The 75th Berlin International Film Festival (February 13-23) has unveiled the 19 titles set to play in its official Competition and films selected for its new competitive Perspectives strand.
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New films from Richard Linklater, Hong Sangsoo, Michel Franco and Radu Jude are among those selected for the main competition, with stars including Margaret Qualley, Ethan Hawke, Jessica Chastain, Claes Bang and Marion Cotillard.
It marks the first Competition lineup from new festival director Tricia Tuttle, who announced the titles alongside co-directors of film programming Jacqueline Lyanga and Michael Stütz in Berlin today (January 21).
All Competition titles are world premieres except Dag Johan Haugerud’s Dreams (Sex Love), previously released in Norway, and Mary Bronstein’s If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, an A24 comedy-drama starring Rose Byrne that is set to debut at Sundance this week.
Eight of the films are directed or co-directed by women – up from six last year – and nine filmmakers have screened their films in the Berlinale previously.
Returning directors include Linklater with Blue Moon, which follows the last days of Lorenz Hart, one-half of the songwriting team Rodgers & Hart. It stars regular collaborator Ethan Hawke alongside The Substance star Margaret Qualley, Bobby Cannavale and Andrew Scott.
The US filmmaker was last at the Berlinale with Boyhood in 2014, winning three prizes including the Silver Bear for best director. He also played Before Sunrise and Before Sunset in Competition and received an honourary Berlinale Camera in 2013.
Franco, the Mexican filmmaker who has previously won prizes at Cannes and Venice, brings his latest feature to Berlin. Dreams is a love story between a socialite and a ballet dancer and reunites Franco with Oscar-winning actress Chastain, who starred in his 2023 Venice entry Memory. The film also stars Isaac Hernández and Rupert Friend.
Romania’s Jude, who won Berlin’s Golden Bear in 2021 with Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn, returns with Kontinental ’25. The low-budget feature, previously described by the director as a “moral dilemma post festum”, stars Eszter Tompa, Gabriel Spahiu and Adonis Tanta. The dark comedy tackles issues such as the housing crisis and the rise of nationalism.
Berlinale regular and South Korean auteur Hong returns with his eighth film to compete for the Golden Bear. What Does That Nature Say To You centres on a young poet who spends the day with the family of his girlfriend. Hong has won four Silver Bear’s in the past five years with The Woman Who Ran, Introduction, The Novelist’s Film and A Traveler’s Needs.
The sole debut feature in the Competition lineup is Hot Milk from the UK’s Rebecca Lenkiewicz. The adaptation of Deborah Levy’s novel of the same name explores the complexities of a mother-daughter relationship, against the backdrop of Almería in Spain. Fiona Shaw stars alongside Emma Mackey, Vicky Krieps and Vincent Perez. Lenkiewicz previously co-wrote award-winning features Ida, Disobedience, Colette and She Said among others.
Also set to compete is The Ice Tower, directed by Lucile Hadzihalilovic and starring Marion Cotillard. The French fantasy drama is set in the 1970s follows the enigmatic star of a film production of The Snow Queen – played by Oscar-winner Cotillard – who bewitches a young runaway. It marks Hadzihalilovic’s follow-up to her striking 2021 feature Earwig and reunites the filmmaker with Cotillard for the first time since 2004’s Innocence.
Also from France is Leonor Serraille’s Ari, centred on a young man at a crossroads in life, staring Andranic Manet, Pascal Reneric and Theo Delezenne. Serraille’s Mother And Son played in Competition at Cannes in 2022 and the filmmaker won the Camera D’Or at Cannes in 2017 with her debut Juene Femme.
Two features in Competition hail from China. Living The Land marks the second feature of Huo Meng, who won the best director award at Pingyao in 2018 with Crossing The Border- Zhaoguan, while Girls On Wire comes from Vivian Qu, the director of Venice 2017 competitor Angels Wear White and producer of 2014 Golden Bear winner Black Hole, Thin Ice. Qu’s latest is a drama is about two cousins who struggle to break free from family and society amid China’s rapid changes.
The one documentary in the Competition selection is Timestamp from Ukrainian director Kateryna Gornostai, who won Berlin’s Crystal Bear in 2021 with Stop-Zemlia. Her latest chronicles the everyday lives of teachers and schoolchildren in Ukraine under martial law during the ongoing war.
As previously announced, the festival will open with Tom Tykwer’s Special Gala out of competition selection The Light. Bong Joon Ho’s sci-fi dark comedy Mickey 17 has also been selected.
US director Todd Haynes will preside over the jury for the festival, which will be the first headed by former BFI London Film Festival director Tuttle, following the departures of Carlo Chatrian and Mariette Rissenbeek last year.
