Filmkunstmesse Leipzig

Trade visitors register online. Once accredited, you get an access code for booking seats at trade screenings in advance; if seats are still free when a screening starts, your badge gets you in on the door. On each day, accredited visitors can also collect a quota of free tickets for that day's public screenings at the cinema box office.

In 2026 the fair counter, where you collect your badge and fair bag, was in the foyer of the Elaya Hotel Leipzig City Center. The organiser's Orte page recommended the Elaya, two Motel One hotels (Augustusplatz and Nikolaikirche) and the Seaside Park Hotel. Most venues are within walking distance in the city centre, and a shuttle runs to the Gilde awards evening at the Felsenkeller. Some films also go into the online FKM Video Library for accredited visitors; in 2026 it stayed open for about a week after the fair. Practical details for 2027 will be posted closer to the fair.

The Filmkunstmesse is run by AG Kino – Gilde deutscher Filmkunsttheater, the association of Germany's programme and arthouse cinemas. The heart of it is trade screenings of films well ahead of their German release, held at the Passage Kinos and CineStar Leipzig, with seminars and workshops on the arthouse market alongside. In the evenings some screenings open to the public at the Passage Kinos and the Schauburg.

The 26th edition ran 14–18 September 2026. The 27th is confirmed for 20–24 September 2027 in Leipzig.

For a German-language arthouse cinema this is where much of the autumn and winter slate is first seen and discussed with the distributors releasing it. Distributors register films to present; programmers watch, compare notes and talk marketing. The fair also hosts the Gilde film prizes, voted by German arthouse operators — the 49th were awarded at the 2026 edition — and the MDM's Kinoprogrammpreise Mitteldeutschland for regional cinema programmes.

For exhibitors outside the German-speaking market it is of limited direct use, since the releases discussed are German distribution slates.

Trade visitors (Fachbesucher) accredit online through the Filmkunstmesse site; for 2026 the accreditation window ran from 1 June to 1 September. Distributors register films separately. Accreditation fees were not shown on the pages we checked, and the 2027 window had not been published as of 26 September 2026.