Berlin International Film Festival unveiled the full lineup of film titles for the 75th edition taking place February 13 – 23, 2025
The world premiere of Tom Tykwer’s The Light will open the festival on February 13, 2025. During the opening gala, Tilda Swinton will be honored with Honorary Golden Bear for her life time achievement.
The Berlinale Special program features Lucio Castro’s After This Death, A Complete Unknown by James Mangold, Heldin (Late Shift) by Petra Volpe and Alex Russell’s Lurker will as Berlinale Special Gala.
Other titles include Das Deutsche Volk by Marcin Wierzchowski, Burhan Qurbani’s Kein Tier. So Wild. (No Beast. So Fierce.), Leibniz – Chronik eines verschollenen Bildes (Leibniz – Chronicle of a Lost Painting) by Edgar Reitz and Anatol Schuster, Michtav Le’David (A Letter to David) by Tom Shoval as well as Julia Loktev’s My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow as Berlinale Special.
This year‘s Berlinale Special showcases a total of 21 films from 16 countries, among them four documentary forms, 16 feature films and one series. 15 are world premieres. The program also includes a screening of Peter Wollen’s Friendship’s Death in honor of Tilda Swinton, the 2025 Honorary Golden Bear award winner.
19 films will compete for the Golden and Silver Bears, including the World Premieres of Blue Moon by Richard Linklater; La Tour de Glace (The Ice Tower) by Lucile Hadžihalilović; Dreams by Michel Franco and the documentary Michtav Le’David (A Letter to David) by Tom Shoval
“We’re fiercely proud of the films in this year’s Competition; they showcase the breadth of cinema and offer fascinating glimpses into different lives and places. There are intimate dramas that ask us to understand our human fragilities and strengths; there is gentle comedy but also the sharpest, blackest satire; there are films that pay homage to cinematic greats and ones that use the art form’s fullest canvas. Each of these singular works shows filmmakers at the top of their craft. From these deserving ranks, we look forward to discovering what Todd Haynes’ jury pick as the winners of Berlinale Golden and Silver Bears,” says Festival Director Tricia Tuttle.
The Perspectives competition comprises 14 feature film debuts, of which twelve are world premieres and two are international premieres.
“Perspectives, our new first fiction feature competition brings together exceptional international filmmakers, spanning the globe from India to Mexico, from Taiwan to Egypt, from the US to Slovenia. While the stylistic and thematic diversity is just as wide-ranging, all of these filmmakers reach out to audiences with much heart and many bold ideas. That this is the future of cinema, bodes very well indeed,” says Festival Director Tricia Tuttle.
Berlinale Special
A Complete Unknown (Like a Complete Unknown)
by James Mangold | with Timothée Chalamet, Edward Norton, Elle Fanning, Monica Barbaro, Boyd Holbrook
USA 2024
Berlinale Special Gala | German premiere
New York, 1961. An unknown 19-year-old named Bob Dylan arrives with his guitar and revolutionary talent. He forges intimate relationships with music icons of Greenwich Village on his meteoric rise, culminating in a groundbreaking and controversial performance that reverberates worldwide.
After This Death
by Lucio Castro | with Mia Maestro, Lee Pace, Rupert Friend, Gwendoline Christie, Philip Ettinger
USA 2025
Berlinale Special Gala | World premiere
A woman’s affair with an enigmatic underground musician throws her life into chaos when he disappears. Forced to fend off his obsessive fans, she also has to confront her fractured marriage, and reclaim her identity and her future.
Ancestral Visions of the Future
by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese | with Siphiwe Nzima, Sobo Bernard, Mochesane Edwin Kotsoane, Rehauhetsoe Ernest Kotsoane
France / Lesotho / Germany / Qatar / Saudi Arabia 2025
Berlinale Special | World premiere | Documentary form
A poetic allegory of the filmmaker Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese’s childhood, an ode to cinema and an inner nod to his mother. Through fragmented narratives and mythic imagery, Mosese crafts a haunting reflection on dislocation and belonging.
Das Deutsche Volk
by Marcin Wierzchowski
Germany 2025
Berlinale Special | World premiere | Debut film | Documentary form
The film tells the story of the victims’ relatives and the survivors of the racist attack in Hanau in 2020, in which nine young people were murdered because the perpetrator did not consider them to be German.
Friendship’s Death
by Peter Wollen | with Tilda Swinton, Patrick Bauchau, Bill Paterson
United Kingdom 1987
Berlinale Special – Honorary Golden Bear | No premiere
Tilda Swinton plays the extra-terrestrial android “Friendship” who discusses life’s big questions with a British war correspondent in a hotel in Amman during the civil war in Jordan in 1970. The Berlinale is presenting a 4K restoration of this 1987 film.
Heldin (Late Shift)
by Petra Volpe | with Leonie Benesch, Sonja Riesen, Urs Bihler, Margherita Schoch, Jürg Plüss
Switzerland / Germany 2025
Berlinale Special Gala | World premiere
Floria, a nurse, works with unwavering dedication in an understaffed hospital ward. But today, her shift turns into a nerve-racking race against time.
Honey Bunch
by Madeleine Sims-Fewer, Dusty Mancinelli | with Grace Glowicki, Ben Petrie, Kate Dickie, Jason Isaacs, India Brown
Canada 2025
Berlinale Special | World premiere
Diana’s husband is taking her to an experimental trauma facility deep in the wilderness, but she can’t remember why… As her memories begin to creep back in so do some unwelcome sinister truths about her marriage.
Islands
by Jan-Ole Gerster | with Sam Riley, Stacy Martin, Jack Farthing, Dylan Torrell
Germany 2025
Berlinale Special Gala | World premiere
Tom, a tennis coach at a luxury hotel, has his life changed when a new family arrives. Matters take a dark turn when the husband disappears and both Tom and the wife become suspects.
Je n’avais que le néant – “Shoah” par Lanzmann (All I Had Was Nothingness)
by Guillaume Ribot
France 2025
Berlinale Special | World premiere
Forty years after the release of Claude Lanzmann’s monumental film Shoah, Guillaume Ribot reveals the director’s relentless pursuit to tell the untold, using only Lanzmann’s words and unseen footage from the masterpiece.
