Berlinale reveals 2025 Special, Panorama, Generation and Forum titles

The Berlin Film Festival (February 13-23) has unveiled a raft of additions to its programme, including the full Special, Panorama, Generation and Forum line-ups.

Scroll down for full list of titles

Eight works have been added to the Berlinale Special line-up, including confirmation the festival will host the German premiere of Parasite director Bong Joon Ho’s Mickey 17. The film stars Robert Pattinson in the story of an “expendable” on a mission to colonise an ice planet who keeps dying and coming back to life. It is likely to world premiere in South Korean ahead of playing at the Berlinale.

The world premiere of Justin Kurzel’s series adaptation of Richard Flanagan’s Booker Prize-winning  novel The Narrow Road To The Deep North is also selected. Jacob Elordi, Ciaran Hinds and Odessa Young star in the drama about a WWII hero haunted by his past.

Also in the Special line-up is the European premiere of Dylan Southern’s The Thing With Feathers starring Benedict Cumberbatch, fresh from its world premiere at Sundance, The UK production from Andrea Cornwell’s Lobo Films is an adaptation of Max Porter’s novel about a grieving father wrestling with the sudden death of his wife while also raising their young children.

South Korean vengeance-thriller The Old Woman With The Knife from director Min Kyu-dong will world premiere as a late-night Berlinale Special.

Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese joins the strand with Ancestral Visions Of The Future, a Lesotho-set documentary meditation on cinema and exile.

Brazilian director Anna Muylaert returns to the Berlinale with The Best Mother In The World about a hard-working mother fighting for the safety of her young children that stars Shirley Cruz and Seu Jorge.

Berlinale Special will also feature two works to mark the 80th anniversary in 2025 of the liberation of Auschwitz: Shoah and All I Had Was Nothingness (Je n’avais que le néant - “Shoah” par Lanzmann).

Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah, which premiered at the Berlinale Forum in 1986, will be shown in its entirety at the Akademie der Künste. All I Had Was Nothingness, by director Guillaume Ribot, is based on 220 hours of previously unpublished footage shot by Lanzmann.

The Berlinale Special will include a total of 21 films. Four have previously been announced: Islands by Jan-Ole Gerster; Honey Bunch by Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli; Köln 75 by Ido Fluk; and Berlinale opener The Light by Tom Tykwer.

Panorama

The 34 films in Panorama include the world premiere of Dreamers, the directorial debut of UK producer Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor, and new features by Isaac Julien, Ina Weisse, Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay, Amalia Ulman, Jeanette Nordahl, Sébastien Betbeder and Fernando Eimbcke.

As previously announced, Austrian director Andreas Prochaska’s horror Welcome Home Baby opens the sidebar.

Other genre films in the section include satirical Norwegian body horror The Ugly Stepsister. Turkish political thriller Confidente. the gay Taiwanese gangster ballad Silent Sparks and Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay’s German conspiracy thriller Hysteria.

In total, German cinema is represented in Panorama with six productions, including five by women filmmakers: Nele Mueller-Stöfen (Delicious), Sarah Miro Fischer (The Good Sister) Ina Weisse (Cicadas) Martina Priessner (The Moelln Letters) and Luzia Schmid (I Want It All).

Generation

The world premiere of Irish director Brendan Canty’s UK-Ireland co-production Christy is among the 15 features screening in the Generation section.  

Playing in the Generation 14plus subsection, the film follows two brothers raised separately in the care system, who must reconcile with their pasts when living under the same roof. Canty’s debut feature stars Danny Power, Diarmuid Noyes and Emma Willis, with Screen Stars of Tomorrow Alison Oliver and Helen Behan also in the cast. The film is produced by UK-Irish company Sleeper Films, backed by BBC Film and Screen Ireland.

Thirteen of the 15 Generation features are world premieres, including Robin Petre’s Only On Earth in the Generation Kplus subsection. The documentary depicts humans and animals struggling to cope with the hottest, driest summer on record in southern Galicia, one of the most wildfire-prone zones in Europe.

Also in the Generation section is the international premiere of Michel Gondry’s stop-motion animation Maya, Give Me A Title, the filmmaker’s love letter to his daughter Maya Gondry, which debuted in France in October last year.

Forum 

The 30-strong Forum strand includes seven feature debuts, with around half the selection documentaries.

Titles selected include 2024 (2023), from German artist and filmmaker Stefan Hayn, and The Trio Hall by Taiwan’s Su Hui-Yu, which features a roller-skating Hitler dancing with Stalin and Mao with Chiang Kai-shek.

