Animation

“Tafiti: Across the Desert” won the CineKindl Audience Award at the 2025 Munich Film Festival. By April 2026, the film had drawn approximately 234,000 theatergoers in Germany. A large portion of the animation was also produced at Red Parrot Studios, based in Cologne:

When his grandfather is bitten by a venomous snake, the young meerkat Tafiti sets out in search of a rare blue flower that can save him. Against all expectations, the brush-eared pig Pinsel accompanies him on the dangerous journey through the desert. The unlikely duo becomes friends who learn together to overcome their fears and stand up for one another.

“The Siren” opened the Panorama section of the 73rd Berlinale in 2023 and won the award for Best Music at the prestigious Annecy International Animation Film Festival that same year. Cologne-based TrickStudio Lutterbeck was involved in the international co-production:

At the start of the Iran-Iraq War, the Iranian port city of Abadan is under siege. Fourteen-year-old Omid stays behind with his grandfather while searching for his missing brother and a way out of the besieged city. In the midst of the war, he finds people who have stayed behind for various reasons—and eventually discovers a way for them to escape together.

This animated social drama celebrated its world premiere in 2017 at the Semaine de la Critique at the Cannes Film Festival. That same year, “Teheran Tabu” won the European Script Award for the most innovative screenplay by a newcomer:

In modern-day Tehran, the lives of several people intersect as they seek their own paths amid social norms, personal desires, and a daily life full of contradictions. The film tells the story of women and men who circumvent prohibitions, keep secrets, and try to live self-determined lives in a strictly regulated environment.