Kein Tier. So Wild. (No Beast. So Fierce.)
by Burhan Qurbani | with Kenda Hmeidan, Verena Altenberger, Hiam Abbass, Mona Zarreh Hoshyari Khah, Mehdi Nebbou
Germany / Poland / France 2025
Berlinale Special | World premiere
After a bloody gang war, Rashida, the youngest daughter of the Yorks, rises to become the leader of the Berlin underworld. Shakespeare’s Richard III is retold in the here and now as the story of an Arab gangster queen.
Köln 75
by Ido Fluk | with Mala Emde, John Magaro, Michael Chernus, Alexander Scheer, Ulrich Tukur
Germany / Poland / Belgium 2025
Berlinale Special Gala | World premiere
The true story of Vera Brandes, teenage patron saint of the 1970s Cologne music scene, who risked everything to organise the greatest solo jazz concert in music history: Keith Jarrett’s legendary Köln Concert.
Leibniz – Chronik eines verschollenen Bildes (Leibniz – Chronicle of a Lost Painting)
by Edgar Reitz, Anatol Schuster | with Edgar Selge, Aenne Schwarz, Michael Kranz, Lars Eidinger, Barbara Sukowa
Germany 2025
Berlinale Special | World premiere
Out of her love for the great thinker Leibniz, Queen Charlotte commissions a portrait of him. The sittings become a dramatic search for
the secret of art, love and veracity in painting.
Das Licht (The Light)
by Tom Tykwer | with Nicolette Krebitz, Lars Eidinger, Tala Al-Deen, Elke Biesendorfer, Julius Gause
Germany 2025
Berlinale Special Gala | World premiere
The Engels family is comfortably living separate lives under the same roof until the enigmatic Farrah, their new housekeeper who has just arrived in Berlin from Syria, enters their lives and challenges each of them in unexpected ways.
Lurker
by Alex Russell | with Théodore Pellerin, Archie Madekwe, Zach Fox, Havana Rose Liu, Sunny Suljic
USA / Italy 2025
Berlinale Special Gala | International premiere | Debut film
A sales assistant who is bored with his job infiltrates the inner circle of a musician on the verge of mainstream success. The closer he gets to the budding pop star, the more this contact becomes a matter of life and death to him.
A melhor mãe do mundo (The Best Mother in the World | Die beste Mutter der Welt)
by Anna Muylaert | with Shirley Cruz, Seu Jorge, Rihanna Barbosa, Benin Ayo
Brazil / Argentina 2025
Berlinale Special | World premiere
To escape an abusive relationship, Gal puts her two young children into the recycling cart she uses to collect trash on the city’s streets and runs away. Alone and facing the dangers of homelessness, she convinces them that they are on an adventure.
Michtav Le’David (A Letter to David)
by Tom Shoval | with David Cunio, Eitan Cunio, Sharon Aloni-Cunio, Silvia Cunio, Luis Cunio
Israel / USA 2025
Berlinale Special | World premiere | Documentary form
Ten years ago, David Cunio starred in Tom Shoval’s debut feature film Youth, which revolved around a kidnapping. On October 7, 2023, Cunio was taken from the Nir Oz kibbutz and has been held hostage in Gaza ever since. Now, Shoval sends him a cinematic letter.
Mickey 17
by Bong Joon Ho | with Robert Pattinson, Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette, Mark Ruffalo
USA / South Korea / United Kingdom 2024
Berlinale Special Gala | German premiere
The unlikely hero, Mickey Barnes has found himself in the extraordinary circumstance of working for an employer who demands the ultimate commitment to the job… to die, for a living.
My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow
by Julia Loktev | with Anna Nemzer, Ksenia Mironova, Sonya Groysman, Olga Churakova, Irina Dolinina
USA 2024
Berlinale Special | International premiere | Documentary form
What begins as an intimate portrait of Russian independent journalists facing persecution by Putin’s regime takes a drastic turn when Russia starts a full-scale war in Ukraine and they are all forced into exile.
The Narrow Road to the Deep North
by Justin Kurzel | with Jacob Elordi, Ciarán Hinds, Odessa Young, Olivia DeJonge, Simon Baker
Australia 2025
Berlinale Special Gala | World premiere | Series
A celebrated World War II hero is haunted by his experiences in a Japanese prisoner of war camp and memories of an affair that took place just before the war in this adaptation of Richard Flanagan’s Booker Prize-winning novel.
Pa-gwa (The Old Woman with the Knife)
by Min Kyu-dong | with Hyeyoung Lee, Kim Sung-cheol, Yeon Woo-jin, Kim Moo-yul, Shin Sia
South Korea 2025
Berlinale Special | World premiere
Hornclaw, a legendary assassin in her 60s, specialises in eliminating the scum of the earth. She has learned to accept loss but finds new meaning in her mundane yet bloody life when she meets Bullfight, a promising young killer who wants to work with her.
Shoah
by Claude Lanzmann
France 1985
Berlinale Special | No premiere
Claude Lanzmann’s monumental Holocaust film, made over 12 years from interviews filmed around the globe with survivors, bystanders and perpetrators, powerfully recounts the extermination of six million Jews during the Second World War.
The Thing with Feathers
by Dylan Southern | with Benedict Cumberbatch, Richard Boxall, Henry Boxall, Sam Spruell, Vinette Robinson
United Kingdom 2025
Berlinale Special Gala | European premiere
Following the death of his wife, a young father’s hold on reality crumbles as a seemingly malign presence begins to stalk him from the shadowy recesses of the apartment he shares with his two young sons.
Competition
Ari
by Léonor Serraille | with Andranic Manet, Pascal Rénéric, Théo Delezenne, Ryad Ferrad, Eva Lallier Juan
France / Belgium 2025
Competition | World premiere
Ari, a young teacher, quits his job and is thrown out of the house by his father. Lost and alone, he reconnects with old friends, triggering a journey of self-discovery.
Blue Moon
by Richard Linklater | with Ethan Hawke, Margaret Qualley, Bobby Cannavale, Andrew Scott
USA / Ireland 2025
Competition | World premiere
On the evening of March 31, 1943, legendary lyricist Lorenz Hart confronts his shattered self-confidence in Sardi’s bar as his former collaborator Richard Rodgers celebrates the opening night of his ground-breaking hit musical “Oklahoma!”.
