Berlin 2025: Screen’s guide to the Competition titles

Ari (Fr-Belg)

Dir. Léonor Serraille
Serraille’s follow-up to Mother And Son, which premiered in Cannes Competition in 2022, follows a 27-year-old student teacher on sick leave. When his overbearing father kicks him out of the house, he is forced to navigate the city alone, reconnect with old friends and embark on a journey of self-­discovery. Andranic Manet stars as the titular Ari alongside a cast of students from the National Academy of Dramatic Arts in Paris. Producers are Gregoire Debailly for Geko Films and Sandra Da Fonseca for Blue Monday Productions.
Contact: Be For Films 

Blue Moon (US-Ire)

Dir. Richard Linklater
Ethan Hawke, Margaret Qualley, Bobby Cannavale and Andrew Scott head a starry cast in US filmmaker Linklater’s profile of the final days of Lorenz Hart, one half of the American songwriting team Rodgers and Hart. The music biopic shot last year in Ireland, and is a Detour/Renovo production in association with Wild Atlantic Pictures, Under The Influence and Cinetic Media. Linklater most recently premiered at Venice with Hit Man in 2023, and previously played Berlin with 2014’s Boyhood and 2013’s Before Midnight.
Contact: Sony Pictures Classics

The Blue Trail (Bra-Mex-Chile-Neth)

Dir. Gabriel Mascaro
This quasi-dystopian fable follows a 77-year-old woman, played by Denise Weinberg, who embarks on a transformative journey through the Amazon after being forced by the government to relocate to a senior housing colony; Rodrigo Santoro also stars. A special jury prize winner in Venice’s Horizons in 2015 for Neon Bull, Mascaro graduates to Berlin Competition after his film Divine Love premiered in Panorama in 2019. The Blue Trail is one of the first titles on the slate of new Paris-­based sales company Lucky Number.
Contact: Ola Byszuk, Lucky Number

Dreams (Mex)

Dir. Michel Franco
Mexican provocateur Franco returns with his first feature since 2023 Venice selection Memory. Jessica Chastain, who starred in Memory, here plays a socialite facing a tricky balancing act when her lover, a Mexican ballet star, leaves everything behind to come and live with her in the US. Isaac Hernandez, a principal at the American Ballet Theatre, co-stars. Production took place in summer 2023 in San Francisco, Tijuana and Mexico City. Teorema produced with Freckle Films, Eastern Film and AR Content.
Contact: The Match Factory

Dreams (Sex Love) (Nor)

Dir. Dag Johan Haugerud
Haugerud completes his Sex Love Dreams trilogy with the story of a young woman whose writings about a crush on her French teacher shock her mother and grandmother, causing them to re-examine their own fantasies. Dreams has its international premiere in Berlin, having debuted in Norway in October 2024. It follows Sex, which launched in Panorama last year before winning the $45,000 Nordic Council Film Prize; and Love, which bowed in Venice Competition. Yngve Sæther and Hege Hauff Hvattum of Motlys have produced all three films.
Contact: m-appeal

Girls On Wire (China)

Dir. Vivian Qu
After a single mother kills a drug dealer and is pursued by gangsters, she turns to her cousin — who works as a stunt double — for help. The cast is led by Liu Haocun of Zhang Yimou’s One Second and Wen Qi of Venice 2017 Competition title Angels Wear White, also directed by Qu. It is produced by Sean Chen and co-produced by UK-Irish producer Mike Downey. It marks Qu’s third film as a director after Trap Street, which played Venice Critics’ Week in 2013, and Angels Wear White. Qu also produced Berlin 2014 Golden Bear winner Black Coal, Thin Ice.
Contact: Films Boutique

Hot Milk (UK-Greece)

Dir. Rebecca Lenkiewicz
A mother and daughter travel to a Spanish seaside town so they can consult a healer about the mother’s mysterious illness, in this adaptation of Deborah Levy’s novel of the same name. Fiona Shaw and Emma Mackey star in the directing debut of UK writer Lenkiewicz, whose screenplay credits include Ida, Colette and She Said. Producers are Christine Langan for Bonnie Productions, with Kate Glover and Heretic’s Giorgos Karnavas. Film4 and Head Gear Films financed. Mubi will release in UK/­Ireland and further international territories, while IFC Films has North American rights.
Contact: HanWay Films

The Ice Tower (Fr-Ger)

Dir. Lucile Hadzihalilovic
Set during the 1970s, The Ice Tower stars Oscar winner Marion Cotillard as a star actress filming a production of The Snow Queen, who takes a runaway teenage orphan under her wing and exerts an overpowering influence over the girl. Clara Pacini, August Diehl and Gaspar Noé co-star. Hadzihalilovic’s follow-­­up to 2021’s Earwig reteams the filmmaker with Cotillard after 2004’s Innocence. The Ice Tower is produced by 3B Productions, which also produced Rachid Bouchareb’s Our Brothers and Bruno Dumont’s France.
Contact: Flavien Eripret, Goodfellas

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (US)

Dir. Mary Bronstein
Bronstein’s psychodrama and second feature after SXSW 2008 drama Yeast arrives fresh from its world premiere in Sundance where Rose Byrne received some of the best reviews of her career. She plays Linda, an overwhelmed therapist sinking under the conflicting demands of family and work over an increasingly surreal sequence of events. Danielle Macdonald, Christian Slater and US comedian and Oscars host Conan O’Brien co-star. Among the producers are Josh Safdie and Ronald Bronstein, Mary Bronstein’s husband and longtime Safdie brothers co-writer.
Contact: A24

Kontinental ’25 (Rom-Bra-Switz-UK-Lux)

Dir. Radu Jude
This is Jude’s first film to play the Berlinale since Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn won the Golden Bear in 2021. With a title inspired by Roberto Rossellini’s film Europe ’51, the feature follows a woman as she tries to ease her conscience after a homeless man she was attempting to evict dies by suicide. Romania’s Eszter Tompa leads the cast. It is the first of two new titles from Jude, with Dracula also expected in 2025.
Contact: Luxbox

Living The Land (China)

Dir. Huo Meng
Told from the perspective of a 10-year-old boy, this family saga explores China’s sweeping socio­economic changes in the 1990s that drove many people to leave their villages for work in the cities, reshaping the traditional way of life. Among the production companies are Floating Light (Foshan) Film and Culture, Shanghai Film Group and Phoenix Legend Films. Huo’s debut fiction feature Crossing The Border — Zhaoguan won the best director award at China’s Pingyao and played in the Berlinale’s On Transmission special programme in 2020.
Contact: m-appeal

The Message (Arg-Sp)

Dir. Ivan Fund
Argentinian director Fund’s road movie from Rita Cine and Insomnia Films sees the guardians of a gifted girl take to the countryside peddling pet medium consultations. The project is Fund’s first since Dusk Stone premiered at Venice in 2021, and stars Mara Bestelli, Marcelo Subiotto, Anika Bootz and Betania Cappato. The Message went through the San Sebastian co-­production forums in 2023 and 2024, was showcased at San Sebastian WIP LatAm in 2024 and was backed by the Berlinale’s World Cinema Fund. Production partners include Spain’s Amore Cine, Blurr Stories and Panes Contenidos, and Uruguay’s Animista Cine.
Contact: Luxbox 

Mother’s Baby (Austria-Switz-Ger)

Dir. Johanna Moder
Austrian director and screenwriter Moder’s two previous films, High Performance and Once Were Rebels, won the audience award and best director awards respectively at Max Ophüls Festival in 2014 and 2020. She jumps into Berlinale Competition with this psychological thriller about a 40-year-old woman who feels strangely distant from her longed-for first baby — and begins to doubt whether it is really her own. Marie Leuenberger, Hans Löw, Claes Bang and Julia Franz Richter star.
Contact: The Match Factory

Reflection In A Dead Diamond (Belg-Lux-It-Fr)

