Berlin 2025: Screen’s guide to the Special and Special Gala titles

Special Gala

After This Death (US)

Dir. Lucio Castro
Argentina-born Castro’s second feature as a director following 2019 romantic drama End Of The Century is a US-set story that follows a woman whose life is thrown into chaos following the sudden end of her affair with an enigmatic underground musician. Mia Maestro, Lee Pace, Rupert Friend and Gwendoline Christie star, with Kindred Spirit (Honey Boy, The Farewell) and 2AM (Past Lives) producing.
Contact: CAA Media Finance

Islands (Ger)

Dir. Jan-Ole Gerster
Control and Maleficent star Sam Riley heads the cast for this thriller from top German producer Augenschein and distributor Leonine. It is the story of a washed-up tennis pro coaching tourists on the holiday island of Fuerteventura who has his life changed when a new family arrives and matters take a dark turn. Stacy Martin and Jack Farthing also star. Gerster is making his Berlinale debut after his first two features, Oh Boy (2012) and Lara (2019), world premiered at Karlovy Vary.
Contact: Protagonist Pictures; Augenschein Sales 

Köln 75 (Ger-Pol-Belg)

Dir. Ido Fluk
Köln 75 tells the story behind Keith Jarrett’s 1975 The Köln Concert, one of the bestselling jazz records of all time, and how a formidable German teenager, Vera Brandes, was instrumental in its creation. Mala Emde (German series Oh Hell) plays Brandes, while US actor John Magaro (September 5) plays Jarrett. The drama is produced by Sol Bondy and Fred Burle of Berlin-­based One Two Films, the team behind Ali Abbasi’s Holy Spider. New York-based Fluk co-wrote and directed The Ticket (2016) starring Dan Stevens and Malin Akerman.
Contact: Bankside Films

Late Shift (Switz-Ger)

Dir. Petra Volpe
Berlinale 2023 was a breakout festival for Leonie Benesch, who led Panorama title The Teachers’ Lounge — which went on to an Oscar nomination — and was a European Shooting Star. Since seen in US-­Germany co-production September 5, the German actress returns to the festival as the star of Swiss filmmaker Volpe’s third feature, about a nurse facing a race against time in the high-pressure environment of a surgical ward. Reto Schaerli and Lukas Hobi of Switzerland’s Zodiac Pictures reunite with Volpe, having produced her previous features The Divine Order (2017) and Dreamland (2013).
Contact: Nicolai Korsgaard, TrustNordisk 

The Light (Ger)

Dir. Tom Tykwer
The opening film of Berlinale 2025, The Light centres on a troubled family whose lives are changed by their Syrian housekeeper. Lars Eidinger, Nicolette Krebitz and Tala Al Deen star in Tykwer’s first film for the cinema since 2016’s A Holo­gram For The King. The director of Run Lola Run and Cloud Atlas has been busy since 2017 co-creating and co-directing four series of Babylon Berlin. He has opened the Berlinale twice previously: in 2002 with Heaven and in 2009 with The International. The Light is produced by X Filme Creative Pool.
Contact: Beta Cinema

Lurker (US-It)

Dir. Alex Russell
Filmmaker Russell, who has writing credits on hit shows including The Bear for Disney+ and Netflix’s Beef, shifts into directing his first feature with Lurker. The thriller world premiered at Sundance in January in the Premieres section and tells of a retail employee who infiltrates the inner circle of a Los Angeles musician on the brink of stardom. The cast includes Théodore Pellerin from Sundance 2020 title Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Saltburn’s Archie Madekwe (who also produces), Havana Rose Liu and Sunny Suljic. Production companies include High Frequency Entertainment, MeMo Films, Arts & Sciences, Twin and Case Study Films.
Contact: WME Independent 

Mickey 17 (US-S Kor)

