OFF Broadway

The line-up centres on premieres from European auteur cinema, world cinema and American independent film. A particular focus lies on presenting films in their original version with German subtitles. The range spans feature films and documentaries alike and is aimed at a curious, film-loving audience.

Every Tuesday the Allerweltskino series screens productions from around the globe, while the Film-Psychology Screenings take place on the second Sunday of each month. Two festivals, Ciné Fête and Film+, have become fixtures of the house; the RE:SCREEN series, curated by the cinema's own staff, brings film classics back to the big screen. Film workshops and the "Junge Filmakademie" (Young Film Academy) foster media literacy among younger cineasts. Previews and premieres are also staged again and again together with Cologne cultural institutes and the FilmSociety.

After the Second World War the site served as a venue for the Hänneschen puppet theatre. On 28 December 1945 Udo Luck became its first proprietor to receive the city's permit for a cinema; on 24 November 1949 Peter Cremer opened the house under the name "Lupe" with the film "Diese Nacht vergeß' ich nie". In 1959 the Kintopp-Saloon added one of the first student bars on Zülpicher Straße. A 1965 renovation steered the programme firmly towards demanding film art for a student audience, with premieres by Godard, Straub and Rivette. From 1976 the Lupe was the regular venue of the Xscreen group around Rolf Wiest and Birgit and Wilhelm Hein. In 1985 the refurbished house continued as the OFF Broadway under Heinz Holzapfel, alongside the Broadway on Ehrenstraße. Between 1998 and 2000 Doris and Michael Kölmel rebuilt the cinema to a new concept, before Christian Schmalz reopened it as an independent house with two screens, a bar and a beer garden on 27 December 2000. Since 1 January 2010 the OFF Broadway has been united with the Weisshaus Kino under the roof of OFF Kinobetriebs GmbH.

Since reopening in 2000, the OFF Broadway has received the cinema programme award of the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media year after year, as well as the annual cinema programme award of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia from the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW. Europa Cinemas, the European Union's cinema agency, supports the house for its high share of European films and its youth work. Its supporting association, Alle(r)weltskino e.V., received the "Gut für Nordrhein-Westfalen" award. The OFF Broadway is a member of the AG Kino – Gilde Deutscher Filmkunsttheater and of the Confédération Internationale des Cinémas d'Art et d'Essai.