Berlinale 2025 line-up
Latest title top / * denotes world premiere
Competition
- Ari (Fr-Bel), dir. Léonor Serraille *
- Blue Moon (US-Ire), dir. Richard Linklater *
- The Safe House (Switz-Luxe-Fr), dir. Lionel Baier *
- Dreams (Mex), dir. Michel Franco *
- Dreams (Sex Love) (Nor), dir. Dag Johan Haugerud
- What Does that Nature Say to You (S Kor), dir. Hong Sangsoo *
- Hot Milk (UK), dir. Rebecca Lenkiewicz *
- If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (US), dir. Mary Bronstein
- Kontinental ’25 (Rom), dir. Radu Jude *
- The Message (Arg-Sp), dir. Iván Fund *
- Mother’s Baby (Austria-Switz-Ger), dir. Johanna Moder *
- The Blue Trail (Bra-Mex-Chile-Neth), dir. Gabriel Mascaro *
- Reflection In A Dead Diamond (Bel-Lux-It-Fr), dir. Hélène Cattet, Bruno Forzani *
- Living The Land (China), dir. Huo Meng *
- Timestamp (Ukr-Lux-Neth-Fr), dir. Kateryna Gornostai *
- The Ice Tower (Fr-Ger), dir. Lucile Hadžihalilović *
- What Marielle Knows (Ger), dir. Frédéric Hambalek *
- Girls On Wire (China), dir. Vivian Qu *
- Yunan (Ger-Can-It-Palestine-Qat-Jor-Saudi), dir. Ameer Fakher Eldin *
Perspectives
- The Settlement (Egy-Fr-Ger-Saudi-Qat), dir. Mohamed Rashad *
- Shadowbox (India-France-USA-Spain), dir. Tanushree Das, Saumyananda Sahi *
- BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions (US), dir. Kahlil Joseph *
- Where the Night Stands Still (It-Phil), dir. Liryc Dela Cruz *
- The Devil Smokes (and Saves the Burnt Matches in the Same Box) (Mex), dir. Ernesto Martinez Bucio *
- Two Times João Liberada (Port), dir. Paula Tomás Marques *
- Eel (Tai), dir. Chu Chun-Teng *
- How to Be Normal and the Oddness of the Other World (Austria), dir. Florian Pochlatko *
- Little Trouble Girls (Slovenia-It-Cro-Ser), dir. Urška Djukić *
- Mad Bills to Pay (or Destiny, dile que no soy malo) (US), dir. Joel Alfonso Vargas
- Growing Down (Hun), dir, Bálint Dániel Sós *
- Punching The World (Ger), dir. Constanze Klaue *
- We believe You (Bel), dir. Arnaud Dufeys, Charlotte Devillers *
- That Summer In Paris (Fra), dir. Valentine Cadic *
Berlinale Special Gala
- After This Death (US), dir. Lucio Castro *
- A Complete Unknown (US), dir. James Mangold
- Late Shift (Switz-Ger), dir. Petra Volpe *
- Islands (Ger), dir. Jan-Ole Gerster *
- Köln 75 (Ger-Pol-Bel), dir. Ido Fluk *
- The Light (Ger), dir. Tom Tykwer *
- Lurker (US-It), dir. Alex Russell
- Mickey 17 (US-S Kor-UK), dir. Bong Joon Ho
- The Thing With Feathers (UK), dir. Dylan Southern
Berlinale Special Series Gala
- The Narrow Road to the Deep North (Australia), dir. Justin Kurzel *
Berlinale Special
- Ancestral Visions of the Future (Fr-Lesotho-Ger-Saudi), dir. Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese *
- Das Deutsche Volk (Ger), dir. Marcin Wierzchowski *
- Honey Bunch (Can), dir. Madeleine Sims-Fewer, Dusty Mancinelli *
- All I Had Was Nothingness (Fr), dir. Guillaume Ribot *
- No Beast. So Fierce. (Ger-Pol-Fr), dir. Burhan Qurbani *
- Leibniz – Chronicle of a Lost Painting (Ger), dir. Edgar Reitz, Anatol Schuster *
- The Best Mother in the World (Bra-Arg), dir. Anna Muylaert *
- A Letter To David (Isr-US), dir. Tom Shoval *
- My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow (US), dir. Julia Loktev
- The Old Woman With The Knife (S Kor), dir. Min Kyu-dong *
- Shoah (Fr), dir. Claude Lanzmann
Berlinale Special – Honorary Golden Bear
- Friendship’s Death (UK), dir. Peter Wollen
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