FAQ
Generell questions
Our cinemas open no later than 30 minutes before the start of the first screening.
The cinema programme is always drawn up on Mondays for the week running from Thursday to Wednesday. We base our decisions partly on our expectations for the new releases and partly on audience interest over the previous weekend. We then negotiate the screenings for the coming week in consultation with film distributors. During the course of Monday, the programme is entered into our box office system and gradually becomes available to view on our website.
OmU stands for: original version with German subtitles.
OV stands for: original version without subtitles.
OmeU stands for: original version with English subtitles.
Age restrictions & ratings
The stated age ratings apply. As a cinema, we are bound by these and they are not waived by the presence of an accompanying adult. An exception to this is the ‘Parental Guidance’ rule for films with an FSK 12 rating: children aged six and over may be admitted to these films if they are accompanied by persons with (permanent) parental responsibility. A person with parental responsibility who is authorised by the parents (= legal guardians) is not sufficient. For films with an FSK 12 rating, it is therefore ultimately the parents who decide whether they consider their children mature enough to watch the film in question.
The age rating does not imply any educational recommendation. ‘Approved for ages 6 and over’ is therefore NOT the same as ‘Recommended for ages 6 and over’.
Minors are subject to the Youth Protection Act, which, amongst other things, sets time limits on their presence in public places, including cinemas.
The statutory time limits are binding and apply without exception:
Children under the age of 14 may only attend cinema screenings that end by 8.00 pm at the latest.
For young people under the age of 16, this limit is 10.00 pm; for those under 18, it is midnight.
These time restrictions do not apply if minors are accompanied by their legal guardians (usually parents) or persons with parental responsibility. Persons with parental responsibility are individuals aged 18 or over who, on a permanent or temporary basis, carry out parenting duties pursuant to an agreement with the legal guardian (e.g. parents). This agreement must be available for inspection upon request. NOTE: The age rating remains binding: this means that a 16-year-old is not permitted to attend screenings rated ‘FSK 18’, even when accompanied by their parents.
Buying tickets online
On our website, we only offer tickets for purchase. This saves you, the visitor, from having to arrive early (previously 30 minutes before the film starts), reduces queuing times at the box office for everyone else, and enables our cinema staff to plan more effectively.
What’s more, pre-booked tickets are more reliably collected by those guests who actually intend to go to the cinema:
Up until now, over half of all reserved tickets have regularly gone uncollected. The result: our ticket system showed full auditoriums, even though there was still capacity available. For this reason, we’ve reversed the process: you can now buy tickets in advance at the same price as at the box office. Should your plans change, you can easily cancel your tickets online or at our box offices. You’ll find out how to do this in the next paragraph. And if nothing else works out, you can still make bookings at the box office or by telephone.
You can cancel your tickets purchased online up to 90 minutes before the film starts, unless otherwise stated at the time of purchase.
To do so, please use the link in your email confirmation. Once the cancellation has been processed, we will send you a voucher code for the full purchase amount, which you can redeem when making a future purchase online or at the cinema.
Cancel the entire booking online. You will receive a voucher for the full value of the booking, which you can use straight away to purchase a new set of tickets. You can use the remaining balance on the voucher towards your next purchase or at the cinema box office.
The price of your tickets purchased online is the same as the standard price at the cinema box office. The booking fee shown during the booking process is solely for the purpose of covering internal payment costs and expenses associated with the online booking process. As a cinema-goer, this charge is of no concern to you, as we reduce the price of the cinema ticket accordingly so that the total amount paid is the usual admission price.
You will receive the ticket twice: in the third booking step (‘Confirmation’), clicking the ‘PRINT’ button will open a PDF, and at the same time we will send it to the email address you provided. Please check first whether the email has ended up in your spam folder.
If you cannot find the ticket there either, please send an email to bollwerk@arthaus-kino.de with the following details:
(1.) The email address used to purchase the ticket,
(2.) The time of purchase (date, time) and
(3.) The screening (cinema, film title, date, time).
We will be happy to resend your ticket. Please bear in mind that there may be a processing time, as our administration team is only available from Monday to Friday during normal office hours.
You must be able to present a scannable ticket at the cinema; you have the option of either printing it out or showing it on your smartphone. Both options will be displayed at the end of the booking process and sent to you by email. If you do not bring a printed copy with you, please download the mobile ticket to your phone in good time. If this is not possible either, please contact our box office, quoting your booking code, well in advance of the film starting.
House Rules
We are not just a cinema; as an arthouse cinema, our catering business is also vital to our survival. To offer a high-quality range of food and drink, we invest time and money in our facilities, staff and ideas. Without the catering business, a cinema cannot be run profitably, as a large proportion of the ticket price is paid to film distributors (and thus also to film-makers such as directors, actors, cinematographers, make-up artists, etc.), and on top of that, there are levies on every ticket for film funding, GEMA and industry associations. It is therefore not permitted to consume food or drink brought into our cinemas.