Filmpalette Köln

The Filmpalette stands in the Eigelstein quarter of Cologne's Nordstadt, on the Lübecker Straße where it meets the Hansaring near Ebertplatz. It opened in 1958, and the older of its two halls still carries the charm of that decade, along with the starry ceiling the artist Claudia R Picht made for it when the house turned arthouse in 1987. A full renovation followed in 2004, and since May 2007 there has been a second, smaller hall and a foyer café. The two rooms seat 68 and 43, both at street level. The programme is unusually dense for a cinema this size: five or six screenings a day, more than half of them original versions with subtitles, queer film nights and repertory titles slotted between the new releases. In 2025 it received the federal culture ministry's top prize for the best German cinema programme of the previous year.

Get Directions