Germany

On your mark, get set, it’s time for a whole lot of animated brilliance from all corners of our big wide world. Join us for metaphysical musings and reflective moments, laugh-out-loud gags and a load of animal antics – it’s your annual wintery fix of animated inventiveness and imagination.

On the Mongolian steppes, one woman’s cultural and sexual identity is reckoned with in Uisenma Borchu’s fierce, hypnotic drama of two sisters coming to terms with their expression of heritage and independence.

Racial and psychological tensions, claustrophobically observed in both the workplace and at home, come to a head in Visar Morina’s masterfully directed thriller about one man’s identity crisis as a foreigner in Germany.

A riveting animated tale of the fall of the Berlin Wall – and people brave enough to change the world – told through the eyes of a courageous 12-year-old girl.

A tough-as-nails boxing drama in the vein of Raging Bull, German filmmaker Barbara Ott’s Kids Run is a captivating portrait of precarity that pulls no punches.

Corinna Harfouch is unforgettable as a mother reaching out, in her own severe way, to her classical pianist son and her own erstwhile artistic ambitions, in director Jan-Ole Gerster’s high-tensile drama.

A belated and buoyant documentary portrait of Martin Margiela, celebrated for his trailblazing designs and humble, enigmatic persona within the flamboyant fashion world.

Understated yet emotionally resonant, Faraz Shariat’s semi-autobiographical coming-of-age drama is both timely in its exploration of a global humanitarian crisis and a testament to the transformative power of queer love.

The great Ai Weiwei, giant of contemporary Chinese, activist and human rights art, directs with breathtaking outrage this soul-searching documentary on the devastation of a Mexican community gutted by a mass abduction of students.