized by Wiesbadener Kinofestival e.V.