Dir. Bong Joon Ho
Nearly six years after Parasite won the Palme d’Or at Cannes and four Oscars including best picture, the South Korean filmmaker returns with an absurdist sci-fi comedy starring Robert Pattinson. The story, based on the 2022 novel Mickey7 by Edward Ashton, centres on an expendable employee sent on dangerous missions, who is “re-printed” after dying and sent back to work. Bong also produces through his own Offscreen alongside US outfits Plan B and Kate Street Pictures. The director was previously at the festival in 2014 with Snowpiercer and sat on the international jury in 2015. Mickey 17 will open in South Korea on February 28 before rolling out worldwide from March 5 through Warner Bros. 
Contact: Warner Bros

The Narrow Road To The Deep North (Australia)

Dir. Justin Kurzel
This adaptation of Richard Flanagan’s novel marks the TV debut of Australian filmmaker Kurzel, who has previously premiered at Cannes with The Snowtown Murders, Macbeth and Nitram while The Order debuted last year at Venice. The five-part drama stars Jacob Elordi as a Second World War hero haunted by his experiences in a Japanese POW camp and memories of an affair. Produced by Sony Pictures Television-owned Curio Pictures, it will launch on Prime Video in Australia, New Zealand and Canada on April 18. The BBC has acquired it for the UK.
Contact: Sony Pictures Television

The Thing With Feathers (UK)

Dir. Dylan Southern
Benedict Cumberbatch leads the cast of this adaptation of Max Porter’s novel Grief Is The Thing With Feathers, which premiered last month at Sundance. A grieving widower’s hold on reality crumbles as a mysterious presence begins to stalk him from the shadows. Lobo Films’ Andrea Cornwell produces alongside SunnyMarch’s Adam Ackland and Leah Clarke, with the BFI and Film4 co‑financing. UK filmmaker Southern built a career in music documentaries, with credits including Sundance premieres Shut Up And Play The Hits and Meet Me In The Bathroom.
Contact: mk2 Films (international); UTA Independent Film Group (North America) filmsales@unitedtalent.com

Special

All I Had Was Nothingness (Fr)

Dir. Guillaume Ribot
Ribot takes an in-depth look at Claude Lanzmann’s groundbreaking 1985 film Shoah, which first premiered at the Berlinale Forum in 1986 and redefined the on-screen representation of the Holocaust. The first-ever look at the making of the film uses only Lanzmann’s words and unseen footage from behind the scenes of his nine-hour masterpiece. The festival will also screen the original Shoah to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and what would have been Lanzmann’s 100th birthday.
Contact: mk2 Films 

Ancestral Visions Of The Future (Fr-Lesotho-Ger-Qatar-Saudi)

Dir. Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese
Lesotho-born filmmaker Mosese broke out on the festival circuit with Mother, I Am Suffocating, This Is My Last Film About You., which premiered in the Berlinale’s Forum in 2019, and This Is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection, which was made through Venice’s Biennale College initiative and premiered at Sundance in 2020, where it won a special jury award in the World Cinema — Dramatic section. His latest feature is a poetic allegory based on his own childhood and explores themes of dislocation and belonging through fragmented narratives and mystical imagery. France’s Agat Films — Ex Nihilo is lead producer.
Contact: Memento International

The Best Mother In The World (Bra-Arg)

Dir. Anna Muylaert
Brazilian writer and director Muylaert returns to Berlin 10 years after her film The Second Mother debuted in Panorama. Still in the world of mother­hood, she now tells the story of a woman (Shirley Cruz) who escapes with her two young children from an abusive relationship, telling them they are embarking on an adventure when she puts them into a recycling cart she uses to collect rubbish on the city’s streets and hits the road. The abusive father is played by Seu Jorge, and the film is produced by Bionica Filmes, with backing from Brazil’s +Galeria and Argentina’s Frupo Telefilms.
Contact: Bionica Filmes 

Das Deutsche Volk (Ger)

Dir. Marcin Wierzchowski
This documentary focuses on the 2020 racist attack in the city of Hanau, Germany, which saw nine people murdered by a far-right extremist. The feature-length documentary debut of German director Wierz­chowski tells the story of the victims’ relatives and the survivors. Producers are Frankfurt-­based milk&water and Strandfilm in co-operation with ZDF-3sat and HR, with funding by Hessen Film & Media.
Contact: Dorothea Braun, strandfilm 

