Berlin 2025: Screen’s guide to the Panorama titles

1001 Frames (US)

Dir. Mehrnoush Alia
Based on Alia’s 2015 short Scheherazade, the director’s feature-directing debut shot clandestinely in Iran and takes place in the studio of a well-known director with ulterior motives as actresses audition for the role of Scheherazade in A Thousand And One Nights. Iranian director, actor and producer Mohammad Aghebati portrays the filmmaker and produced 1001 Frames with Alia for the US-Iran banner Maaa Film, together with Sina Sharbafi for the Iranian-Swedish company Distorted Pictures.
Contact: Loco Films 

Beginnings (Den-Swe-Belg)

Dir. Jeanette Nordahl
Reuniting Scandinavian stars Trine Dyrholm and David Dencik for the first time since Berlinale 2006 Silver Bear winner A Soap, Beginnings depicts a couple going through a divorce when the wife suffers a severe stroke that forces them to re-evaluate their choices. Eva Jakobsen, Katrin Pors and Mikkel Jersin produce for Denmark’s Snowglobe, in co-production with Hobab & Lemming Film Belgium. Danish filmmaker Nordahl’s second feature sees her return to Panorama, after debut Wildland opened the section in 2020.
Contact: Helene Auro, REinvent Studios

Cicadas (Ger-Fr)

Dir. Ina Weisse
Cicadas tells the story of a woman, played by Nina Hoss, whose life takes a turn when an enigmatic single mother and her young daughter weave themselves into her life. Actress/filmmaker Weisse and Hoss previously collaborated on Weisse’s 2019 drama The Audition, which premiered at Toronto International Film Festival before winning best actress awards for Hoss at San Sebastian and Stockholm. Cicadas is produced by Felix von Boehm and Katrin Jochimsen for Germany’s Lupa Film, in co-production with 10:15! Productions and ZDF, with support from arte.
Contact: Beta Cinema

Confidante (Turkey-Fr-Lux)

Dirs. Cagla Zencirci, Guillaume Giovanetti
The Turkish-French directing duo return with their fourth feature after 2018 Locarno multiple prize-­winner Sibel. Set in Ankara in 1999, Confidante follows a woman working for an erotic call centre when an earthquake hits Istanbul and a client calls her back, begging to be rescued from the rubble.
Contact: Agathe Mauruc, Pyramide International  

Deaf (Sp)

Dir. Eva Libertad
Adapted from her Goya-­nominated short film of the same name, Spanish director Libertad explores the challenges facing a couple as they become new parents, heightened by the mother being unable to hear. Deaf actress Miriam Garlo stars alongside Alvaro Cervantes. The feature marks Libertad’s solo debut having directed the 2020 feature Nikolina with Nuria Muñoz, with whom she also collaborated with on two shorts — Deaf and Mentiste Amanda. Miriam Porté and Amalia Blanco serve as producers for Distinto Films and A Contracorriente Films respectively.
Contact: Latido Films

Delicious (Ger)

Dir. Nele Mueller-Stöfen
German actress and writer Mueller-­Stöfen has previously collaborated with her partner Edward Berger, co-writing features such as 2014’s Jack and 2019’s All My Loving and 2019 series Eden. A Netflix Original, Delicious is the directing debut of Mueller-­Stöfen, who also wrote the screenplay. The story is about a German family whose seemingly perfect life begins to crumble one evening when they hit a young woman while driving on a country road and take her in. Delicious is produced by leading German production house Komplizen Film, and is released worldwide on Netflix on March 7 following its Panorama premiere.
Contact: Netflix

Dreamers (UK)

Dir. Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor
Blue Story and Boxing Day producer Gharoro-Akpojotor now turns her hand to directing. The Nigeria-­UK founder of Joi Productions, who previously helmed 2021 short For Love, presents a love story and escape movie set in an immigration removal centre. Ronke Adékoluejo and Ann Akinjirin star, and Emily Morgan’s Quiddity Films produces. Financing comes from BBC Film, the BFI, Newen Connect, Finite Films and OnSight. Dreamers also took part in the BFI London Film Festival’s works-in-progress showcase in 2024.
Contact: Steven Bestwick, The Yellow Affair 

Dreams In Nightmares (US-Taiwan-UK)

Dir. Shatara Michelle Ford
Following its world premiere at BlackStar Film Festival in August 2024, Ford’s second feature follows three friends on a road trip across the US midwest in search of their disappeared friend. The cast includes Denée Benton, Mars Storm Rucker, Dezi Bing, Sasha Compere and Charlie Barnett. The US director won the New Generation Award with 2019 thriller Test Pattern at the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards. Producers are A 120E Film, Sit Was Written, Spark Features and Paradise City.
Contact: Memento International

The Good Sister (Ger-Sp)

