The Berlinale unveils all the films in competition for its 2025 edition

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The 75th International Film Festival Berlin revealed the 19 competition titles and the films selected for its new Perspectives section, which highlights early fiction films.

This is already one of the most promising programs we’ve seen in years.

The American director Todd Haynes (May December, Loin du Paradis) will chair this year’s jury.

This year’s Berlinale, led for the first time by the new programmer Tricia Tuttlewill present the new films of Richard Linklater (who returns to the festival after Boyhood in 2014), winner of the Golden Bear The work of Judas and of Lucile Hadžihalilović.

Hadžihalilović presents The Ice Towera French fantasy drama starring Marion Cotillard. It follows a star of a film production of Frozen who bewitches a young runaway, and is a sequel to his haunting film Evolution (one of our best films of the 21st century) and Earwig of 2021.

Blue Moonby American filmmaker Richard Linklater, traces the last days of Lorenz Hart, one of the members of the songwriting team Rodgers & Hart. The film stars Ethan Hawke, Andrew Scott and Margaret Qualley, who stars in The Substance.

As for the Romanian Radu Jude, who won the Berlin Golden Bear in 2021 with Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Pornhe returns with Continental ’25 – a dark comedy that tackles issues such as the housing crisis and the rise of nationalism.

Moreover, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You of Mary Bronstein with Rose Byrne will compete, as well as Dreams (Sex Love) of Day Johan Haugerudwhich will close the Norwegian director’s trilogy after the first two chapters Sex and Love presented at the Berlinale and the Venice Film Festival.

The only first feature film in competition is Hot Milk from the British Rebecca Lenkiewicz – the adaptation of Deborah Levy’s novel which explores the complexities of motherhood.

There is only one documentary in competition this year: Timestamp by Ukrainian director Kateryna Gornostai, who won the Berlin Crystal Bear in 2021 with Stop-Zemlia. His latest film is a chronicle of wartime educators.

French cinema widely represented

The year promises to be excellent for French productions and co-productions, with five titles in competition for the Golden Bear this year: Ari of Léonor Serraille ; The Safe House of Lionel Baier and the last film of the late French actor Michel Blanc ; Reflection In A Dead Diamond d’Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzaniwhich promises “sex and ultraviolence” according to today’s press conference; the aforementioned Timestamp of Kateryna Gornostay ; et The Ice Tower of Lucile Hadžihalilović.

And of course, there would be no Berlinale without the return of the director Hong Sang-soo. The South Korean director returns with his eighth film in the running for the Golden Bear: What Does That Nature Say To You. The director has already won four Silver Bears in the last five years with The Woman Who Ran, Introduction, The Novelist’s Film et A Traveler’s Needs.

It should be noted that eight of the 19 films in competition are directed or co-directed by women, compared to six last year. This shows once again that the Berlinale far exceeds the Cannes and Venice festivals in terms of representation of genders in the competition components.

As previously announced, the festival will open with the out-of-competition film of Tom Tykwer, The Lightwhich will be the subject of a special gala. The same section will also host the sci-fi black comedy Mickey 17 of Bong Joon Hohis first film since Parasite, which won him an Oscar.

Stay tuned to Euronews Culture for our full preview of the Berlinale 2025.

Here is the program for the Berlinale 2025:

Competition

• Ari (Fr-Bel) – Léonor Serraille

• Blue Moon (US-Ire) – Richard Linklater

• The Safe House (Suisse-Luxe-Fr) – Lionel Baier

• Dreams (Mex) – Michel Franco

• Dreams (Sex Love) (Nor) – Dag Johan Haugerud

• What does this nature tell you (S Kor) – Hong Sangsoo

• Hot Milk (UK) – Rebecca Lenkiewicz

• If I had legs, I’d kick you (US) – Mary Bronstein

• Kontinental ’25 (Rom) – Radu Jude

• The Message (Arg-Sp) – Iván Fund

• Mother’s Baby (Austria-Switz-Ger) – Johanna Moder

• The Blue Trail (Bra-Mex-Chile-Neth) – Gabriel Mascaro

• Reflection In A Dead Diamond (Bel-Lux-It-Fr) – Hélène Cattet, Bruno Forzani

• Living The Land (Chine) – Huo Meng

• Timestamp (Ukr-Lux-Neth-Fr) – Kateryna Gornostai

• La tour de glace (Fr-Ger) – Lucile Hadžihalilović

• What Marielle (Ger) knows – Frédéric Hambalek

• Girls On Wire (Chine) – Vivian Qu

• Yunan (Ger-Can-It-Palestine-Qat-Jor-Saudi) – Ameer Fakher Eldin

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Perspectives

• The Settlement (One-Fr-Ger-Saudi-Qat) – Mohamed Rashad

• Shadowbox (India-France-USA-Espagne) – Tanushree Das, Saumyananda Sahi

• BLKNWS : Terms & Conditions (US) – Kahlil Joseph

• Where the Night Stands Still (It-Phil) – Liryc Dela Cruz

• The Devil Smokes (and Saves the Burnt Matches in the Same Box) (Mex) – Ernesto Martinez Bucio

• Deux fois João Liberada (Port) – Paula Tomás Marques

• Anguille (Tai) – Chu Chun-Teng

• How to Be Normal and the Oddness of the Other World (Autriche) – Florian Pochlatko

• Little Trouble Girls (Slovenia-It-Cro-Ser) – Urška Đukić

• Mad Bills to Pay (ou Destiny, tell him I’m not bad) (US) – Joel Alfonso Vargas

• Growing Down (Hun) – Bálint Dániel Sós

• Punching The World (Ger) – Constanze Klaue

• We believe you (Bel) – Arnaud Dufeys, Charlotte Devillers

• That summer in Paris (Fra) – Valentine Cadic

Berlinale Special Gala

• The Light (Ger) – Tom Tykwer (film d’ouverture)

• Mickey 17 (US-S Kor-UK) – Bong Joon Ho

• The Thing With Feathers (UK) – Dylan Southern

• After this death (US) – Lucio Castro

• A Complete Stranger (US) – James Mangold

• Late Shift (Suisse) – Petra Volpe

• Islands (Allemagne) – Jan-Ole Gerster

• Cologne 75 (Ger-Pol-Bel) – Ido Fluk

• Lurker (US-It) – Alex Russell

Berlinale Special Series Gala

• The Narrow Road to the Deep North (Australie) – Justin Kurzel

Berlinale Special

• Ancestral Visions of the Future (Fr-Lesotho-Ger-Saudi) – Recognize Jeremiah Mosese

• The German People (Allemagne) – Marcin Wierzchowski

• Honey Bunch (Can) – Madeleine Sims-Fewer, Dusty Mancinelli

• All I Had Was Nothingness (Fr) – Guillaume Ribot

• No beast. So fierce. (Ger-Pol-Fr) – Burhan Qurbani

• Leibniz – Chronicle of a Lost Painting (Ger) – Edgar Reitz, Anatol Schuster

• The best mother in the world (Bra-Arg) – Anna Muylaert

• A letter to David (Isr-US) – Tom Shoval

• Mes amis indésirables : Part I – Last Air in Moscow (US) – Julia Loktev

• The Old Woman with the Knife (S Kor) – Min Kyu-dong

• Shoah (Fr) – Claude Lanzmann

Berlinale Special – Honorary Golden Bear

• Friendship’s Death (UK) – Peter Wollen

The 75th edition of the Berlin International Film Festivalwill take place from February 13 to 23.