Head of Cultural Affairs Dr. Hendrik Schmehl is looking forward to the start of the festival: "Year after year, the German TV Thriller Festival brings the best thrillers to the big screen and makes Wiesbaden a center for exciting cinematic art. We are delighted to once again welcome great filmmakers to our city - for an exchange that celebrates the diversity and relevance of TV crime drama."

Which production will win the German TV Thriller Award - and 1000 liters of Rheingau wine? A prominent jury will decide. Actress Katrin Wichmann shines in the "Sörensen" adaptations. Together with colleague Bjarne Mädel, she received the Grimme Prize in 2022 and the German Acting Prize in 2024. Actress, singer and cabaret artist Gisa Flake investigates on the German-Polish border in rbb's "Polizeiruf 110". She also regularly comments satirically on political events in the "heute-show". Filmmaker Jakob M. Erwa has received numerous awards for the book adaptation "Die Mitte der Welt". In 2025, he is nominated for the German Screenplay Award with "Die Akte Doms". Philipp Fleiter has been one of the most successful podcasters in Germany since 2019 with "Verbrechen von nebenan". As an expert on criminal cases, the radio journalist and author tours sold-out arenas and looks into human abysses with his audience. Casting director Marc Schötteldreier has been casting cinema and television films since 2004, including the crime series "Tatort", "Harter Brocken" and "Wolfsland". He is a member of the German Film Academy and the German Casting Association.

Ten films are competing for the German TV Thriller Award. The competition will open on Tuesday, March 11, at 6 p.m. with the premiere of Borowski's last case in "Tatort - Borowski und das Haupt der Medusa" (NDR) in the presence of the main actors Axel Milberg and Almila Bagriacik. At 8.30 pm, actresses Maria Ketikidou and Franziska von Hardsdorf will present the film "Großstadtrevier - Im Moment der Angst" (NDR/ARD Degeto Film). A further eight TV crime thrillers will be screened in the competition: on Wednesday, the festival will show the crime scenes "Murot und das 1000-jährige Reich" (HR) and "Trotzdem" (BR), the "Spreewaldkrimi - Böses muss mit Bösem enden" (ZDF) as well as the premieres of "Polizeiruf 110 - Widerfahrnis" (MDR) and "Danowski - Neunauge" (ZDF). This will be followed on Thursday by "Tatort - Herz der Dunkelheit" (MDR), the Hessen premiere of "Theresa Wolff - Passion" (ZDF) and "Sebastian Fitzek's Der Heimweg" (Prime Video). For the film talks, film journalist and festival host Knut Elstermann will welcome the actors and actresses in front of the camera as well as directors Lars Kraume, Florian Gottschick, M. X. Oberg, Max Färberböck, Umut Dağ and Claudia Garde as well as the screenwriters Sascha Arango, Michael Proehl, Jan Fehse, Lucas Thiem, Annette Reeker and Carl-Christian Demke.

The competition for the title "Crime series of the year" will take place on Monday, March 10, from 6 pm. The nominees are "Ich bin Dagobert" (RTL+), "Informant - Angst über der Stadt" (NDR/ARD Degeto Film/ARTE/NRK) and the Hessen premiere "Das zweite Attentat" (WDR/ARD Degeto Film). The festival will show one episode of each of the three nominated series at the Caligari FilmBühne. A student jury will award the best production at the festival awards ceremony. Knut Elstermann is expecting director Hannu Salonen, screenwriters Ronny Schalk and Oliver Bottini as well as actors Doğuhan Kabadayı, Noah Saavedra and Daniel Lommatzsch for the series talks.

All winners of the festival, including the audience award from the Wiesbadener Kurier readers' jury, will be announced at the 21st German TV Thriller Award ceremony - on Friday, March 14, at 8 pm at the Caligari Filmbühne. The winning film will be shown afterwards. The evening will be hosted by Knut Elstermann.

Crimes leave traces. But what happens when all traces lead nowhere and the perpetrator is never caught? When answers are missing forever? With modern technology and new methods in forensics, these so-called "cold cases" are investigated today - and solved time and time again. Screenwriters are also fascinated by cold cases and use them as the basis for their stories. How does an unsolved criminal case become an exciting screenplay? What makes these crimes so gripping and why is it important not to lose sight of them? These questions will be the subject of a panel discussion on Thursday, March 13, at 6 pm. With Heike Borufka, court reporter at Hessischer Rundfunk, screenwriter Senad Halilbašić, Jörg Himstedt, head of television drama at Hessischer Rundfunk and Erin Högerle, feature film editor at HR. Bernd Rothenberger (hr1) will moderate.

The climate crisis is here - but it's not being told. This was the conclusion of a study initiated by the MaLisa Foundation in 2023. Topics such as climate and species protection are still heavily underrepresented, especially in fictional entertainment. In order to change this situation, the festival and Hessen Film & Medien cooperated with the MaLisa Foundation and Planet Narratives for the first time and jointly searched for crime thrillers with a climate focus as part of the 9th Young Talent Screenplay Competition. A preliminary jury selected the four most convincing stories from 46 applications. The authors will introduce themselves to the Wiesbaden audience on Thursday, March 13, at 9 p.m.; their crime thriller ideas will be presented as short films. Lia von Blarer ("Bad Influencer", "Eldorado KaDeWe - Jetzt ist unsere Zeit") and Wolf Danny Homann ("Haus Kummerveldt", "German Crime Story: Gefesselt") will be acting. Actor and filmmaker Jonathan Berlin will announce the winner as the individual juror.

The festival will conclude on Saturday, March 15, at 6 p.m. with the Long TV Crime Night. Until the morning of March 16, all ten entries in the film competition will be screened once again at the Caligari Filmbühne. The 21st German TV Crime Film Festival will take place in Wiesbaden from March 9 to 16. Advance ticket sales begin on Friday, February 28, from 10:30 a.m. at the Tourist Information Office, Marktplatz 1, 65183 Wiesbaden, and online.

The German TV Thriller Festival is an event organized by the Cultural Office of the State Capital of Wiesbaden with the support of Hessen Film & Medien, Hessischer Rundfunk and SV SparkassenVersicherung, in cooperation with the Wiesbaden Media Centre and the Wiesbadener Kurier.

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