“Film Pioneers!” Retrospective at the Zeughauskino in Berlin, October 31-December 20, 2025

The Zeughauskino Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin is putting on a retrospective entitled “Film pioneers! Female directors in Germany from 1917 to 1932” from October 31-December 20, 2025. According to the webpage, it will be the “first retrospective of its kind to focus on the film work of female directors in Germany from 1917 to 1932.”

Several of the films being screened were directed by women film pioneers, including The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1923-26) by Lotte Reiniger; Hände (1927-28) by Stella F. Simon; Mädchen am Kreuz (1929) by Louise Kolm-Fleck; as well as a variety of works by unhistoricized pioneers who do not yet have profiles, such as: Fern Andra, Marie Luise Droop, Leontine Sagan, Hanna Henning, and Olga Tschechowa.

To buy tickets or view the full program, click here.

The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1923-26). Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Still from Hände/Hands (Miklos Bandy & Stella Simon 1927-28). Private Collection.

Mädchen am Kreuz (1929). Courtesy of the Zeughauskino Deutsches Historisches Museum.