Founded in 1970 by Werner Grassmann the Abaton Kino is one of the oldest Arthouse Cinemas in Germany and today is run by his son Felix Grassmann. It is located in the centre of Hamburg, near the university.
From the beginning, the Abaton presented young and emerging filmmakers and talents like the directors of the `New German Cinema´ Fassbinder, Kluge, Herzog and Wenders with their first films.
Since then, Abaton’s policy is to discover and promote innovative films from around the world. The curation of the programme concentrates on new films, but also, features favourite filmmakers of the past. As often as possible, we invite filmmakers to present their films or film historians and critics to introduce films of their choice. We also organize lectures about political and social issues together with publishers and editors. We curate a special late show for young audiences as well as a film quizes and sneak previews. We use several marketing tools to present what we love and care for, such as our own Abaton newspaper, newsletters, social media and website.
Although the COVID pandemic was quite a challenge we are recovering with a constantly growing audience of young cinema lovers. We are very proud of the fact that the winner of the Palm d’Or of the Cannes Film Festival in 2021, Ruben Östlund, recently said how much he loves our cinema. For him, Abaton Kino is probably one of the best cinemas in Europe. We give our best and hopefully, we deserve this great compliment.
Felix Grassmann
Find out more about David Bakum Abaton Kino Ambassador here:
