Sunday 13 January 2008

German movie ratings...

Just like in the States, movies shown in German are given a rating indicating their appropriateness for different age groups. Here's a link to the list of ratings and their abbreviations provided by Kinopolis in Viernheim. By the way, my youngest daughter was turned away from a movie (The Simpsons) at Cinemaxx in Mannheim, so it seems Germans take this system seriously at least some of the time in some places.

Here's a list of the ratings and their translations:

o.A.: "ohne Alter" or "no age". Equivalent of "G" in the States - all welcome
ab 6 Jahre: at least 6 years old
ab 12 Jahre: at least 12 (I believe kids 6 and above may see it accompanied by an adult)
ab 16 Jahre: at least 16
k.J. - "keine Jugendfreigabe": No kids?! Not sure at what age one stops technically being a kid {UPDATE! Benny kindly informed me that 18 is the age of movie majority in Germany}
o.P. - "ohne Prüfung": This translates to "without examination". Anyone want to throw me a bone on what specifically this means? {UPDATE! Kato has the following to say about o.P.: "I'm actually pretty sure that they're not allowed to show any "o.P." movies. Or, if they do, they could only admit adults."}