La cache (The Safe House)
by Lionel Baier | with Dominique Reymond, Michel Blanc, William Lebghil, Aurélien Gabrielli, Liliane Rovère
Switzerland / Luxembourg / France 2025
Competition | World premiere
An eccentric family portrait set during the May 1968 protests in Paris. A nine-year-old boy stays with his grandparents and uncles while his parents protest. When an illustrious guest seeks refuge in the apartment, the family’s dynamics change.
Dreams
by Michel Franco | with Jessica Chastain, Isaac Hernández, Rupert Friend, Marshall Bell
Mexico 2025
Competition | World premiere
Believing his lover will support him, a young Mexican ballet dancer crosses the border to pursue his dreams in San Francisco. But as ambition and love clash with harsh realities, he must face the true nature of their relationship.
Drømmer (Dreams (Sex Love))
by Dag Johan Haugerud | with Ella Øverbye, Selome Emnetu, Ane Dahl Torp, Anne Marit Jacobsen
Norway 2024
Competition | International premiere
Johanne’s intimate writings about her crush on her teacher ignite both tension and self-reflection within her family, as her mother and grandmother confront their own unfulfilled dreams and desires.
Geu jayeoni nege mworago hani (What Does that Nature Say to You)
by Hong Sangsoo | with Ha Seongguk, Kwon Haehyo, Cho Yunhee, Kang Soyi, Park Miso
South Korea 2025
Competition | World premiere
A young poet drops his girlfriend off at her parents’ house and is amazed by its size. He bumps into her father, meets her mother and sister, and they all end up spending a long day together; fueled by conversation, food and libations.
Hot Milk
by Rebecca Lenkiewicz | with Emma Mackey, Fiona Shaw, Vicky Krieps, Vincent Perez
United Kingdom 2025
Competition | World premiere | Debut film
Rose and her daughter Sofia journey to a Spanish seaside town to meet an enigmatic healer. As Sofia embraces an affair with an alluring stranger, tensions with her overbearing mother threaten their fragile bond.
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
by Mary Bronstein | with Rose Byrne, A$AP Rocky, Conan O’Brien, Danielle Macdonald, Ivy Wolk
USA 2024
Competition | International premiere
With her life crashing down around her, Linda attempts to navigate her child’s mysterious illness, her absent husband, a missing person, and an increasingly hostile relationship with her therapist.
Kontinental ’25
by Radu Jude | with Eszter Tompa, Gabriel Spahiu, Adonis Tanța, Oana Mardare, Șerban Pavlu
Romania 2025
Competition | World premiere
Orsolya is a bailiff in Cluj, the main city in Transylvania. One day she has to evict a homeless man from a cellar, an action with tragic consequences that triggers a moral crisis which Orsolya must weather as best she can.
El mensaje (The Message | Die Nachricht)
by Iván Fund | with Mara Bestelli, Marcelo Subiotto, Anika Bootz, Betania Cappato
Argentina / Spain 2025
Competition | World premiere
In the Argentinian countryside, a child’s special gift gives her opportunistic guardians the idea of offering consultations with an animal medium in order to earn a living.
Mother’s Baby
by Johanna Moder | with Marie Leuenberger, Hans Löw, Claes Bang, Julia Franz Richter
Austria / Switzerland / Germany 2025
Competition | World premiere
The family dream becomes a nightmare as 40-year-old Julia struggles to bond with her newborn child.
Reflet dans un diamant mort (Reflection in a Dead Diamond)
by Hélène Cattet, Bruno Forzani | with Fabio Testi, Yannick Renier, Koen De Bouw, Maria de Medeiros, Thi Mai Nguyen
Belgium / Luxembourg / Italy / France 2025
Competition | World premiere
When the mysterious woman in the room next door disappears, a debonair 70-year-old ex-spy living in a luxury hotel on the Côte d’Azur is confronted by the demons and darlings of a lurid past in which moviemaking, memories and madness collide.
Sheng xi zhi di (Living the Land)
by Huo Meng | with Wang Shang, Zhang Chuwen, Zhang Yanrong, Zhang Caixia, Cao Lingzhi
People’s Republic of China 2025
Competition | World premiere
With both parents working far away, ten-year-old Chuang is being raised by extended family in his home village, where thousands of years of rural tradition collide with the socio-economic changes of China in the early 1990s.
Strichka chasu (Timestamp)
by Kateryna Gornostai | with Olha Bryhynets, Borys Khovriak, Mykola Kolomiiets, Valeriia Hukova, Mykola Shpak
Ukraine / Luxembourg / Netherlands / France 2025
Competition | World premiere | Documentary form
Despite the war, school life continues in Ukraine, with pupils and teachers striving to continue learning even under constant threat. The film is a mosaic of the everyday lives of teachers and students from different corners of Ukraine.
La Tour de Glace (The Ice Tower)
by Lucile Hadžihalilović | with Marion Cotillard, Clara Pacini, August Diehl, Gaspar Noé
France / Germany 2025
Competition | World premiere
Colder than ice, her kiss pierces the heart … The 1970s. Jeanne, a young runaway, falls under the spell of Cristina, the enigmatic star of The Snow Queen, a film which is being shot in the studio where Jeanne has taken refuge.
O último azul (The Blue Trail)
by Gabriel Mascaro | with Denise Weinberg, Rodrigo Santoro, Miriam Socorrás, Adanilo
Brazil / Mexico / Chile / Netherlands 2025
Competition | World premiere
In the near future, the elderly must relocate to remote retirement colonies so that the younger generations can go about their work undisturbed. The 77-year-old Tereza refuses and instead embarks on a life-changing journey through the Amazon.
Was Marielle weiß (What Marielle Knows)
by Frédéric Hambalek | with Julia Jentsch, Felix Kramer, Laeni Geiseler, Mehmet Ateşçi, Moritz Treuenfels
Germany 2025
Competition | World premiere
Julia and Tobias discover that their daughter Marielle has suddenly developed telepathic abilities and can see and hear everything they do. This leads to situations ranging from the awkward to the absurd as uncomfortable truths are revealed.
Xiang fei de nv hai (Girls on Wire)
by Vivian Qu | with Liu Haocun, Wen Qi, Zhang Youhao, Zhou You, Peng Jing
People’s Republic of China 2025
Competition | World premiere
Tian Tian, the single mother of a five-year-old daughter, kills a drug dealer and is then pursued for vengeance. The only person she can turn to for help is her female cousin, Fang Di.
