Weisshaus Kino

The cinema is built around European and international film art, increasingly shown in the original language with German subtitles. For younger audiences, the KidsKino runs every Saturday and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. and shows almost exclusively European children's films. Schools can book morning screenings of any film in the regular programme, each followed by a 30- to 45-minute discussion. Every year in the week before Ascension Day the French film festival Ciné Fête takes place, while RE:SCREEN, a series curated by the cinema's own staff, brings film classics back to the big screen. Previews and premieres are regularly staged in collaboration with Cologne's cultural institutes and the FilmSociety.

Since 2010 the Weisshaus Kino has received the annual film programme prize of the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, alongside the North Rhine-Westphalia state programme prize awarded for many years by the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW. Europa Cinemas, the European Union's cinema agency, supports the venue for its high share of European and German films and its work with children and young people. The cinema is a member of the AG Kino – Gilde Deutscher Filmkunsttheater and of the Confédération Internationale des Cinémas d'Art et d'Essai.

In 1958 the "Studio am Weisshaus" was built as an additional auditorium of the "Theater am Weisshaus". In 1968 Thursday was established as a fixed programme day for the "pearls of international filmmaking". On 30 October 1969 the theatre's final screening – "The Return of the Magnificent Seven" – took place. In 1976 Manfred Kremer took over the studio and opened the small 72-seat auditorium in 1979. In 1987 the Allerweltskino moved into the Studio am Weisshaus with its committed programme. On 1 January 2010 the Weisshaus Kino joined forces with the OFF Broadway under the OFF Kinobetriebs GmbH – celebrated with a preview of "The Chess Player". In the following years the venue was gradually brought up to modern comfort and technology without losing its 1950s charm.