International Premiere
Would your younger self be proud of the life you’re living now? Nico (Marlene-Sophie Haagen) returns to her hometown of Tübingen to lead a workshop with her childhood friend Lori (Ricarda Seifried), who gave up her acting dreams to become a teacher. After prompting their students to write a letter to their future selves, the two friends find themselves questioning the intertwined trajectory of their own lives. The stark contrast between their choices — Nico’s carefree, bohemian life in Berlin and Lori’s safe bourgeois stability — unearths small fissures in their friendship that undermines the versions of themselves they envisioned.
Keenly aware of the subtle dance between fact and fiction people construct to make sense of their lives, co-directors Ella Cieslinski and Nina Wesemann helm their debut feature with a deft assurance. Capturing its characters’ slow awareness of the sudden calcification of inconsequential choices accumulated over the years, Dear Future Self is a sharply tender story about friendship, dreams, and the desire for agency.
Supported by
Marlene-Sophie Haagen, Ricarda Seifried, Tamer Tahan, Hans Löw, Eva Löbau, Şafak Şengül
Germany
2026
In German with English subtitles
At The Cinematheque
At Fifth Ave
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits & Director
Producer
Ella Cielinski, Nina Wesemann
Screenwriter
Ella Cielinski, Nina Wesemann
Cinematography
Nina Wesemann
Editor
Florian Seufert
Production Design
Philomena Schmidt
Ella Cieslinski
Ella Cielslinski, born in France, is a Berlin-based writer and director whose work explores questions of identity, longing, and sexuality. She studied screenwriting at the Munich University of Television and Film and graduated in 2018 with a screenplay that received the award for Best Feature Screenplay at the Sehsuchte Film Festival. Her short films Fou de Toi (2015) and Fantasy is a Fleeing Animal (2018) premiered at the Hof International Film Festival. Her debut feature Dear Future Self received the IFFR Pro Award at the Talent Camp Mannheim and premiered at the Munich Film Festival in 2026.
Nina Wesemann
Nina Wesemann, born and raised in Cologne, graduated in 2019 from the University of Television and Film Munich with a degree in documentary filmmaking. Her work is characterized by ongoing close collaborations with other filmmakers and by her versatility across disciplines. She works as a director, cinematographer, and choreographer and was, among other things, responsible for the cinematography of the documentary film Peter Handke (2016). Her feature-length documentary Children premiered at the Berlinale in 2019, and in the winter of 2019-2020 she spent five months aboard the German research icebreaker Polarstern documenting the MOSAiC expedition.
Focus on New German Cinema: Extreme Tension
See more films in this series
Trial of Hein
After 14 years on the mainland, Hein returns to the cloistered fishing village where he grew up. But when he arrives, he goes unrecognized. Amid mounting suspicion and hostility, the community holds a three-day trial to verify his identity.
I Understand Your Displeasure
This intense realist drama stars Sabine Thalau as Heike, the underpaid, stressed-out manager of a cleaning crew. The non-professional actor portrays the hardship of labour so well that every breath, every arduous movement registers its cost on her soul.
Image: © Wenn Dann Film
The Ballad From Wednesday to Thursday
As evening approaches, residents of Cologne gather in bars, cafes, and clubs, talking about everything from immigration, war in the Middle East, feminism, and racial profiling. As the alcohol flows, conversations get louder and opinions looser.
Image: © Montell Taraschewski_Monte Kalk Film
Dear Future Self
Prompting their students to write a letter to their future selves, two friends find themselves questioning the intertwined trajectory of their own lives. Dear Future Self is a sharply tender story about friendship, dreams, and the desire for agency.
Prosecution
When a young German prosecutor of Korean origin is attacked, she suspects a racist conspiracy and pursues the truth in defiance of her superiors. Prosecution is a film for our moment: a thriller that confronts the far-right head-on.
Sometimes, I Imagine Them All at a Party
Fourteen years ago, Daniela Magnani Hüller survived an attempted femicide by a schoolmate. Now a filmmaker, she revisits the events surrounding that fateful incident, creating a moving collage of interviews, personal recollections, and archival material.
Image: © Bildersturm