Press Release | Berlin, 07/07/2025

UFA Film Nights 2025: Stars of Weimar Cinema – Open Air on Berlin’s Museum Island

• From 27 to 29 August 2025, the festival will present outstanding silent films from the 1920s for the 15th time – brought to life with exclusive live musical accompaniment
• Advance ticket sales now open

Berlin, July 7, 2025. Cinematic masterpieces of Weimar cinema – under the stars at one of Berlin’s most spectacular venues: From August 27 to 29, 2025, Bertelsmann and UFA will present the 15th edition of the UFA Film Nights. Over the course of three evenings, outstanding silent films from the 1920s will once again be shown in the open air, accompanied by live music and set against the stunning backdrop of Berlin’s Museum Island.

The opening night offers audiences a glimpse into the historic Wintergarten, the legendary Berlin variety theatre of the 1920s. VARIETÉ (VARIETY, 1925) by Ewald André Dupont, starring the iconic Emil Jannings alongside Lya de Putti, Warwick Ward, Maly Delschaft and Kurt Gerron, was filmed in part inside this world-famous venue. UFA Film Nights will screen the digitally restored version provided by the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation. Musical accompaniment will be performed by the UFA Syncopators: Küspert & Kollegen, based on a new composition by Werner Küspert and Richard Siedhoff, which will have its world premiere at the event.

The second evening features the 1925 film adaptation of Richard Strauss’s opera DER ROSENKAVALIER (THE ROSE BEARER), directed by Robert Wiene. Richard Strauss himself rearranged the opera’s music as a purely instrumental score for the film and composed several new passages. For the open-air screening on Museum Island, the Metropolis Orchester Berlin will perform Strauss’s composition in a version adapted in 2006 by Bernd Thewes and arranged by Frank Strobel.

The UFA Film Nights 2025 will conclude on Friday with Gustav Ucicky’s DER STRÄFLING AUS STAMBUL (THE CONVICT FROM ISTANBUL). Starring Willi Forst, Paul Hörbiger, Betty Amann, and especially the leading actor Heinrich George, the 1929 production brought together a star-studded cast from the Ufa studios. Supported by Bertelsmann, the digitally restored version of the film by the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation will celebrate its world premiere at UFA Film Nights 2025. The multiple Grammy-nominated composer and multi-instrumentalist PC Nackt will perform his original score, created especially for the film.

Each evening’s screening will be preceded by introductory commentary placing the film in its historical and cultural context. The celebrity presenter of this year’s UFA Film Nights is actress Inka Friedrich.

Tickets are available for €22 at https://www.ufa-filmnaechte.de/en/  .

The Program at a Glance:

Wednesday, August 27, 2025, film starts at 9:00 p.m.
VARIETÉ (VARIETY) (1925)
Director: Ewald André Dupont
Cast: Emil Jannings, Lya de Putti, Warwick Ward, Maly Delschaft, Georg John, Kurt Gerron
Production: Universum-Film AG (Producer: Erich Pommer)
Runtime: 82 min | Digitally restored version by the F.W. Murnau Foundation (2014)
Music: UFA Syncopators: Küspert & Kollegen, based on a composition by Werner Küspert and Richard Siedhoff

Thursday, August 28, 2025, film starts at 9:00 p.m.
DER ROSENKAVALIER (THE ROSE BEARER) (1925)
Director: Robert Wiene
Cast: Michael Bohnen, Huguette Duflos, Paul Hartmann, Jaque Catelain, Elly Felicie Berger, Carmen Cartellieri
Production: Pan-Film AG (Vienna)
Runtime: 108 min
Music: Richard Strauss, based on motifs from his opera, performed by the Metropolis Orchester Berlin

Friday, August 29, 2025, film starts at 9:00 p.m.
DER STRÄFLING AUS STAMBUL (THE CONVICT FROM ISTANBUL) (1929)
Director: Gustav Ucicky
Cast: Heinrich George, Betty Amann, Paul Hörbiger, Willi Forst, Trude Hesterberg
Production: Universum-Film AG
Runtime: 102 min
Music: New composition by PC Nackt

Partners of the UFA Film Nights include the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, and Apleona. Media partners are Ströer, radioeins, rbbKultur (radio3), and Maz&Movie.
As a creative content company with a 190-year history, Bertelsmann engages in cultural activities on multiple levels—both nationally and internationally. The focus of its Culture@Bertelsmann initiatives is to support cultural diversity and preserve important cultural heritage. Bertelsmann has been organizing the successful UFA Film Nights silent film festival in Berlin for many years and has repeatedly served as the main sponsor of digital restorations of significant silent-era films. The Group also owns the Archivio Storico Ricordi in Milan, which holds a rich collection of unique materials documenting 200 years of Italian opera history. Bertelsmann is cataloguing and digitizing the archive according to the latest standards, making thousands of documents, stage and costume designs, libretti, and pieces of business correspondence freely available online. For more than 20 years, Bertelsmann has also provided authors with a high-profile platform for presenting their latest works through its literary series The Blue Sofa. Its Culture@Bertelsmann initiative is dedicated to making culture accessible to a broad audience.

About Bertelsmann
Bertelsmann is a media, services, and education company with about 75,000 employees that operates in some 50 countries around the world. It includes the entertainment group RTL Group, the trade book publisher Penguin Random House, the music company BMG, the service provider Arvato Group, Bertelsmann Marketing Services, the Bertelsmann Education Group, and Bertelsmann Investments, an international network of funds. The company generated revenues of €19 billion in the 2024 financial year. Bertelsmann stands for creativity and entrepreneurship. This combination promotes first-class media content and innovative service solutions that inspire customers around the world.

About UFA
UFA is a leading production company for series and films, shows, and documentaries in the German-speaking world. New and long-running programs produced by UFA reach an average of more than 30 million people every week and are currently available on nearly all TV channels and streaming services. The creative powerhouse bundles the range of its genres under one roof in the UFA Fiction, UFA Serial Drama, UFA Show & Factual, UFA Documentary, UFA Mitte units as well as in its newest Label UFA GG. UFA is part of the international production company Fremantle, the global production arm of RTL Group. A company with a long tradition and based in Potsdam-Babelsberg, UFA was founded in 1917 and now has five locations across Germany. Its CEO is Sascha Schwingel and its COO Natalie Clausen.