Best new German Movies in 2021 & 2020 (Netflix, Prime, Hulu & Cinema List)
List of the latest German movies in 2021 and the best German movies of 2020 & the 2010's. Top German movies to watch on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Disney+ & other Streaming services, out on DVD/Blu-ray or in cinema's right now.
New German movies in 2021 in Cinema & on VOD
Top movies up for release in 2021 in cinema and on VOD
DIRECTOR: Ronny Trocker CAST: Sabine Timoteo, Mark Waschke & Julie Hermann
Written and directed by Ronny Trocker (The Eremites), this intriguing drama takes aim at the nature of class divide. The inciting incident involves a home invasion of a cosmopolitan middle-class family. This event triggers a slew of heated conversations and hidden secrets as the family soon realizes they’re more fragile than they thought when it comes to understanding the world around them. This drama loaded with societal commentary stars the likes of Mark Waschke, Hassan Akkouch, and Spencer Bogaert.
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DIRECTOR: Christian Petzold CAST: Paula Beer, Franz Rogowski & Jacob Matschenz
Undine Wibeau (Paula Beer) is a historian who finds herself lecturing on the urban development in Berlin. But her life is turned upside down when she discovers that the man she has always loved will be leaving her forever. This troubling development finds a myth of her past coming to life as she is now caught up in a deadly situation. She is then presented with a grim reality of choice: either kill the man she loved or return to the sea from where she once came. Read more Watch the trailer of Undine
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Best German movies on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Disney+ or DVD in 2021
2020, 2019, 2018, 2017 and the 2010's best rated German movies out on DVD, Bluray or streaming on VOD (Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Disney+ & More).
DIRECTOR: Nora Fingscheidt CAST: Helena Zengel, Albrecht Schuch & Gabriela Maria Schmeide
The nine-year-old girl Benni (Helena Zengel) who is exceptionally wild and violent. A mere touch of her face will send her into a frenzy as a result of a childhood trauma. Because of her outbursts, she is thought of to be a system crasher, someone who is destined to fall through the cracks of a society that will fail them. But she may just find a means of coping with the help of the unlikely friendship in the trainer Michael Heller (Albrecht Schuch). This bittersweet and sincere German drama comes from writer/director Nora Fingscheidt. Read more Watch the trailer of System Crasher
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DIRECTOR: Sven Taddicken CAST: Maximilian Brückner, Luise Heyer & Florian Bartholomäi
Liv and Malte are a German couple spending their holidays in Spain. One night, Liv gets assaulted. Afterwards, the couple seem to deal with the trauma surprisingly well, but this changes when Malte runs into one of the perpetrators again. A dark, psychological drama that will stay with you for a couple of days after watching it. – Read more Watch the trailer of The Most Beautiful Couple Netflix | Amazon | All Release dates
DIRECTOR: Jan-Ole Gerster CAST: Corinna Harfouch, Tom Schilling & Volkmar Kleinert
On the day of Lara's sixtieth birthday, her son will be playing his debut piano concert. Lara has always supported her son's musical career, but somehow, she doesn't seem to be welcome at the event. Maybe she has pushed her son a little to hard over the years? Read more Watch the trailer of Lara Netflix | Amazon | All Release dates
DIRECTOR: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck CAST: Tom Schilling, Sebastian Koch, Paula Beer, Saskia Rosendahl
Eight years after the disappointing 'The Tourist', German director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck ('The Lives of Others') returns with another historical German epic. 'Never Look Away' tells the tale of a talented yet traumatised painter from the DDR and his tyrannical father-in-law with a dubious Nazi past. 'Never Look Away' is three-hour movie, spanning over 30 years. Despite its melodramatic tendencies, it sure makes for some great old-fashioned cinema kicks. Read more Watch the trailer of Never Look Away
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DIRECTOR: Valeska Grisebach CAST: Meinhard Neumann, Reinhardt Wetrek, Syuleyman Alilov Letifov, Veneta Fragnova