Full list of titles announced to date

Special

• Ancestral Visions Of The Future (Fr-Lesotho-Ger-Saudi), dir. Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese (World premiere)
• Honey Bunch (Can), dirs. Madeleine Sims-Fewer, Dusty Mancinelli (World premiere)
• Islands (Ger), dir. Jan-Ole Gerster (World premiere)
• All I Had Was Nothingness (Fr), dir. Guillaume Ribot (World premiere)
• Köln 75 (Ger-Pol-Bel), dir. Ido Fluk (World premiere)
• The Light (Ger), dir. Tom Tykwer (World premiere)
• The Best Mother In The World (Bra-Arg), dir. Anna Muylaert (World premiere)
• Mickey 17 (US-S Kor), dir. Bong Joon Ho (German premiere)
• The Narrow Road To The Deep North (Australia), dir. Justin Kurzel (World premiere)
• The Old Woman With the Knife (S Kor), dir. Min Kyu-dong (World premiere)
• Shoah (Fr), dir. Claude Lanzmann 
• The Thing With Feathers (UK), dir. Dylan Southern (European premiere)

Panorama

• 1001 Frames (US), dir. Mehrnoush Alia (World premiere)
• Night Stage (Bra), dirs. Marcio Reolon, Filipe Matzembacher (World premiere)
• Under the Flags, the Sun (Para-Arg-US-Fr-Ger), dir. Juanjo Pereira (World premiere)
• Bedrock (Can), dir. Kinga Michalska (World premiere)
• Beginnings (Den-Swe-Bel), dir. Jeanette Nordahl (World premiere)
• Confidante (Turk-Fr-Lux), dirs.. Çağla Zencirci, Guillaume Giovanetti (World premiere)
• Delicious (Ger), dir. Nele Mueller-Stöfen | mit Fahri Yardim, Valerie Pachner, Carla Díaz, Naila Schuberth, Caspar Hoffmann (World premiere)
• The Ugly Stepsister (Nor-Pol-Swe-Den), dir. Emilie Blichfeldt (European premiere)
• Dreamers (UK), dir. Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor (World premiere)
• Dreams In Nightmares (US-Tai-UK), dir. Shatara Michelle Ford (Int premiere)
• The Heart Is a Muscle (S Afr-Saudi), dir. Imran Hamdulay (World premiere)
• Home Sweet Home (Den), dir. Frelle Petersen (World premiere)
• Hysteria (Ger), dir. Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay (World premiere)
• I Want It All (Ger), dir. Luzia Schmid (World premiere)
• The Incredible Snow Woman (Fr), dir. Sébastien Betbeder (European premiere)
• Khartoum (Sudan-UK-Ger-Qat), dirs. Anas Saeed, Rawia Alhag, Ibrahim Snoopy, Timeea M Ahmed, Phil Cox (World premiere)
• Lesbian Space Princess (Australia), dirs. Emma Hough Hobbs, Leela Varghese (World premiere)
• Letters from Wolf Street (Pol-Ger), dir. Arjun Talwar (World premiere)
• Looking for Langston (UK), dir. Isaac Julien 
• Magic Farm (US-Arg), dir. Amalia Ulman (Int premiere)
• The Longing (Japan), dir. Toshizo Fujiwara (World premiere)
• The Moelln Letters (Ger), dir. Martina Priessner (World premiere)
• Monk in Pieces (US), dir. Billy Shebar (World premiere)
• Olmo (US-Mex), dir. Fernando Eimbcke (World premiere)
• Once Again… (Statues Never Die) (UK), dir. Isaac Julien (World premiere)
• Other People’s Money (Ger-Den-Austria), Jan Schomburg (showrunner), Dustin Loose (dir), Kaspar Munk (dir) (World premiere)
• Paul (Can), dir. Denis Côté (World premiere)
• Peter Hujar’s Day (US-Ger), dir. Ira Sachs (Int premiere)
• Queerpanorama (US-HK-China), dir. Jun Li (World premiere)
• The Good Sister (Ger-Sp), dir. Sarah Miro Fischer (World premiere)
• Silent Sparks (Tai), dir. Ping Chu (Int premiere)
• Deaf (Sp), dir. Eva Libertad (World premiere)
• Welcome Home Baby (Austria-Ger), dir. Andreas Prochaska (World premiere)
• Yalla Parkour (Swe-Qat-Saudi-Pal), dir. Areeb Zuaiter (European premiere)
• Cicadas (Ger-Fr), dir. Ina Weisse (World premiere)