Honey Bunch (Can)

Dirs. Madeleine Sims-Fewer, Dusty Mancinelli
Grace Glowicki, Ben Petrie, Jason Isaacs and Kate Dickie star in the tale of a marriage under stress, in which a woman experiences memory loss after a coma and undergoes experimental treatment at a remote facility. Cat People and Rhombus Media produced in association with Telefilm Canada and Ontario Creates. XYZ Films serves as executive producer, co-financing with Telefilm Canada, and represents worldwide sales excluding Canada and the UK, where Elevation and Vertigo Releasing distribute respectively.
Contact: XYZ Films

Leibniz — Chronicle Of A Lost Painting (Ger)

Dirs. Edgar Reitz, Anatol Schuster
German filmmaker Reitz, who is 92 years old and best known for the influential Heimat trilogy, has teamed with Schuster for this portrait of Enlightenment thinker Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. The producers are Ingo Fliess (Oscar-­nominated The Teachers’ Lounge) and Christian Reitz. Edgar Selge stars as Leibniz, alongside Lars Eidinger, Barbara Sukowa, Aenne Schwarz, Antonia Bill and Michael Kranz. Reitz was honoured with the Berlinale Camera award last year.
Contact: Jonas Egert, if… Productions

A Letter To David (Isr-US)

Dir. Tom Shoval
Twelve years ago, Shoval’s debut feature Youth premiered in Panorama, starring twin brothers Eitan and David Cunio. David was taken hostage by Hamas on October 7, 2023, and at press time is still believed to be in captivity in Gaza. Opening the Special programme with this documentary, Shoval revisits Youth and sends a cinematic message to his friend, including testimonies — but not footage — of the day he was kidnapped. It is produced by established Israeli outfit Green Productions and Nancy Spielberg (sister of Steven) for Playmount Productions.
Contact: Alona Refua, Green Productions 

My Undesirable Friends: Part I — Last Air In Moscow (US)

Dir. Julia Loktev
The first instalment in Loktev’s documentary was initially conceived as a profile of independent journalists in Russia, but as filming progressed it morphed into a chronicle of the country’s march towards war and crackdown on internal dissent. My Undesirable Friends, structured in five chapters, premiered at New York Film Festival last October. It is the first project from Loktev (who was born in the Soviet Union but moved to the US as a child) since 2011’s The Loneliest Planet starring Gael Garcia Bernal and Hani Furstenberg, which earned her a best director nomination at the Film Independent Spirit Awards.
Contact: Charlie Olsky, Cinetic Media 

No Beast. So Fierce (Ger-Pol-Fr)

Dir. Burhan Qurbani
This retelling of Shakespeare’s Richard III is set in the aftermath of bloody gang war in Berlin. It centres on the youngest daughter of the victorious Arab clan who plots against the men of her family to become leader of the city’s underworld. Qurbani’s latest follows his Berlinale 2020 Golden Bear contender Berlin Alexanderplatz and is produced by Germany’s Sommerhaus Filmproduktion, Poland’s Madants and France’s Getaway Films with ZDF and Arte.
Contact: Flavien Eripret, Goodfellas 

The Old Woman With The Knife (S Kor)

Dir. Min Kyu-dong
Based on Gu Byeong-mo’s 2022 novel of the same name, this action noir centres on Hornclaw, an ageing female assassin who encounters young killer Bullfight, whose father she murdered 25 years ago. It stars Lee Hye-young of In Front Of Your Face and Kim Sung-cheol from Troll Factory. Director Min is known for 2012 comedy romance All About My Wife and acclaimed 2018 drama Herstory, and was last at Berlin in 2009 with comedy drama Antique. The Old Woman With The Knife is produced by Soo Film, which has handled several of Min’s previous features.
Contact: M-Line Distribution

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