Yunan
by Ameer Fakher Eldin | with Georges Khabbaz, Hanna Schygulla, Ali Suliman, Sibel Kekilli, Tom Wlaschiha
Germany / Canada / Italy / Palestine / Qatar / Jordan / Saudi Arabia 2025
Competition | World premiere
On a remote island, Munir seeks solitude to contemplate a final act, only to find unexpected solace in the quiet presence of Valeska (Hanna Schygulla), whose compassion reignites his fading will to live.
Perspectives
Al mosta’mera (The Settlement)
by Mohamed Rashad | with Adham Shoukry, Ziad Islam, Hajar Omar, Mohamed Abdel Hady, Emad Ghoneim
Egypt / France / Germany / Qatar / Saudi Arabia 2025
Perspectives | World premiere
After a man dies in a fatal accident at work, the only compensation offered to the family is the chance for his two sons, Hossam (23) and Maro (12), to be employed in the same factory, side by side with the man responsible for their father’s death.
Baksho Bondi (Shadowbox)
by Tanushree Das, Saumyananda Sahi | with Tillotama Shome, Chandan Bisht, Sayan Karmakar, Suman Saha
India / France / USA / Spain 2025
Perspectives | World premiere
Maya discovers that her husband – an ex-soldier who is suffering from PTSD – is the prime suspect in a murder investigation. She and her teenage son are forced to go to extremes to keep the family together.
BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions
by Kahlil Joseph | with Kaneza Schaal, Hope Giselle, Shaunette Renée Wilson, Funmilayo Akechukwu, Peter Jay Fernandez
USA 2025
Perspectives | International premiere | Debut film
Conceived as a cinematic experience that recreates the sonic textures of a music album, the film weaves fiction and history into an immersive, 247-year journey across land and sea.
Come la notte (Where the Night Stands Still)
by Liryc Dela Cruz | with Jenny Llanto Caringal, Tess Magallanes, Benjamin Vasquez Barcellano Jr.
Italy / Philippines 2025
Perspectives | World premiere
Three Filipino siblings, all domestic workers in Italy, meet in the villa that one of the sisters has inherited. Shared memories and buried grievances come to the surface and put their fragile relationship to the test.
El Diablo Fuma (y guarda las cabezas de los cerillos quemados en la misma caja) (The Devil Smokes (and Saves the Burnt Matches in the Same Box))
by Ernesto Martínez Bucio | with Mariapau Bravo Aviña, Rafael Nieto Martínez, Regina Alejandra, Donovan Said, Laura Uribe Rojas
Mexico 2025
Perspectives | World premiere | Debut film
The fears of five stoic young siblings abandoned by their parents mix with those of their schizophrenic grandmother who now looks after them, blurring and gradually dissolving the boundary between reality and imagination.
Duas vezes João Liberada (Two Times João Liberada)
by Paula Tomás Marques | with June João, André Tecedeiro, Eloísa d’Ascensão, Tiago Aires Lêdo, Jenny Larrue
Portugal 2025
Perspectives | World premiere | Debut film
João stars in a biopic about the gender-nonconforming Liberada, who was persecuted by the Inquisition. When the film’s director is struck down by a mysterious paralysis, João navigates the chaos, determined to honour Liberada’s story and finish the film.
Hé mán (Eel)
by Chu Chun-Teng | with Devin Pan, Misi Ke, Chin-Yu Pan, Bella Chen, Mei-Hou Wu
Taiwan 2025
Perspectives | World premiere | Debut film
On an isolated island on the outskirts of Taipei, a mysterious young woman and a lost man cross paths and explore the island’s hidden stories together. A film about longing, belonging and transformation in a world where time and memory fade into the mist.
How to Be Normal and the Oddness of the Other World
by Florian Pochlatko | with Luisa-Céline Gaffron, Elke Winkens, Cornelius Obonya, Felix Pöchhacker, David Scheid
Austria 2025
Perspectives | World premiere | Debut film
Freshly released from psychiatric hospital, Pia moves back in with her parents to rebuild her life. In a world that feels as unsteady as herself, she juggles jobs, heartbreak, her meds and social stigma as she searches for equilibrium.
Kaj ti je deklica (Little Trouble Girls)
by Urška Djukić | with Jara Sofija Ostan, Mina Švajger, Saša Tabaković, Nataša Burger, Staša Popović
Slovenia / Italy / Croatia / Serbia 2025
Perspectives | World premiere | Debut film
During a weekend of rehearsals with the school choir at a convent, an introverted teenager begins to view the world from a new perspective. New desires, beliefs and values emerge, and this awakening threatens to disrupt her friendships and the choir.
Mad Bills to Pay (or Destiny, dile que no soy malo)
by Joel Alfonso Vargas | with Juan Collado, Destiny Checo, Yohanna Florentino, Nathaly Navarro
USA 2025
Perspectives | International premiere | Debut film
Rico’s summer is a wild mix of chasing girls and selling homemade cocktails out of a cool box on Orchard Beach in the Bronx. But when circumstances force his teenage girlfriend Destiny to move in with his family, his carefree days come to an end.
Minden Rendben (Growing Down)
by Bálint Dániel Sós | with Szabolcs Hajdu, Ágoston Sáfrány, Anna Hay, Zonga Jakab-Aponyi, Zsófi Szamosi
Hungary 2025
Perspectives | World premiere | Debut film
Sándor, a widower, is the only witness to a serious accident involving his stepdaughter and youngest son. Now he faces a dilemma: should he tell the truth and live with the consequences? Or lie and save his son from juvenile detention?
Mit der Faust in die Welt schlagen (Punching the World)
by Constanze Klaue | with Anton Franke, Camille Moltzen, Anja Schneider, Christian Näthe, Sammy Scheuritzel
Germany 2025
Perspectives | World premiere | Debut film
The childhood of two brothers, Philipp and Tobi, growing up in the East German provinces is scarred by the disintegration of their family, the lack of prospects in the region and role models who promise adventure but cross moral and legal boundaries.
On vous croit (We Believe You)
by Arnaud Dufeys, Charlotte Devillers | with Myriem Akheddiou, Laurent Capelluto, Natali Broods, Ulysse Goffin, Adèle Pinckaers
Belgium 2025
Perspectives | World premiere
Today, Alice stands before a judge, knowing there is no room for error. She must speak up for her children, as her custody is being called into question. Can she protect them from their father before it is too late?