Dir. Sarah Miro Fischer
The Good Sister has already made waves on the festival circuit, having won two WIP Europa prizes at San Sebastian’s industry programme last year. Set in Berlin, the film centres on a young woman who is asked to testify as a witness in a rape case against her older brother. The Good Sister is Miro Fischer’s graduation project from the German Film and Television Academy Berlin (DFFB). Miro Fischer also studied film at Colombia’s National Conservatory for Cinema in Bogota, and has directed several shorts.
Contact: Katarzyna Siniarska, New Europe Film Sales 

The Heart Is A Muscle (S Afr-Saudi)

Dir. Imran Hamdulay
This South Africa-set debut film centres around a young father whose life begins to unravel after his violent reaction to the brief disappearance of his son sets off a chain of events. Writer/director and Berlinale Talents alumnus Hamdulay also produces the feature alongside Adam Thal of The Star Film Company, Khosie Dali of Miss K Productions and Brett Michael Innes of Nostalgia Productions — all South Africa-based. Further support came from the National Film and Video Foundation of South Africa and the Red Sea Fund, while Indigenous Film executive-produced.
Contact: Helen Kuun, Indigenous Film 

Home Sweet Home (Den)

Dir. Frelle Petersen
Danish director Petersen’s fourth feature is his first to debut at one of the three major European festivals. He also wrote and edited the film, which follows a single mother trying to balance her new job as a care-home worker alongside everyday life with her daughter. Jette Sondergaard plays the lead, having also led Petersen’s previous two features Uncle and Forever, the latter of which won Denmark’s Bodil prize for best film. Nordisk Film Distribution will release Home Sweet Home in Denmark in June 2025.
Contact: Nicolai Korsgaard, TrustNordisk 

Hysteria (Ger)

Dir. Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay
German-Turkish director Akif Büyükatalay’s feature debut Oray played in the 2019 Berlinale’s Perspektive Deutsches Kino section, winning the best first feature award. His follow-up is about a film shoot thrown into turmoil when a Quran is burned. Caught in the crossfire of accusations is young intern Elif (Devrim Lingnau, star of Net­flix series The Empress). Hysteria is produced through Büyükatalay’s Cologne-based production company Filmfaust, which he founded in 2020 with producer Claus Reichel.
Contact: Pluto Film

The Incredible Snow Woman (Fr)

Dir. Sébastien Betbeder
French actress Blanche Gardin stars as an explorer traveling solo across Greenland, after experiencing a break-up and losing her job. Used to camping on ice floes and single-handedly wrestling a bear, she embarks on a final attempt to piece together her unravelling life. Philippe Katerine, Bastien Bouillon, Ole Eliassen and Martin Jensen round out the cast of The Incredible Snow Woman, which was shot and set between France’s Jura region and Greenland. Writer/director Betbeder has set several of his previous films in Greenland, including 2016’s Journey To Greenland and 2014 short Inupiluk.
Contact: Be For Films

Lesbian Space Princess (Australia)

Dirs. Emma Hough Hobbs, Leela Varghese
This debut follows an introverted space princess who embarks on a galactic mission to rescue her ex-girlfriend from the Straight White Maliens. The animation was presented as a work-in-progress at Adelaide Film Festival last October. The voice cast includes Shabana Azeez, Gemma Chua-Tran, Richard Roxburgh and Bernie Van Tiel. Tom Phillips of We Made a Thing Studios produced alongside Umbrella Entertainment’s Ari Harrison, and Cam Rogers executive produced.
Contact: Blue Finch Films 

The Longing (Japan)

Dir. Toshizo Fujiwara
This social drama is directed and co-written by Fujiwara, who is better known as an actor in the likes of Takeshi Kitano’s A Scene At The Sea (1991) and Fred Schepisi’s Mr. Baseball (1992). He also takes a supporting role in this social drama about a couple who hire young people fresh out of juvenile detention and help turn their lives around. Based on Fujiwara’s play of the same name, the film’s cast is led by Daiki Ido. Fujiwara’s previous feature as director was 2014’s The Sky And Beyond.
Contact: Toshizo Produce

Magic Farm (US-Arg)

Dir. Amalia Ulman
Ulman’s sophomore follow-up to her 2021 Sundance selection El Planeta follows a film crew that ends up in the wrong country when they try to profile a musician in Argentina, as relationships emerge during an unfolding health crisis. Chloë Sevigny, Alex Wolff, Simon Rex and Ulman star. Spacemaker Productions, Mubi and Rei Pictures produced, and Spacemaker Productions, Mubi and Tango Entertainment co-financed. Mubi holds rights for North America and the UK.
Contact: The Match Factory

Night Stage (Bra)

Dirs. Filipe Matzembacher, Marcio Reolon
This erotic thriller about self-­discovery, desire and identity is the third time the directing duo Matzembacher and Reolon have premiered at the Berlinale following Seashore in 2015 and Hard Paint in 2018. The latter won the Teddy award for best LGBTQ+ feature. Their latest follows an actor and a politician who start a secret affair and develop a fetish for having sex in public, risking the kind of exposure that could end their careers.
Contact: m-appeal

