Go Mental! Filmfestival

A Festival for an Overlooked Debate

Mental health in Germany continues to be stigmatized: 28% of adults meet the criteria for a mental illness each year, yet less than half seek professional help. The Go Mental! Filmfestival uses film as an entry point to this debate – not as therapeutic guidance, but as an artistic and societal engagement. Since 2021, the festival has established itself in Berlin as the most important forum of its kind in the German-speaking world.

ACUD Kino in Mitte

The venue is the ACUD Kino at Veteranenstraße 21, on the edge of Rosenthaler Platz in the Mitte district. The ACUD premises are one of the few surviving, still actively occupied cultural centers from the early 1990s, combining cinema, theater, gallery, and café. For a festival like Go Mental!, this is the right address: alternative, open to debate, independent of commercial distribution structures.

2026 Programme

The 6th edition, from May 21st to 24th, 2026, will feature international feature and documentary films on topics such as depression, burnout, trauma, psychotherapy, recovery, suicide prevention, neurodivergent experiences, and mental health in the workplace. Opening night with two films:

• "Last Call" starring Tom Holland – a drama about mental stress in young adulthood
• "Auster" by Antonia Uhl – award-winning film of the 2026 edition

Each screening will be followed by discussions with filmmakers, therapists, and activists. The festival will conclude with an awards ceremony on Saturday evening. Tickets cost €10 per screening.

Mitte and Political Berlin

The Mitte district is the political, media, and cultural center of Berlin – with the Brandenburg Gate, Reichstag, Museum Island, Hackesche Höfe, and a dense off-scene around Rosenthaler Platz and Volksbühne. The Go Mental! Filmfestival consciously positions itself within this off-scene: political, eager for debate, with an explicit aim to understand mental health as a societal rather than purely individual issue.