Dirs. Hélène Cattet, Bruno Forzani
Brussels-based French filmmakers Cattet and Forzani have a track record of genre subversion: see their take on westerns in 2017’s Let The Corpses Tan. Now the 1960s Euro spy thriller gets the treatment in Reflection In A Dead Diamond. When a retired spy living in a luxury Cote d’Azur hotel meets a neighbour who reminds him of his 1960s glory days, he begins to suspect his old adversaries may have returned. The cast includes Maria de Medeiros and Koen De Bouw, and the duo’s fourth feature is their first to launch at Berlin.
Contact: True Colours

The Safe House (Switz-Lux-Fr)

Dir. Lionel Baier
Swiss filmmaker Baier follows up Continental Drift (South), which premiered in Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes in 2022, with this comedy about a nine-year-old boy living with his family of eccentric artists in Paris who discovers a hidden secret dating back to the Second World War. Set during the student riots of 1968, it is adapted from Christophe Boltanski’s novel inspired by his own life and marks the late French actor Michel Blanc’s final role. Producers are Bande à Part Films with Luxembourg’s Red Lion, Les Films du Poisson, RTS Radio Télévision Suisse and SRG SSR.
Contact: mk2 Films 

Timestamp (Ukr-Lux-Neth-Fr)

Dir. Kateryna Gornostai
The sole documentary in this year’s Competition line-up, Gornostai’s film follows students and teachers at a school in Ukraine as they continue their daily lives amid the ongoing war. It is the director’s second feature after Stop-Zemlia, which premiered in Generation 14plus in 2021 and won the Crystal Bear award. Timestamp is produced by Ukraine’s 2Brave Productions and co-produced by Luxembourg-­based a_BAHN and the Netherlands’ Rinkel Docs.
Contact: Martin Gondre, Best Friend Forever 

What Does That Nature Say To You (S Kor)

Dir. Hong Sangsoo
South Korea’s Berlinale regular Hong returns with his eighth film to compete for the Golden Bear. The story centres on a poet who drops off his girlfriend at her parents’ impressive home and bumps into her family, leading to a day together fuelled by conversation, food and drink. The cast is led by Ha Seongguk, Kwon Haehyo and Cho Yunhee, who have all featured in Hong’s recent features. The prolific filmmaker has won four Silver Bears in the past five years with The Woman Who Ran, Introduction, The Novelist’s Film and A Traveler’s Needs.
Contact: Finecut 

What Marielle Knows (Ger)

Dir. Frédéric Hambalek
This family satire is German filmmaker Hambalek’s follow-up to his 2020 debut Model Olimpia. It is about a girl who develops telepathic abilities that allow her to see and hear everything her parents do, shaking up the ostensibly perfect couple’s relationship. Julia Jentsch and Felix Kramer star with newcomer Laeni Geiseler. It is produced by Philipp Worm and Tobias Walker for Munich-based Walker + Worm Film and co-­produced by ZDF/Das Kleine Fernsehspiel. New sales outfit Lucky Number also handles The Blue Trail in Competition.
Contact: Ola Byszuk, Lucky Number 

Yunan (Ger-Can-It-Pal-Qat-Jor-Saudi)

Dir. Ameer Fakher Eldin
An exiled Arab writer travels from Hamburg to a North Sea island to die by suicide, only to meet a devoted elderly woman (Hanna Schygulla) who changes his perspective. Debut feature The Stranger put Eldin’s name on the map in 2021, playing at Venice and winning an Asia Pacific Screen Award. Like that film, Yunan is a cross-continental effort with backers including Eurimages, Germany’s ZDF, Qatar’s Doha Film Institute and Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Foundation. Dorothe Beinemeier of Germany’s Red Balloon Film leads the producers. MAD Solutions acquired pan-Arab rights in 2022.
Contact: Intramovies

Profiles by: Flore Boitel, Ellie Calnan, Ben Dalton, Tim Dams, Elaine Guerini, Jeremy Kay, Rebecca Leffler, Orlando Parfitt, Michael Rosser, Matt Schley, Mona Tabbara, Silvia Wong

• Read profiles for the other Berlin 2025 titles here