Olmo (US-Mex)

Dir. Fernando Eimbcke
Hailing from Plan B’s microbudget initiative in partnership with Mediawan, Olmo centres on the titular 14-year-old who cares for his ailing father when a party invitation changes his life. Plan B and Michel Franco’s Mexican company Teorema produced the feature, which was shot under an interim agreement in New Mexico in 2023 during the Hollywood strikes. This is Mexican filmmaker Eimbcke’s second feature to premiere in the Berlinale after Lake Tahoe played in Competition in 2008.
Contact: CAA Media Finance (North America)

Once Again… (Statues Never Die) (US-UK)

Dir. Isaac Julien
UK installation artist and filmmaker Julien explores the relationship between Albert C Barnes, an early US collector and exhibitor of African cultural artefacts, and Harlem Renaissance philosopher Alain Locke. André Holland (Moonlight) stars, while Andrew Fierberg and Angie Daniell produce. It is a single-­screen adaptation of a five-screen immersive installation that has played in museums around the world and was commissioned by Philadelphia’s The Barnes Foundation. This marks a return to the Berlinale for Julien, who was in Panorama in 2008 with Derek Jarman doc Derek, made in collaboration with Tilda Swinton.
Contact: Victoria Miro Gallery

Other People’s Money (Ger-Den-Austria)

Dirs. Jan Schomburg, Dustin Loose, Kaspar Munk
Germany’s X-Filme and Denmark’s True Content Entertainment collaborated on this eight-part financial thriller (formerly known as The CumEx Files) for broadcasters DR and ZDF. It is based on a true story about the CumEx trading scheme, a network of bankers, lawyers and investors who defrauded European treasuries of billions of Euros. Other People’s Money centres on two women who try to put a stop to it. Schomburg (I’m Your Man) is the series’ showrunner, while Germany’s Loose and Denmark’s Munk co-direct.
Contact: Andreas Khevenhüller, Beta Film

Peter Hujar’s Day (US-Ger)

Dir. Ira Sachs
Ben Whishaw and Rebecca Hall star in this drama from Jordan Drake Productions and One Two Films, set in a room over the course of one day in 1974 as the queer American portrait photographer Hujar discusses literary icons and daily life with his friend Linda Rosenkrantz. The film is based on Rosen­krantz’s book of the same name, which was transcribed from a recording of her conversation with the photographer. Peter Hujar’s Day receives its international premiere after debuting last month at Sundance, where Sachs is a regular. The filmmaker’s Passages, which also starred Whishaw, played Park City before travelling to the Berlinale’s Panorama in 2023.
Contact: SBS International (worldwide); WME Independent (North America co-rep)

Queerpanorama (US-HK)

Dir. Jun Li
Hong Kong director Li’s LGBTQ+ drama is about a gay man who can only be honest about himself through a forged persona borrowed from men with whom he has had sex. Jayden Cheung from series Left On Read stars. Li tackled transgender identity in his 2018 debut Tracey and homeless people in his second feature Drifting (2021), which premiered in Tokyo’s Asian Future Competition and Rotterdam’s Big Screen Competition respectively.
Contact: Martin Gondre, Best Friend Forever 

Silent Sparks (Tai)

Dir. Chu Ping
Set against Taiwan’s criminal underworld, this LGBTQ+ feature debut follows a young man who, on being released from prison, is keen to reunite with a former cellmate for whom he harbours deep feelings. The cast is led by Huang Guan-Zhi and Shih Ming-Shuai, winner of Golden Horse best supporting actor for 2024 gangster film Gatao: Like Father Like Son. The feature premiered at Taipei Film Festival last June, and will make its international premiere at the Berlinale. It is fully backed by Taiwan’s Public Television Service (PTS).
Contact: Leon Chao, PTS

The Ugly Stepsister (Nor-Pol-Swe-Den)

Dir. Emilie Blichfeldt
The Cinderella story gets a horror-­comedy update in the feature debut of Norway’s Blichfeldt. It follows Elvira, played by newcomer Lea Myren, as she resorts to extreme measures to compete with her beautiful stepsister and captivate the prince. Maria Ekerhovd (The Innocents) produces for her Mer Film, with co­-producers Zentropa Sweden, Lava Films, Motor Productions and Film i Väst. The Ugly Stepsister heads to Berlin after opening Sundance’s Midnight. Shudder has North America, UK and Australia/New Zealand rights, with Scanbox handling in Scandinavia.
Contact: Memento International 

Welcome Home Baby (Austria-Ger)

Dir. Andreas Prochaska
Austrian director Prochaska’s revenge drama The Dark Valley premiered as a Berlinale Special Gala in 2014 and he has since racked up high-end TV series credits including Das Boot and Alex Rider. Welcome Home Baby centres on a doctor who inherits a house from the family that gave her away as a child, sparking a nightmarish journey into the past. It stars Julia Franz Richter and is produced through Vienna-­based Lotus Film. 
Contact: Global Screen

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