Autumn Showcase 2023

The Berlin & Beyond Film Festival, presented by the Goethe-Institut San Francisco, will launch its 28th Season with the 8th edition of the Berlin & Beyond Autumn Showcase on November 7, 2023 at the Vogue Theatre in San Francisco and November 8th at Rialto Cinemas Cerrito in El Cerrito, with four of the most talked-about films of German cinema today.

The festival will open with the riveting classroom drama, The Teachers’ Lounge (Das Lehrerzimmer), directed and co-written by İlker Çatak and starring Leonie Benesch. The Sony Pictures Classics release is Germany’s Academy Award® submission for Best International Feature. The Teachers’ Lounge won five German Film Awards (Deutscher Filmpreis) earlier this year, including Best Picture (Gold), Best Direction, Best Actress, Best Screenplay, and Best Editing.

From Festival Director Sophoan Sorn: “We are excited to kick-off Season 28 with the edge-of-your-seat, societal drama The Teachers’ Lounge, directed by İlker Çatak, one of Germany’s most captivating cinematic storytellers today. Both İlker Çatak and Alex Schaad were introduced to our audiences with their Student Academy Award®-winning short films, Fidelity (2014) and Invention of Trust (2016), respectively. İlker Çatak’s I Was, I Am, I Will Be opened our fully virtual Autumn Showcase during the global pandemic in 2020. We are thrilled to present the US Premiere of Alex Schaad’s out-of-body sci-fi Skin Deep, Afire from Berlin School icon Christian Petzold (whose feature films have all screened at previous Berlin & Beyond festivals), and Frauke Finsterwalder’s Sisi & I, with indelible performances by Susanne Wolff and Sandra Hüller (currently lauded for starring roles in the Cannes Palme d’Or winner, Anatomy of a Fall, and Cannes Grand Prix winner, The Zone of Interest).”