News

Every beginning holds a promise: the magic of the unknown, the energy of that first time, and the quiet sense that something greater might emerge here. In our summer programme, we focus on precisely this moment – the debut, the new beginning, that first courageous step into the spotlight.

The Blaue Salon is an club where film lovers can express their creativity, whether it’s in selecting the film lineup or organizing screenings. You can actively participate in public relations, graphic design, analog and digital film screenings, planning the open-air cinema, and contribute your ideas.

Come on by! This Friday, February 20, the Blue Salon at the HfG will once again transform into our legendary Open Stage starting at 8 p.m. 🎷✨ Whether you’re a pro on your instrument or just starting out: Take the stage for some jazz, funk, or a spontaneous jam session!

A silent film classic with live coding and synthesizers, flickering 16mm footage, and an archive that is anything but static: 2026 begins at the Blauer Salon with an evening that brings film history and the present into collision. The event kicks off with a masterpiece of animation—accompanied by music that can only be created in the moment.

When the final curtain falls at the Blauer Salon for this year, we know: the scent of cookies fills the air, outside something sparkles somewhere between snowflake and rain, and we get to invite you to the cinema one last time this year – stylishly, cozily, and with a hint of anticipation for everything to come.

On December 8, 2025, the Kino im Blauen Salon invites audiences to an evening dedicated to rediscovering one of the most intriguing yet overlooked strands of West German filmmaking—and to welcoming a very special guest. Dr. Marco Abel, the German-American film scholar whose work has shaped contemporary understandings of German cinema, will present his new book With Nonchalance at the Abyss: The Cinema of the New Munich Group (1964–1972). It is the first comprehensive study of the filmmakers who, in 1960s Munich, swam against the current of what came to be known as “young German cinema,” and who developed a vibrant aesthetic counter-narrative to the dominant postwar film discourse.

On Saturday, November 16, we had a very special visitor: Günter Kautzmann from Leonberg, born in 1940. He had contacted us because he had read on our website that we still use 35mm projection and Bauer B14 projectors. Curious to know what a man of his age wanted from us, we invited him over and had an encounter that touched us all deeply.

Two weeks ago, we celebrated the opening of the new season. The archive lives on! For an entire semester, we will be bringing treasures from our 35mm collection to the big screen. But before the curtain rose for the first time, there were a few surprises. Here is a brief look back at what happened before the first screening.

Vom 19. bis 21. September fand im Offkino Bielefeld das jährliche Treffen der deutschen unabhängigen Kinos – Kino Climates – statt. Drei Tage voller Austausch, Filmleidenschaft, analoger Projektion, Archivpraxis, Networking und familiärer Atmosphäre – ein lebendiges Forum für Kinomacher:innen.

A new semester is beginning – and with it, a brand-new cinema program at the Blauer Salon! After long meetings, countless film screenings, license research, writing, design discussions, and proofreading, our beautiful program booklet is finally at the printer.