A tense German Drama set in Europe's neighboring countries, mainly in Bulgaria, about a construction site where to communities come to stand at odds with one another. Read more Watch the trailer of Western
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DIRECTOR: Sebastian Schipper CAST: Fionn Whitehead
Moritz Bleibtreu
Claudia Trujillo
After the absolute stunner 'Victoria' (2015), German director Sebastian Schipper is back in 2018 with 'Caravan'. The movie deals with the contemporary European immigrant crisis in a playful way. The story evolves around a British lad who, after being bored for a long time, flees his parents Moroccan resorts and teams up with a Congolese refugee who's looking for a better life in Europe. Together they travel the continent. Read more Watch the trailer of Caravan RATING: 90/100
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DIRECTOR: Fatih Akin CAST: Diane Kruger
Denis Moschitto
Numan Acar
Turkish-German director Fatih Akin ('Auf der Anderen Seite', 'Gegen die Wand') returns with a heartbreaking film about a young German mother who loses both her (Muslim) husband and son after a terrorist attack. When it seems like the terrorists are getting away with it, she decides to take matters in her own hands. Read more Watch the trailer of Aus dem Nichts RATING: 79/100
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DIRECTOR: Maren Ade CAST: Sandra Hüller
Peter Simonischek
Michael Wittenborn
After the modest success of her low key relationship drama 'Alle Anderen', German director Maren Ade returns with one of the most unusual (and brilliant) films we've seen in the last couple of years. Mixing bizarre comedy with gripping drama, 'Toni Erdmann' tells the story of a rebellious old hippie trying to reconnect with his ambitious daughter. As he unexpectedly shows up during a business trip of hers, a very weird series of events is set into motion. Read more Watch the trailer of Toni Erdmann RATING: 77/100
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DIRECTOR: Anne Zohra Berrached CAST: Julia Jentsch
Bjarne Mädel
Johanna Gastdorf
A powerful and unsentimental German drama about a young, happy couple expecting a child. After a few months of pregnancy, the soon-to-be parents discover that their child will be severely disabled, both mentally and psychically. They are now faced with a horrible dilemma. Read more Watch the trailer of 24 Wochen RATING: 75/100
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DIRECTOR: Dietrich Brüggemann CAST: Lea van Acken
Franziska Weisz
Florian Stetter
Stations of the Cross tells the story of the radically devote Catholic fourteen year old girl Maria who wants to become a saint. Through fourteen separate chapters (parallel to the fourteen stations Jesus had to pass on his way to Golgotha),we’re witnessing her journey. In line with the austerity of the plot ( in so far there is one), director Brüggeman shot the entire film with a stationary camera. This doesn’t make Stations of the Cross an easy watch per se, but it encourages the audience to contemplate on the film’s thought evoking theme. Read more Watch the trailer of Kreuzweg RATING: 75/100
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DIRECTOR: David Wnendt CAST: Carla Juri
Christoph Letkowski
Marlen Kruse
The story highlights the adventures of a young daughter of a divorced couple, who has a very eccentric view of sexuality and an unusual attitude towards hygiene. Read more Watch the trailer of Feuchtgebiete RATING: 58/100
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DIRECTOR: Jan Ole Gerster CAST: Tom Schilling
Katharina Schüttler
Justus von Dohnányi
Jan Ole Gerster’s debut feature film won about every award there is to win in Germany last year. Whether it received a little bit too much praise or not is debatable, but yet it’s hard to deny that Oh Boy is refreshing debut. In my local cinema it was released in the same week as Noah Baumbach’s excellent Frances Ha. And indeed these two films would make a nice double bill. Both films, shot in black and white and clearly paying homage to Woody Allen’s Manhattan, deal with restless, self-centered twentysomethings who seem to drown in modern day’s first world problems. Read more Watch the trailer of Oh Boy RATING: 74/100
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DIRECTOR: Georg Maas, Judith Kaufmann CAST: Juliane Köhler
Liv Ullmann
Sven Nordin