Le rendez-vous de l’été (That Summer in Paris)
by Valentine Cadic | with Blandine Madec, India Hair, Arcadi Radeff, Matthias Jacquin, Lou Deleuze
France 2025
Perspectives | World premiere | Debut film
Paris, the 2024 Olympic Games. Blandine (30) arrives from Normandy to watch the swimming competitions. Disorientated by the hustle and bustle of the city where nothing seems to go her way, she navigates the chaos of Paris and an unexpected reunion.
Forum Special
Das falsche Wort (The Lie)
by Katrin SeyboldThe
Federal Republic of Germany 1987
Forum Special | Documentary form | World premiere of the digital restoration
As the child of survivors of the Sinti persecution by the Nazis, Melanie Spitta holds the “thread of the truth” in this film. No reparations were paid. “The courts believed the perpetrators, not us”. Shock, evidence, warning, accusation.
Guochang (Fruit Farm)
by Nana Xu | with Mu Luoyuan, Gao Zijun, Wang Wentong, Nana Xu
Germany / People’s Republic of China 2025
Forum Special | World premiere | Documentary form
Nana Xu travels to the place built by her father as a prisoner during the Cultural Revolution: first a work camp, later a prison, fruit farm, and treatment center. Conversations with the last remaining witnesses, where home is still shaped by a repressed past.
Iracema, uma transa amazônica (Iracema)
by Jorge Bodanzky, Orlando Senna | with Edna de Cássia, Paulo César Pereio, Conceição Senna
Brazil / Federal Republic of Germany 1975
Forum Special | World premiere of the digital restoration
A young Indigenous woman leaves the village for the city. Cinema Novo, hybrid fiction, road trip and an ecological avant-garde perspective, Iracema shows that trees, animals, and people were already being destroyed by extractivist capitalism 50 years ago.
The Long Road to The Director’s Chair (The Long Road to the Director’s Chair)
by Vibeke Løkkeberg | with Claudia von Alemann, Helke Sander, Nurit Aviv, Anabella Miscuglio, Alice Schwarzer
Norway 2025
Forum Special | World premiere | Documentary form
In 1973, Vibeke Løkkeberg filmed the beginnings of the feminist film movement at the First International Women’s Film Seminar, held at the Arsenal cinema. Her footage was lost for 50 years. Today, it confronts us with past battles still yet to be won.
Mes fantômes arméniens (My Armenian Phantoms)
by Tamara Stepanyan | with Vigen Stepanyan
France / Armenia 2025
Forum Special | World premiere | Documentary form
A tender posthumous letter to Tamara’s father, who was a film actor in Soviet Armenia. She already watched him on TV as a child before later establishing herself as a filmmaker. A captivating sleepwalk through the landscapes of Armenian film history.
Nagota (Nudity)
by Sabina Bakaeva | with Zamira Bakaeva
Uzbekistan / France 2025
Forum Special | World premiere | Documentary form
A piercingly open talk between a mother and a daughter about growing up as a woman in Uzbekistan, now and back then. Confessions about sex no one really wanted, about the experience of misogyny and gender asymmetry. Naked truths as a form of therapy.
Scars of a Putsch
by Nathalie Borgers | with Abidin Ertuğrul, Nathalie Borgers, Cahit Akçam, Perihan Akçam, Yeter Güneş
Austria / Belgium 2025
Forum Special | World premiere | Documentary form His scars form the starting point of her research trip to track down the young people crushed by the military putsch of September 12th, 1980. The dream of Turkish democracy in pieces, the way to an authoritarian regime and political Islam already paved.
Shinagani gazapkhulebis q’vaviloba (Inner Blooming Springs)
by Tiku Kobiashvili | with Tina Matchavariani, Luka Chibukhaia, Taka Tavartkiladze, Lazare Eliozashvili, Giorgi Gelashvili
Georgia 2025
Forum Special | World premiere | Documentary form
In 2024, protests are held on the streets of Tbilisi against the so-called “Foreign Agents” law. Tina, Luka, director Tiku and their friends also take part. They resist by being there for one another – gathering courage for what lies ahead.
Forum Expanded
Akher Youm (The last day)
by Mahmoud Ibrahim | with Mohamed Mahmoud, Ziad Reda
Egypt 2024
Forum Expanded | European premiere | Documentary form
Brothers Ziad and Moody spend their last day in their family home, which is scheduled for demolition. As they move furniture outside, Moody turns on the TV to pass the time, and they hear news about the demolition of Palestinian homes in Jerusalem.
Al Basateen (The Orchards)
by Antoine Chapon
France / Austria 2025
Forum Expanded | World premiere | Documentary form
Ten years after the revolution, the Syrian government razes civilian neighborhoods as punishment. Through the testimonies of L. and Y. the film shows the hidden face of an urban project built on the rubble of expropriated people’s demolished homes.
Alternatives Denkmal für Deutschland (ADfD) (Alternative Monument for Germany)
by Alternative Monument
Germany 2024
Forum Expanded
The augmented reality installation Alternative Monument for Germany (ADfD) commemorates migration from queer, feminist, and migrant perspectives. During the Berlinale, ADfD will be at Silent Green’s garden, accessible via the Monuments AR app.
beneath the placid lake
by Kush Badhwar, Vyjayanthi Rao
India / Finland 2025
Forum Expanded | World premiere
A projection-based installation explores the aftermath of displacement following the creation of a massive dam in the southern Indian state of Telangana. Archival material from three generations of researchers meet on the surface of a screen.
Cartas do Absurdo (Letters from Absurd)
by Gabraz Sanna | with Sara Não Tem Nome, Eliakin
Brazil 2025
Forum Expanded | World premiere
The end of the world is described in four letters written by native Brazilians in the 17th century: Cartas do Absurdo deals with the devastating effects of the genocide of Brazil’s indigenous peoples over the last five centuries.
Chang Gyeong
by Jangwook Lee
South Korea 2025
Forum Expanded | World premiere
This video installation explores Changgyeonggung, a strange place where a zoo, amusement park, and palaces coexist. After uncovering its tragic history, the place – once associated with childhood memories – is stripped of its emotional appeal.
Extra Life (and Decay)
by Stéphanie Lagarde | with Isabelle Lagarde, Stéphanie Lagarde, Suzanne van der Schaaf, Rachele Borghi, Teresa Castro
Netherlands / France 2025
Forum Expanded | World premiere
A polyphonic narrator – filmmaker, parent, forest, insects, fungi, childcare worker – declares their absolute refusal of labor exploitation, and their necessity to join collective bodies in resistance.