Generation Kplus

• A Story About Fire (China), dir. Li Wenyu (World premiere)
• Circusboy (Ger), dirs. Julia Lemke, Anna Koch (World premiere)
• The Nature Of Invisible Things (Bra-Chile), dir. Rafaela Camelo (World premiere)
• Maya, Give Me A Title (Fr), dir. Michel Gondry (Int premiere)
• Only On Earth (Den-Sp), dir. Robin Petré (World premiere)
• Seaside Serendipity (Japan), dir. Satoko Yokohama (World premiere)
• Space Cadet (Can), dir. Eric “Kid Koala” San (World premiere)
• Tales From the Magic Garden (Cze-Slovakia-Slovenia-Fr), dirs. David Súkup, Patrik Pass, Leon Vidmar, Jean-Claude Rozec (World premiere)

Generation 14plus

• Christy (UK-Ire), dir. Brendan Canty (World premiere)
• Our Wildest Days (Greece-Fr), dir. Vasilis Kekatos (World premiere)
• Paternal Leave (Ger-It), dir. Alissa Jung (World premiere)
• Playtime (Bra), dir. Lucia Murat (World premiere)
• Têtes Brûlées (Bel), dir. Maja Ajmia Zellama (World premiere)
• Village Rockstars 2 (India-Sing), dir. Rima Das (European premiere)
• Sandbag Dam (Cro-Lith-Slovenia), dir. Cejen Cernić Canak (World premiere)
• Sunshine (Phil), dir. Antoinette Jadaone (European premiere)
• The Tale Of Daye’s Family (Egy), dir. Karim El Shenawy (European premiere)
• Wrong Husband (Can), dir. Zacharias Kunuk (World premiere)

Forum

• 2024 (2023) (Ger), dir. Stefan Hayn (World premiere)
• After Dreaming (USA-Armenia-Mex), dir. Christine Haroutounian (World premiere)
• Houses (Isr-Ger), dir. Veronica Nicole Tetelbaum (World premiere)
• Spring Night (South Korea), dir. Kang Mi-ja (Int premiere)
• Cadet (Kazakhstan), dir. Adilkhan Yerzhanov (European premiere)
• Canone Effimero (It), dir. Gianluca De Serio, Massimiliano De Serio (World premiere)
• Time To The Target (Latvia-Czechia-Ukr), dir. Vitaly Mansky (World premiere)
• Colossal (Dominican Republic), dir. Nayibe Tavares-Abel (World premiere)
• Evidence (US), dir. Lee Anne Schmitt (World premiere)
• Fwends (Australia), dir. Sophie Somerville (World premiere)
• Holding Liat (US), dir. Brandon Kramer (World premiere)
• Janine Moves To The Country (Ger), dir. Jan Eilhardt (World premiere)
• The Kiss Of The Grasshopper (Ger-Lux-It), dir. Elmar Imanov (World premiere)
• little boy (US), dir. James Benning (World premiere)
• The Memory Of Butterflies (Peru-Por), dir. Tatiana Fuentes Sadowski (World premiere)
• Minimals In A Titanic World (Rwanda-Ger-Cameroon), dir. Philbert Aimé Mbabazi Sharangabo (World premiere)
• Palliative Care Unit (Ger), dir. Philipp Döring (World premiere)
• Punku (Peru-Sp), dir. Juan Daniel Fernández Molero (World premiere)
• Queer As Punk (Malaysia-Indonesia), dir. Yihwen Chen (World premiere)
• Eighty Plus (Serbia-Slovenia), dir. Želimir Žilnik (World premiere)
• The Sense Of Violence (South Korea), dir. Kim Mooyoung (Int premiere)
• Sirens Call (Ger-Neth), dir. Miri Ian Gossing, Lina Sieckmann (World premiere)
• The Swan Song of Fedor Ozerov (Lithuania), dir. Yuri Semashko (World premiere)
• The Trio Hall (Taiwan), dir. Su Hui-yu (World premiere)
• Underground (Japan), dir. Kaori Oda (Int premiere)
• Our Time Will Come (Australia), dir. Ivette Löcker (World premiere)
• Tiger’s Pond (India-Singapore), dir. Natesh Hegde (World premiere)
• If You Are Afraid You Put Your Heart into Your Mouth And Smile (Austria), dir. Marie Luise Lehner (World premiere)
• What’s Next? (Hong Kong-China), dir. Cao Yiwen (World premiere)
• When Lightning Flashes Over the Sea (Ger-Ukr), dir. Eva Neymann (World premiere)