Katrine, in her fifties and happily married, lives in Norway after she managed to escape the GDR’s iron grip in the late sixties. When the Berlin Wall falls in ’89 however, information about her past is about to be released and it becomes clear some things are not quite what they seem. Films like these can be pretty hard to judge on its actual cinematic qualities, since the actual historical happenings are so interesting the film will grasp you attention anyway. Let’s put it this way: the choice to select this film as the German entry for the Best Foreign Film at the Oscars last February was a pretty safe one. Read more Watch the trailer of Zwei Leben RATING: 71/100
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DIRECTOR: Cate Shortland CAST: Saskia Rosendahl
Kai-Peter Malina
Nele Trebs
You don’t see that many World War two films from a German’s point of few, which makes this German youth film all the more interesting. The story takes off when the war is over. Lore, fourteen year old, is the daughter of an established Nazi officer who sees herself and her infant siblings forced to flee as her parents become outlaws all of a sudden. As she travels the country by foot, she finds out what exactly was going on the last five years, which makes her question her firm beliefs in the Nazi ideology. An honest and nuanced film with some stunning photography as well. Read more Watch the trailer of Lore RATING: 71/100
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DIRECTOR: Edgar Reitz CAST: Jan Dieter Schneider
Antonia Bill
Maximilian Scheidt
A prequel to Reitz’ much acclaimed and utterly ambitious Heimat trilogy, which covers the lives of a few generations of the Simon family, while showing Germany’s tumultuous modern history along their paths. Chronik einer Sehnsucht takes place in 1842, at a time when a lot of Germans from the rural parts of the country emigrated and tried their luck in the America’s. The film’s main protagonist, Jakob Simon, dreams of leaving too. A beautiful and deeply melancholy film about having dreams and not being able to make those come true as people are often too deeply rooted in what they call their heimat. The film takes its time (nearly four hours) and often challenges the viewer, as it is not without flaws, but is extremely rewarding in the end. A stunning and highly authentic look into the lives of nineteenth-century common German villagers. Read more Watch the trailer of Die Andere Heimat: Chronik einer Sehnsucht RATING: 80/100 Netflix | Amazon | All Release dates
DIRECTOR: Ramon Zürcher CAST: Leon Alan Beiersdorf
Matthias Dittmer
Lea Draeger
The Strange Little Cat is what you call a slow burner. It screened at the Berlin Film Festival in February 2013, but it wasn’t until a couple of months ago before the blogosphere started to pick it up. In this remarkable little gem in the veins of Jacques Tati’s observational humorist films, we follow a middle class German family from dusk till dawn. Nothing much happens and the camera barely leaves the apartment but first time director Zürcher succeeds in showing the mundane in such a way that it becomes absurd. Read more Watch the trailer of The Strange Little Cat RATING: 67/100 Netflix | Amazon | All Release dates
DIRECTOR: Raoul Peck CAST: August Diehl
Stefan Konarske
Vicky Krieps
A biographical film about the friendship between young Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, the 'founders' of what came to be known as communism. 'Der Junge Karl Marx' is a well-crafted, yet somewhat predictable period drama about the formative years of two of Europe's most influential thinkers. Read more Watch the trailer of Der Junge Karl Marx RATING: 74/100
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DIRECTOR: Helene Hegemann CAST: Jasna Fritzi Bauer
Arly Jover
Laura Tonke
A gripping coming of age film about Mifti, a sixteen year old girl from Berlin struggling with the death of her mother. When she falls for a older woman who happens to be a white-collar criminal, her life is completely turned upside down. Read more Watch the trailer of Axolotl Overkill RATING: 85/100
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From German Expressionism in the 1920’s to New German Cinema in the 1970’s and to great modern filmmakers like Tom Tykwer and Fatih Akin: Germany has an overwhelming amount of great films movies to offer. We picked our recent favorites.
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