J-N-N
by Ginan Seidl
Germany 2025
Forum Expanded | World premiere
The essayistic split-screen film blends family conversations from a trip to Iraq with research on the Jinn – elusive entities central to Iraqi culture – exploring themes of war, repression, and cosmic beliefs.
Mikuba (Cobalt)
by Petna Ndaliko Katondolo
Democratic Republic of the Congo / USA 2025
Forum Expanded | World premiere | Documentary form
Mikuba takes us to the cobalt veins of Kolwezi, where the battle for a green energy future is fought in dust and heat. As Mama Leonece navigates the labyrinth of multinational giants, she faces a harsh reality that guides her toward ancestral wisdom.
Miraculous Accident
by Assaf Gruber | with Abdelkader Lagtaâ, Marta Ojrzynska, Mateusz Górski, Dagmara Bąk
Germany / Austria 2025
Forum Expanded | International premiere
Moroccan student Nadir arrives at Łódź Film School in 1968, amidst Eastern anti-imperialist support. He meets Jewish teacher Edyta, who is forced to leave Poland after the Six-Day War. In 2024 he finds her letter, reviving memories of a fractured love.
Mirage: Eigenstate
by Riar Rizaldi | with Hannah Al Rashid, Uji Hahan Handoko
Indonesia / United Kingdom / Portugal 2024
Forum Expanded | International premiere
Modeled after Carl Sagan’s classic TV series Cosmos, this film displaces the dominance of Western science and embraces pluralistic worldviews – from tropical Sufi mysticism and monorealism to theories of quantum mechanics.
Mountain Roars
by Chonchanok Thanatteepwong, Pobwarat Maprasob | with Chonchanok Thanatteepwong, Pobwarat Maprasob
Thailand 2025
Forum Expanded | World premiere
As mountains shift and echoes from explosions rumble in the distance, mysteries lie hidden in every corner of caves, streams, and trees. A mysterious light appears as a young man and woman try to piece together the story of this place.
Mua besoj më shpëtoj portreti (I believe the portrait saved me)
by Alban Muja | with Skender Muja
Kosovo / Netherlands 2024
Forum Expanded | World premiere | Documentary form
Twenty-five years after his abduction during the Kosovo War, painter Skender Muja recalls a pivotal moment of survival. Held in a detention center, he was ordered to draw a Serbian commander’s portrait to save his life.
Photosynthesizing Dead in Warehouse
by Jeamin Cha | with Yuki Konno, Anthony Kim, Unji Go, Yeonhee Bae, Woo Seok Byeon
South Korea 2024
Forum Expanded | International premiere | Documentary form
In a vacant house, scenes of decaying fruit in a box are interspersed with correspondence from a researcher studying the kusōzu, Buddhist paintings that depict the nine stages of a decaying corpse, associated with the practice of realizing impermanence.
Pidikwe (Rumble)
by Caroline Monnet | with Joséphine Bacon, Catherine Boivin, Catherine Dagenais-Savard, Emilie Monnet, Aïcha Bastien N’Diaye
Canada 2025
Forum Expanded | World premiere
Featuring Indigenous women of various generations, Pidikwe integrates traditional and contemporary dance in an audiovisual whirlwind that straddles the border between film and performance, somewhere between the past and the future.
Portales (Portals)
by Elena Duque
Spain 2025
Forum Expanded | World premiere | Animation
Portales follows the course of the Guadalete River in Cádiz, Spain: a catalog of landscapes that hide other landscapes. A collection of inter-dimensional portals (and postcards). Live action and animation fuse, creating an impossible fauna and flora.
RAPTURE
by Alisa Berger | with Marko Kolomytskyi
France / Germany 2025
Forum Expanded | World premiere
A diptych about the exiled Ukrainian vogue dancer Marko and his abandoned apartment in Donbas, Ukraine. Marko embarks on a VR experiment, visiting his inaccessible home, recreated through 3D scans and original photographs from the occupied area.
Sinking Suns
by Neda Saeedi
Austria / Germany 2024
Forum Expanded | International premiere
Glass arrangements on overhead projectors shine. This work is a sea of moods. And although the sources of this emotional scenery are visible in their fragility, we can hardly escape their strength. What happens when all the suns set at the same time?
Spetsialna Operatsiia (Special Operation)
by Oleksiy Radynski
Ukraine / Lithuania 2025
Forum Expanded | World premiere | Documentary form
When the Russian troops occupied Ukraine’s Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant, their activities were documented by CCTV cameras. Spetsialna Operatsiia is based on that footage, recorded at the site of the worst nuclear disaster in history.
STARS
by STARS Collective | with Mojisola Adebayo
United Kingdom / Germany 2025
Forum Expanded | World premiere | Animation
STARS tells of the Nommo: extra-terrestrial Afro-hermaphrodite anthro-amphibian migrants. Delivered from outer space via the Dogon of Mali, STARS is a queer African tale of tails, told through animation, music, and poetry.
Tin City
by Feargal Ward
Ireland 2024
Forum Expanded | World premiere | Documentary form
In a remote forest in northwest Germany, an urban combat facility called “Tin City” is used to train British soldiers before deployment in Northern Ireland. A bar, a bank, a shop – each location reveals another iteration of the same macabre set-up.
When the Sun is Eaten (Chi’bal K’iin)
by Kevin Jerome Everson
USA 2025
Forum Expanded | World premiere
When the Sun is Eaten (Chi’bal K’iin) is about one-hundred-percent totality in three time zones – Mazatlán, Mexico; Carbondale, Illinois; and Cleveland, Ohio – on the occasion of the solar eclipse across parts of North America, April 8, 2024.
Wilfred Buck’s Star Stories
by Lisa Jackson, The Macronauts | with Wilfred Buck
Canada 2024
Forum Expanded | World premiere
Guided by the wisdom of Ininew astronomer Wilfred Buck, this immersive experience shares four Cree star stories, exploring the cosmos to teach us how to live a good life with future generations in mind.
Zizi (ou oração da jaca fabulosa) (Zizi (or Praying to a Fabulous Tree))
by Felipe M. Bragança | with Leo Tucherman, Felipe M. Bragança
Brazil 2025
Forum Expanded | World premiere | Documentary form
Documentary and staged scenes mix in this very personal story of a family in the suburbs of Rio, through the memories of a backyard, a giant tree, and the woman who planted it.
Berlinale Shorts
After Colossus
by Timoteus Anggawan Kusno | with Ari Dwianto, Jamaluddin Latif, Nizar Tama, Annisa Hertami, Berti Galang
Italy / Indonesia / Netherlands
Berlinale Shorts | International premiere
In the chaotic aftermath following the collapse of Indonesia’s dictatorship, a team of researchers discovers a forgotten archive revealing a covert operation that manipulated dreams and memories.
Anba dlo
by Luiza Calagian, Rosa Caldeira | with Berline Charles, Feguenson Hermogène, Doreen Granados, Alejandra de Jesús Garcell
Cuba / Brazil / Haiti
Berlinale Shorts | World premiere
Nadia is a biologist researching the native flora and fauna of Cuba. One day the forest sounds different. Something has happened. Her Haitian homeland has never felt further away.
Because of (U)
by Tohé Commaret | with Emma Gonzales-Commaret, Bastien Domergues
France
Berlinale Shorts | International premiere
Laura endures her narcissistic boyfriend’s rants with silent anger. She feels abandoned by the world and searches for something to hold onto between the dreary blocks of flats – while the music plays elsewhere.
Casa chica
by Lau Charles | with Katherine Bernal, Mauro Guzmán, Raúl Briones, Kala Martínez, Daniela Arroio
Mexico
Berlinale Shorts | World premiere
While their mother unpacks removal boxes, Valentina (5) and Quique (11) run riot around the flat. Their parents have separated. When their father picks them up to show them his new, old life, the children receive a painful glimpse into the adult world.
Casi septiembre (Close to September)
by Lucía G. Romero | with Ana Fernández Barja, Isabel Rico, Salim Tamoud Dahan, María del Mar Casas Font, Ninoska Linares Aranda
Spain
Berlinale Shorts | World premiere
Alejandra lives on a campsite close to the big hotels. She takes care of her siblings, hangs out in the neighbourhood and flirts casually with the tourists – until she meets Amara. A romance develops that grows more serious than Alejandra would like.
Children’s Day
by Giselle Lin | with Emma Lim, Adele Tong, Shu An Oon, Edward Choy
Singapore
Berlinale Shorts | World premiere
Xuan (8) is struggling to find the perfect outfit for her school’s upcoming Children’s Day celebration. Her sisters are mean, her father authoritarian, her mother busy with the new baby. Xuan tentatively approaches a classmate and makes a new friend.
Comment ça va? (How Are You?)
by Caroline Poggi, Jonathan Vinel | with Ariane Ascaride, Oulaya Amamra, Galatéa Bellugi, Grace Seri, Mouna Soualem
France
Berlinale Shorts | World premiere | Animation
A group of animals live on a wild coastline and try to heal the ills caused by the contemporary world. A kind of rehab.
Dar band (Citizen-Inmate)
by Hesam Eslami
Iran
Berlinale Shorts | World premiere | Documentary form
The electronic monitoring has transformed Tehran into a digital panopticon, turning the nightmare of constant surveillance and control into reality. But what happens when the roles are reversed and the focus is turned on the surveillants?
Élő kövek (Living Stones | Atmende Steine)
by Jakob Ladányi Jancsó | with Lilla Kizlinger, Árpád Schilling
Hungary
Berlinale Shorts | World premiere
A rehabilitation centre far from the city. Natasa is struggling to trust her much older therapist. She finds some solace in horse therapy. But a chasm is opening up between healing and harm.
Futsu no seikatsu (Ordinary Life)
by Yoriko Mizushiri | with Yoriko Mizushiri, Sumi Mizushiri
France / Japan
Berlinale Shorts | World premiere | Animation
A breath of air, a movement, a touch and, in between, a dissolution. Gestures of everyday life in variation, sensual, floating in pastel colors.
Happy Doom
by Billy Roisz
Austria
Berlinale Shorts Special Programme | No premiere
Flickering and pulsating, spitting and swallowing at the same time. The screen becomes a vibrating membrane; colors, shapes, beats and sounds a psychedelic whirlpool. A short, fast-paced audiovisual ode to the hypnotic power of color and vertigo.
Kámen Osudu (Stone of Destiny)
by Julie Černá
Czechia
Berlinale Shorts | World premiere | Animation
The Stone of Destiny longs for freedom and wants to overcome its self-doubt. So it embarks on a journey and meets strange creatures in strange places. An animated musical.
Ke wai huo dong (Extracurricular Activity)
by Dean Wei, Xu Yidan | with Tu Ling, Xu Yidan, Li Gengyou
People’s Republic of China
Berlinale Shorts | International premiere
Two teenagers secretly meet for sex, but something goes wrong. When the boy confesses to his mother what has happened, she takes charge and makes all further decisions.
Koki, Ciao
by Quenton Miller
Netherlands
Berlinale Shorts | International premiere | Documentary form
In his autobiography, Koki, the famous talking cockatoo, gives insights into his life with Tito, the long-time president of Yugoslavia whose country residence was regularly frequented by political figures, dictators and movie stars.
Lloyd Wong, Unfinished
by Lesley Loksi Chan
Canada
Berlinale Shorts | World premiere | Documentary form
In the 1990s, Chinese-Canadian artist Lloyd Wong began a video work about his living with HIV. It remained unfinished. Thirty years after his death, filmmaker Lesley Loksi Chan discovers and edits the material.
Mother’s Child
by Naomi Noir | with Maya Devincenzi Dil, Grace Kimasi, Phaedra Fidessa, James Alexander Hyslop, Eoghan Ruddy
Netherlands
Berlinale Shorts | International premiere | Animation
Being a loving mother and full-time carer for her mentally and physically disabled son is Mary’s daily struggle. The authorities are anything but helpful and she is in danger of drowning in a sea of bureaucracy.
Paranmanjang (Night Fishing)
by Park Chan-wook, Park Chan-kyong | with Kwang-rok Oh, Jung-hyun Lee, Uhuhboo Project
South Korea
Berlinale Shorts Special Programme | No premiere
A fairy tale about death and reincarnation, transmigration and the sounds of music.
Prekid vatre (Ceasefire)
by Jakob Krese
Germany / Italy / Slovenia
Berlinale Shorts | World premiere | Documentary form
Hazira survived Srebrenica. She saw the war, it corroded her life. She has been stuck in a refugee camp in her own country for 29 years, working hard and unceasingly to make ends meet and keep the trauma at bay.
Rückblickend Betrachtet (In Retrospect)
by Daniel Asadi Faezi, Mila Zhluktenko
Germany
Berlinale Shorts | World premiere | Documentary form
Migrant workers are building a shopping mall for the 1972 Munich Olympics. In 2016, this same place becomes the site of a racist shooting. “And now all this hatred,” remarks a woman in Addressee Unknown (1983). An attempt at looking back and finding connections.
Sammi, Who Can Detach His Body Parts
by Rein Maychaelson | with Jefri Nichol, Nai Djenar Maesa Ayu, Damita Almira, Virencia Suganda, Hatta Rahandy
Indonesia
Berlinale Shorts | World premiere
Sammi has the ability to remove parts of his body and give them to those he loves and wants to help. After his death, Sammi’s mother goes in search of the pieces of her son.
Tant qu’il nous reste des fusils à pompe (As long as shotguns remain)
by Caroline Poggi, Jonathan Vinel | with Lucas Doméjean, Nicolas Mias, Naël Malassagne
France
Berlinale Shorts Special Programme | No premiere
Two friends. One commits suicide. The other does not want to continue living either. But before he can go, he must take care of his brother’s future and find a family for him.
Their Eyes
by Nicolas Gourault
France
Berlinale Shorts | World premiere | Documentary form
Clickworkers in Venezuela, Kenya and the Philippines talk about their working day: they edit and label countless images of traffic on US streets to be used as training material for self-driving cars.
Three Stones for Jean Genet
by Frieder Schlaich | with Patti Smith
Germany
Berlinale Shorts Special Programme | No premiere | Documentary form
Tangier, Patti Smith, Jean Genet, three stones, a secret, a glance. Their lives collide in this city. In the end, the stones will find their place and life will go on.
Through Your Eyes
by Nelson Yeo | with Doreen Toh, Lim Poh Huat, Tan Xin Yen, Edward Tan
Singapore
Berlinale Shorts | World premiere
In a discotheque stuck in the 80s, four lives intertwine as each searches for connection and meaning amidst the pulsating beats and timeless allure of an era that refuses to fade.
Vilaine fille mauvais garçon (Two Ships)
by Justine Triet | with Laetitia Dosch, Thomas Lévy-Lasne, Serge Riaboukine
France
Berlinale Shorts Special Programme | No premiere
One night. A party. Thomas and Laetitia spend time together, caught up in the lightness of illusion and the weight of reality. A dance.
Vita Lakamaya
by Akihito Izuhara
Japan
Berlinale Shorts Special Programme | No premiere | Animation
In the land of Vita Lakamaya, resting is the most important pastime of all. A procession goes by. The year draws to a close. The creature sleeps.
Berlinale Classics
Dirty Harry
by Don Siegel | with Clint Eastwood, Harry Guardino, Reni Santoni, Andrew Robinson, John Larch
USA 1971
Berlinale Classics | World premiere
A sniper is threatening San Francisco. Harry Callahan, a gunslinger with a badge, is out to take him down. The picture was restored from an 8K scan of the 35 mm camera negative, and a newly-mastered multi-channel audio track was created.
Hell’s Angels (Höllenflieger)
by Howard Hughes, James Whale | with Ben Lyon, Jean Harlow, James Hall, John Darrow, Lucien Prival
USA 1930
Berlinale Classics | World premiere
A drama of two brothers in World War I. One turns out to be a coward, the other a hero. Dizzying aerial sequences and the only known color film scenes with Jean Harlow made this early blockbuster legendary.
Naerata ometi (Smile at Last | Lach doch mal)
by Leida Laius, Arvo Iho | with Monika Järv, Hendrik Toompere jr, Tauri Tallermaa, Katrin Tammleht, Kerttu Aaving
Estonia / USSR 1985
Berlinale Classics | International premiere
A realistic drama about a 16-year-old in an Estonian orphanage. Shot on location, it reveals a parallel world of young people behind the state regulations. The film was shot with the most modern synch sound cameras available at the time.
The Paradine Case (Der Fall Paradin)
by Alfred Hitchcock | with Gregory Peck, Ann Todd, Charles Laughton, Charles Coburn, Ethel Barrymore
USA 1947
Berlinale Classics | World premiere
A lawyer falls in love with his client, who is accused of murdering her husband. His infatuation leads to a marital crisis. Hitchcock’s courtroom drama was shortened after its premiere. The restoration is the version that went into wide release.
Seisaku no Tsuma (The Wife of Seisaku)
by Yasuzô Masumura | with Ayako Wakao, Takahiro Tamura, Nobuo Chiba, Yûzô Hayakawa, Mikio Narita
Japan 1965
Berlinale Classics | World premiere
Shunned by villagers as a “witch”, a young woman begins a passionate liaison with a feted soldier. When he is called up for war, she tries to intervene. The intense black-and-white melodrama has been restored in widescreen.
Shennü (The Goddess)
by Wu Yonggang | with Ruan Lingyu, Li Jian, Zhang Zhizhi, Li Keng, Li Junpan
China 1934
Berlinale Classics | World premiere
This “tragedy of the streets” from Shanghai is critical of society. A single mother turns to prostitution for her son’s sake. But she faces off against the mothers of her son’s classmates and her pimp. Restored version with newly remastered music.
Solo Sunny
by Konrad Wolf | with Renate Krößner, Alexander Lang, Heide Kipp, Dieter Montag, Klaus Brasch
German Democratic Republic 1980
Berlinale Classics | World premiere
In his final film, Konrad Wolf (1925–1982) draws an unglamourous portrait of a self-assured, yet vulnerable outsider trekking her way through East Germany as a pop singer. Renate Krössner won the 1980 Silver Bear as the title character.
Vestida de azul (Dressed in Blue)
by Antonio Giménez-Rico | with Lorenzo Arana, René Amor, José Antonio Sánchez, Francisco Pérez, Juan Muñoz
Spain 1983
Berlinale Classics | World premiere | Documentary form
Documentary about six trans women and their lives in 1980s Madrid. They speak frankly about their experiences as performers and prostitutes, facing marginalisation and the repressive laws that endured even after the end of the Franco era.