The Festival of German Films will be held in Paris for the 16th time from 23 to 29 November 2011. A total of 12 new feature films, six shorts and the NEXT GENERATION SHORT TIGER 2011 program of short films will be presented at the Cinéma L'Arlequin.

The festival will open with WESTWIND by Robert Thalheim who has already made a name for himself in France thanks to AND ALONG COME TOURISTS (AM ENDE KOMMEN TOURISTEN). Director Thalheim and actress Friederike Becht will be present at the screening. A cocktail for invited guests will be held in the cinema's foyer before the premiere.

The following new German films can be seen in the main program alongside the opening film: SUMMER WINDOW (FENSTER ZUM SOMMER, Hendrik Handloegten), THE FIRE (DER BRAND, Brigitte Bertele), WINTER DAUGHTER (WINTERTOCHTER, Johannes Schmid), THE EDUCATION (DIE AUSBILDUNG, Dirk Lütter), THE GOOD NEIGHBOUR (UNTER NACHBARN, Stephan Rick), SLEEPING SICKNESS (SCHLAFKRANKHEIT, Ulrich Köhler), THE POLL DIARIES (POLL, Chris Kraus), IF NOT US, WHO (WER WENN NICHT WIR, Andres Veiel), THREE QUARTER MOON (DREIVIERTELMOND, Christian Zübert) and JOSCHKA UND HERR FISCHER (Pepe Danquart) as the closing film. Numerous guests are expected who will be introducing their film to Paris audiences in person, including Hendrik Handloegten, Nina Hoss, Fritzi Haberlandt, Christian Zübert, Brigitte Bertele, Ursula Werner and Pepe Danquart.

Apart from German Films' program of shorts NEXT GENERATION SHORT TIGER 2011, the six short films HOUSE WANDERS, BIRD WATER FULL (WANDERND HAUS VOLL VOGELWASSSER, Veronika Samartseva), FUTURE PAST PERFECT (Carsten Nicolai), LOOM (Ilija Bruck, Jan Bitzer, Csaba Letay), LOVE&THEFT (Andreas Hykade), UNDERGROUND ODYSSEY (Christian Dassios, Uli Grohs, Robert Nacken) and THE HOUSE (DAS HAUS, David Buob) will be shown in cooperation with AG Kurzfilm.

The Goethe-Institut will be placing the focus in this year's accompanying program on the director Andres Veiel, who will be present for the screening of the films THE KICK (DER KICK), IF NOT US, WHO (WER WENN NICHT WIR), DIE SPIELWÜTIGEN and BLACK BOX GERMANY (BLACK BOX BRD).  Moreover, an all-nighter will show the film trilogy DREILEBEN by Christian Petzold, Dominik Graf and Christoph Hochhäusler. Christian Petzold will be on hand to answer questions from the audience.

This year will see the Festival of German Films beginning at the same time as the German-French Film Meeting which will be held in Paris on 23 and 24 November.

The event's partners are: airberlin, ARTE, Goethe-Institut Paris, Kodak, AG Kurzfilm, Paris-Berlin, Le Monde, pariscope, Positif, Courrier international, Les Inrockuptibles, Vocable, TSF Jazz and Premiere.