The 75th Berlin International Film Festival has unveiled the 19 films in competition for the Golden and Silver Bears, eight of them directed or co-directed by women, as well as the full program of Perspectives and Berlinale Special. From 13 to 23 February, we will enjoy the Berlinale, which will open at the Palast with Tom Tykwer‘s The Light. At the gala, which Désirée Nosbusch will direct as master of ceremonies, Tilda Swinton will be presented with the Honorary Bear for her entire career and it will also be the moment to present the jury of the official section, of which we only know its president, the American director Todd Haynes.
The first edition directed by Tricia Tuttle taking over the baton from Carlo Chatrian and Mariette Rissenbeek will feature a feature debut, a documentary, and 17 world premieres. Nine of the directors in the competition have already had the honor of seeing their films screened in previous editions. The brand-new director thus set the tone of the program:”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,” said first-time Berlinale artistic director Tricia Tuttle.”
Tricia Tuttle presents the program of the first Berlinale under her direction.
Competition
The female directors participating in the official section are the well-known Lucile Hadžihalilović (Evolution), with her drama set in the 1970s, The Ice Tower, starring Marion Cotillard, Clara Pacini, August Diehl, Gaspar Noé, and Léonor Serraille with Ari, starring Andranic Manet, who plays a young professor at a turning point in his life. Belgian director couple Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani will present Reflection in a Dead Diamond, a spy thriller set on the Côte d’Azur, while the British screenwriter of Ida and Disobedience, Rebecca Lenkiewicz will release Hot Milk, her directorial debut, in which she explores the fragility of maternal bonds in a film starring Emma Mackey, Fiona Shaw, Vicky Krieps and Vincent Perez. Crystal Bear winner Kateryna Gornostai returns with Timestamp, an intense Ukrainian story of student resilience.
If last year’s Devil’s Bad triumphed, this year sees the return of another Austrian director, Johanna Moder, who reflects on a mother’s difficulty in creating a connection with her baby, in Mother’s Baby. Another twist on motherhood will be offered by American director Mary Bronstein with If I Had Legs I’d Kick You starring Rose Byrne. And the subject doesn’t end there because Vivian Qu brings us Girls on Wire from China, in which Tian Tian, a single mother of a five-year-old girl, kills a drug dealer and pursues revenge.
Jessica Chastain in Dreams (Michel Franco, 2025).
One of the most eagerly awaited films is Dreams by Dag Johan Haugerud, who after Sex and Love closes a trilogy, the first two parts of which are a critically and publicly acclaimed marvel. Dreams has already been released in Norway, so it will not be a world premiere. In his latest film, Haugerud explores how Johanne’s intimate texts about her crush on a teacher ignite tension in her family, while her mother and grandmother face their frustrations.
Romanian director Radu Jude, winner of the Golden Bear in 2021 with Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, will premiere Kontinental ‘25 in competition. In it, Orsolya is a bailiff in Cluj, the capital of Transylvania. One day she has to evict a homeless man from a cellar, an action with tragic consequences that triggers a moral crisis that Orsolya must deal with as best she can. The Safe House, by Swiss Lionel Baier, is an eccentric family portrait set during the May 1968 protests in Paris. A nine-year-old boy stays with his grandparents, aunts and uncles while his parents protest. When an illustrious guest seeks refuge in the flat, the family dynamic changes.
What Marielle Knows by German director Frédéric Hambalek features Julia and Tobias, who discover that their daughter Marielle has suddenly developed telepathic abilities and can see and hear everything they do. This leads to situations that range from the uncomfortable to the absurd as compromising truths are revealed. Elsewhere, Yunan, by Germany-based Ukrainian Ameer Fakher Eldin (The Stranger) is set on a remote island, where Munir seeks solitude to contemplate a final act, but finds unexpected solace in the quiet presence of Valeska (Hanna Schygulla), whose compassion rekindles his fading desire to live.
Köln 75 (Ido Fluk, 2025)
Richard Linklater‘s new film Blue Moon takes us back to 1943 New York, where we witness the trials and tribulations of Lorenz Hart, a former collaborator of Richard Rodgers, who celebrates the success of his musical Oklahoma! The Message, by the Argentinian Iván Fund, and The Blue Trail by the Brazilian Gabriel Mascaro complete the official section together with the Chinese Huo Meng, who premieres Living the Land, the story of ten-year-old Chuang, raised by his extended family in his home village, where thousands of years of rural tradition collide with the socio-economic changes in China in the early 1990s. Asian cinema has a great director in the selection, as Hong Sangsoo will present What Does That Nature Say to You, starring a young poet, who embarks on a journey of conversation and libations with his girlfriend’s family. Michel Franco again stars Jessica Chastain (Memory, 2023) in Dreams. In this story, believing his lover will support him, a young Mexican ballet dancer crosses the border to pursue his dreams in San Francisco. But when ambition and love collide with harsh reality, he must confront the true nature of their relationship.
Mickey 17 (Bong Joon-ho, 2025)
The new competition section, which has replaced Encounters, has programmed 14 feature films, all debuts by their directors, of which five are women and two are non-binary.
Perspectives
That Summer in Paris, Valentine Cadic (France)
Where the Night Stands Still, Liryc Dela Cruz (Italy/Philippines)
Eel, de Chu Chun-Teng (Taiwan)
Shadowbox, Tanushree Das and Saumyananda Sahi (India/France/USA/Spain)
We Believe You de Arnaud Dufeys y Charlotte Devillers (Belgium)
Little Trouble Girls, Urška Djukić (Slovenia/Italy/Croatia/Serbia)
BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions, Kahlil Joseph (USA)
Punching the World, Constanze Klaue (Germany)
Two Times João Liberada, Paula Tomás Marques (Portugal)
The Devil Smokes (and Saves the Burnt Matches in the Same Box) de Ernesto Martínez Bucio (Mexico)
How to Be Normal and the Oddness of the Other World de Florian Pochlatko (Austria)
The Settlement, Mohamed Rashad (Egypt/France/Germany/Qatar/Saudi Arabia)
Growing Down, Bálint Dániel Sós (Hungary)
Mad Bills to Pay (or Destiny, dile que no soy malo), Joel Alfonso Vargas (USA)
Berlinale Special
The Light, Tom Tykwer (Germany). Opening Film.
After this Death, Lucio Castro (USA)
Köln 75 , Ido Fluk (Germany/Poland/Belgium)
Islands, Jan-Ole Gerster (Germany)
Mickey 17, Bong Joon-ho (USA/South Korea/UK)
The Narrow Road to the Deep North de Justin Kurzel (Australia) (series)
My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow de Julia Loktev (USA)
A Complete Unknown, James Mangold (USA)
The Old Woman With the Knife, Min Kyu-dong (South Korea)
Shoah , Claude Lanzmann (France, 1986)
Ancestral Visions of the Future, Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese (France/Lesotho/Germany/Saudi Arabia)
The Best Mother in the World, Anna Muylaert (Brasil/Argentina)
No Beast. So Fierce. , Burhan Qurbani (Alemania/Francia/Polonia)
Leibniz – Chronicle of a Lost Painting , Edgar Reitz, Anatol Schuster (Alemania)
All I Had Was Nothingness, Guillaume Ribot (France)
Lurker, Alex Russell (USA/Italy)
A Letter to David de Tom Shoval (Israel/USA)
Honey Bunch, Madeleine Sims-Fewer, Dusty Mancinelli (Canada)
The Thing with Feathers, Dylan Southern (UK)
Late Shift, Petra Volpe (Switzerland/Germany)
Das Deutsche Volk , Marcin Wierzchowski (Germany)
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