Germany/Slovenia 2020, 94 min., Rating: Ages 6 and up, recommended for ages 8 and up

Jonas wants nothing more than to spend his summer vacation with his cool Grandpa Bernard in Slovakia. Ever since his father’s death, there’s been nothing but trouble at home, so after yet another blowup, Jonas takes off on the spur of the moment. Using a clever ruse, Jonas gets Bernard to pick him up halfway there. The long-awaited summer with Grandpa can finally begin. But Grandpa isn’t the same as Jonas remembers him. Now that he’s been forced into early retirement, he’s acting strangely and moodily. Even after three days, there’s no sign of the fun and action Jonas had hoped for. When Jonas befriends Alex, the neighbor’s kid, the two hatch a crazy plan for Grandpa: he needs a new hobby, a new wife, or a new job!

Director: Martina Sakova
Screenplay: Silke Schulz, Martina Sakova
Cinematography: Jieun Yi
Music: Paul Eisenach
Starring Elias Vyskocil, Pavel Nový, Liana Pavlikova, Szidi Tobias, Kaya Möller

Germany/Austria 2020, 85 min., FSK: ages 6 and up, recommended for ages 9 and up

Twelve-year-old Madison trains obsessively in track cycling to follow in the footsteps of her father, a professional cyclist. When she gets kicked out of the national team’s training camp, she flees to her mother, who is on vacation in Tyrol. In the mountains, she reluctantly swaps her road bike for a mountain bike and discovers a whole new side of herself. While downhill biking with new friends, she realizes that sports without the pressure to perform are much more fun. But soon Madison’s father shows up at her door, and she has to decide what she really wants. 

Director: Kim Strobl
Screenplay: Kim Strobl, Milan Dor
Cinematography: Stefan Biebl
Starring Felice Ahrens, Florian Lukas, Maxi Warwel, Valentin Schreyer, Emilia Warenski, Yanis Scheurer, Leevi Schlemmer

. In 2020, MADISON received the Audience Award at the Children’s Film Festival at Lichtwerk Bielefeld, and in 2021, it won the “Der weiße Elefant” Children’s Media Award at the Munich Film Festival.

USA 2011, 126 min., Rating: Ages 6 and up, recommended for ages 10

and up. Paris, 1931. No one suspects that, behind the scenes at the Montparnasse train station, 12-year-old Hugo Cabret is actually the one who takes care of all the giant mechanical clocks. Since his father’s death, he has been living there in a hidden room—always afraid of being discovered by the station attendant and his dog and sent to an orphanage. All that remains of his father is a strange machine that looks like a human and is powered by a complex gear mechanism. Hugo firmly believes that if he repairs it, it will convey a message from his father to him. But when he tries to steal spare parts from a grumpy toy maker yet again, he gets caught. And then the old man even takes his father’s notebook away from him! Without it, he can’t continue working on the machine. How fortunate that he meets Isabelle. She is the toy maker’s adopted daughter. And because she loves adventure, she wants to help him. Can the heart-shaped key on Isabelle’s necklace make his father’s antique robot work? And what secret does her adoptive father harbor?

Director: Martin Scorsese
Screenplay: John Logan, Brian Selznick
Cinematography: Robert Richardson
Music: Howard Shore
Starring Asa Butterfield, Chloë Grace Moretz, Sir Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen