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Elevate Family Movie Night with 3 German Films Your Children Will Love

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This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Family movie nights are a great way to bond and learn together. If you add some independent and foreign films — especially those in their original languages with subtitles — you’ll elevate family movie night to a whole new level of learning. This is Rachel here with some great ideas for international films that you can enjoy together as a family. Thanks to Kidflix Global for sponsoring and providing a great giveaway prize.

Elevate Family Movie Night with 3 German Films Your Children Will Love


 

My family loves experiencing new cultures through the movies we watch. It can be such a fun way to introduce children to things beyond what they see every day.

As someone who grew up traveling internationally, I’ve often wished my kids could have the same experiences, but in a family of 8 international travel just isn’t something that can happen very often.

We have our wish-list of places we’d like to visit though and we always have fun exploring those places through film in anticipation of the day when we get to visit in person.

This month my kids and I have been exploring Germany through our family movie nights thanks to Kidflix Global. They make it so easy to buy or rent international children’s films that you can enjoy as a family.

We’ve found 3 German films that your family will love:

Emil and the Detectives

Emil

Twelve-year-old Emil comes to Berlin to spend the holidays with friends and, on his way, his money is stolen. Together with his new pal, Pony, and her street-wise friends, Emil vows to catch the thief and deliver him to the police. For ages 8+.

The Blind Flyers

The Blindflyers movie

Musically gifted teenagers from a school for the blind work together to help Herbert, a runaway, return to Khazakistan. Romance blooms as the three create a band and enter a televised music video contest. For ages 10+.

Stella and the Star of the Orient

Stella and the Star of the Orient

While rummaging in her grandmother’s attic, ten-year-old Stella steps into an antique wardrobe and travels back 100 years in time where she meets her own great-grandmother, Clementine, and Gus, Clementine’s younger brother. Together they solve a family mystery. This is such a sweet story with a magical quality. For ages 6+. 

The Benefits of Foreign Films

Elevate Family Movie Night with 3 German Films Your Children Will Love

All of these films are in German with subtitles so they are a great chance to expose kids to the sound of the German language. While older kids who can read may do best with these, younger kids can pick up a lot of the story simply by watching.

My 4 year old sat with me through all of these and really enjoyed them. She asked for clarification a few times when she was lost, but for the most part, she could figure out what was going on simply by paying attention to the context and it was a fun experience for her to hear the language.

Stella and the Star of the Orient

My older boys found they had to pay attention more than they do with an English film so it was a good chance for them to slow down and focus. With so many options for entertainment that require very little from my kids, I loved having something that stretched them a bit more.

My favorite of these films was Emil and the Detectives. My husband said it reminded him of a German version of The Goonies. They were all great family movies that offered a fantastic cultural learning experience. 

My family had so much fun hanging out together and exploring the German culture. Watching the films in a short period of time really helped my kids see some of the similarities and start to get a feel for the sound of the language.

Enter the Mystery in Germany Sweepstakes

In addition to our giveaway below, you have another chance to win. On January 1, 2017, Kidflix Global will launch their newest promotion and sweepstakes.

They will be giving away these 3 German films:

  • Stella and the Star of the Orient (ages 6+)
  • The Blindflyers (ages 10+)
  • Emil and the Detectives (ages 11+)

Be sure to sign up for their newsletter so you don’t miss future prizes.

Follow Kidflix Global:

Twitter | <Facebook | Pinterest | Vimeo

Our Giveaway

KidFlix Global Prize PackWe’re hosting a giveaway for a 3-DVD package that includes all 3 films…

  • Stella and the Star of the Orient (ages 6+)
  • The Blindflyers (ages 10+)
  • Emil and the Detectives (ages 11+)

We will randomly select a total of 5 winners.

If you’d like to win, please leave us a comment below telling us if you have family movie nights and if you’ve ever watched a foreign movie with subtitles with your children. Then complete your entry using the form below.

This giveaway is in addition to their sweepstakes which will launch on January 1st.

 

Pin it for Later

Elevate Family Movie Night with 3 German Films Your Children Will Love

 

Disclosure: This post is sponsored so extra thanks for reading and sharing.
Written by 5 Minutes for Mom contributor, Rachel Lister.
Talk with us: @5minutesformom and Facebook.com/5minutesformom
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70 Comments

  4. No sub titles movies because one is only 4 and the other is 8 and movie night is when they come to nanas house.

    Reply

  11. I have had family mnovie nights with my family. I never watched a foreign movie with any subtitles with my children.

    Reply

  13. Yes, we do have family movie nights. On the odd night when the kiddos have little or no homework, we will find a movie to watch and pop some popcorn. We have watched foreign movies together and enjoyed them. Thank!

    Reply

  15. Yes we love family nights! We recently watched Kubo and the two strings, and the kids loved it! We haven’t watched any movies with subtitles together, but I would love this prize to watch together with the kiddos. Plus dd can bring dvds to school for movie days, I bet she’d love to share these movies with her classmates. Thanks for the chance!

    Reply

  17. We don’t really have regular movie nights, we sort of just watch or go to the movies together when we have something we all want to see. My mom and I watch lots of foreign films.

    Reply

  18. We have family movie nights on Saturday nights. We have never watched one with subtitles with the kids before.

    Reply

  20. We do have family movie nights, and occasionally we will watch a foreign film like My Neighbor Totoro or Kiki’s Delivery Service with the original language track and subtitles instead of the English dub. I prefer watching foreign films because they are usually refreshingly original. Thank you for the fun giveaway.

    Reply

  24. We don’t have family movie night. The little one would not sit still long enough and no we don’t watch movies with subtitles. I don’t like them

    Reply

  25. I have never watched a sub titled film with children, but I keep the close caption on my TV. I can’t hear that well.

    Reply

  27. We don’t have a set night for movie nights, mostly when the grandkids are here. We have watched movies with subtitles, but nothing from Germany. Sounds interesting.

    Reply

  34. We watch holiday movies as a family we start Dec 1 and pick a different one every night till Christmas but we have never exposed the kids to foreign films I think I will try it.

    Reply

  40. We have family movie nights, but have not tried a subtitled film yet because the youngest is too young to read well. I do enjoy them myself and I’d love to watch Emil and the Detektives; it was one of my favorite books as a kid and I would be interested to see how the story has been updated,

    Reply

  43. yes, we love our family movie nights– We have had only two foreign films with the subtitles– It took a while but it helps the littler ones read what they can

    Reply

  45. We do have family nights w/ pizza, games and sometimes movies. Kids aren’t old enough -yet- to do subtitles but we are definitely open to it!

    Reply

  48. We don’t have family movie nights yet as my kids can’t sit the whole movie at once. But they learn 3 languages and watch kids programs in all 3. And I do hope to add more movies from around the world soon.

    Reply

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  63. We do have family game and movie night pretty much every week. We have never watched a foreign movie as a family.

    Reply

  65. We do have family movie nights. My sweet husband and I like to watch foreign films, but we’ve never watched one as a family!

    Reply

  67. My niece and nephews watch foreign films with their parents, and I think they really enjoy the different cultures and languages. As kids, we did, too–my mom was a teacher and never passed up the opportunity for a teaching moment, pointing out differences and asking whether we preferred their way or ours, for example. It opened our eyes and reminded us that our ways weren’t the only ways, nor automatically the “best”.

    Reply