The Berlin Film Festival (February 13-23) has unveiled a raft of additions to its programme, including the full Special, Panorama, Generation and
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 adolescent 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 adolescent 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 All I Had Was Nothingness, by director Guillaume Ribot, is based on 220 hours of previously unpublished footage shot by Lanzmann.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 fresh 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 newly announced titles
Special
- Ancestral Visions Of The Future (Fr-Lesotho-Ger-Saudi), dir. Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese
- Honey Bunch (Can), dirs. Madeleine Sims-Fewer, Dusty Mancinelli
- Islands (Ger), dir. Jan-Ole Gerster
- All I Had Was Nothingness (Fr), dir. Guillaume Ribot
- Köln 75 (Ger-Pol-Bel), dir. Ido Fluk
- The Light (Ger), dir. Tom Tykwer
- The Best Mother In The World (Bra-Arg), dir. Anna Muylaert
- Mickey 17 (US-S Kor-UK), dir. Bong Joon Ho
- The Narrow Road To The Deep North (Australia), dir. Justin Kurzel
- The Old Woman With the Knife (S Kor), dir. Min Kyu-dong
- Shoah (Fr), dir. Claude Lanzmann
- The Thing With Feathers (UK), dir. Dylan Southern
Panorama
- 1001 Frames (US), dir. Mehrnoush Alia
- Night Stage (Bra), dirs. Marcio Reolon, Filipe Matzembacher
- Under the Flags, the Sun (Para-Arg-US-Fr-Ger), dir. Juanjo Pereira
- Bedrock (Can), dir. Kinga Michalska
- Beginnings (Den-Swe-Bel), dir. Jeanette Nordahl
- Confidante (Turk-Fr-Lux), dirs.. Çağla Zencirci, Guillaume Giovanetti
- Delicious (Ger), dir. Nele Mueller-Stöfen | mit Fahri Yardim, Valerie Pachner, Carla Díaz, Naila Schuberth, Caspar Hoffmann
- The Ugly Stepsister (Nor-Pol-Swe-Den), dir. Emilie Blichfeldt
- Dreamers (UK), dir. Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor
- Dreams In Nightmares (US-Tai-UK), dir. Shatara Michelle Ford
- The Heart Is a Muscle (S Afr-Saudi), dir. Imran Hamdulay
- Home Sweet Home (Den), dir. Frelle Petersen
- Hysteria (Ger), dir. Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay
- I Want It All (Ger), dir. Luzia Schmid
- The Incredible Snow Woman (Fr), dir. Sébastien Betbeder
- Khartoum (Sudan-UK-Ger-Qat), dirs. Anas Saeed, Rawia Alhag, Ibrahim Snoopy, Timeea M Ahmed, Phil Cox
- Lesbian Space Princess (Australia), dirs. Emma Hough Hobbs, Leela Varghese
- Letters from Wolf Street (Pol-Ger), dir. Arjun Talwar
- Looking for Langston (UK), dir. Isaac Julien
- Magic Farm (US-Arg), dir. Amalia Ulman
- The Longing (Japan), dir. Toshizo Fujiwara
- The Moelln Letters (Ger), dir. Martina Priessner
- Monk in Pieces (US), dir. Billy Shebar
- Olmo (US-Mex), dir. Fernando Eimbcke
- Once Again… (Statues Never Die) (UK), dir. Isaac Julien
- Other People’s Money (Ger-Den-Austria), Jan Schomburg (showrunner), Dustin Loose (dir), Kaspar Munk (dir)
- Peter Hujar’s Day (US-Ger), dir. Ira Sachs
- Queerpanorama (US-HK-China), dir. Jun Li
- The Good Sister (Ger-Sp), dir. Sarah Miro Fischer
- Silent Sparks (Tai), dir. Ping Chu
- Deaf (Sp), dir. Eva Libertad
- Welcome Home Baby (Austria-Ger), dir. Andreas Prochaska
- Yalla Parkour (Swe-Qat-Saudi-Pal), dir. Areeb Zuaiter
- Cicadas (Ger-Fr), dir. Ina Weisse
Generation Kplus
- A Story About Fire (China), dir. Li Wenyu
- Circusboy (Ger), dirs. Julia Lemke, Anna Koch
- The Nature Of Invisible Things (Bra-Chile), dir. Rafaela Camelo
- Maya, Give Me A Title (Fr), dir. Michel Gondry
- Only On Earth (Den-Sp), dir. Robin Petré
- Seaside Serendipity (Japan), dir. Satoko Yokohama
- Space Cadet (Can), dir. Eric “Kid Koala” San
- Tales From the Magic Garden (Cze-Slovakia-Slovenia-Fr), dirs. David Súkup, Patrik Pass, Leon Vidmar, Jean-Claude Rozec
Generation 14plus
- Christy (UK-Ire), dir. Brendan Canty
- Our Wildest Days (Greece-Fr), dir. Vasilis Kekatos
- Paternal Leave (Ger-It), dir. Alissa Jung
- Playtime (Bra), dir. Lucia Murat
- Têtes Brûlées (Bel), dir. Maja Ajmia Zellama
- Village Rockstars 2 (India-Sing), dir. Rima Das
- Sandbag Dam (Cro-Lith-Slovenia), dir. Cejen Cernić Canak
- Sunshine (Phil), dir. Antoinette Jadaone
- The Tale Of Daye’s Family (Egy), dir. Karim El Shenawy
- Wrong Husband (Can), dir. Zacharias Kunuk
Forum
- 2024 (2023) (Ger), dir. Stefan Hayn
- After Dreaming (USA-Armenia-Mex), dir. Christine Haroutounian
- Houses (Isr-Ger), dir. Veronica Nicole Tetelbaum
- Spring Night (South Korea), dir. Kang Mi-ja
- Cadet (Kazakhstan), dir. Adilkhan Yerzhanov
- Canone Effimero (It), dir. Gianluca De Serio, Massimiliano De Serio
- Time To The Target (Latvia-Czechia-Ukr), dir. Vitaly Mansky
- Colossal (Dominican Republic), dir. Nayibe Tavares-Abel
- Evidence (US), dir. Lee Anne Schmitt
- Fwends (Australia), dir. Sophie Somerville
- Holding Liat (US), dir. Brandon Kramer
- Janine Moves To The Country (Ger), dir. Jan Eilhardt
- The Kiss Of The Grasshopper (Ger-Lux-It), dir. Elmar Imanov
- little boy (US), dir. James Benning
- The Memory Of Butterflies (Peru-Por), dir. Tatiana Fuentes Sadowski
- Minimals In A Titanic World (Rwanda-Ger-Cameroon), dir. Philbert Aimé Mbabazi Sharangabo
- Palliative Care Unit (Ger), dir. Philipp Döring
- Punku (Peru-Sp), dir. Juan Daniel Fernández Molero
- Queer As Punk (Malaysia-Indonesia), dir. Yihwen Chen
- Eighty Plus (Serbia-Slovenia), dir. Želimir Žilnik
- The Sense Of Violence (South Korea), dir. Kim Mooyoung
- Sirens Call (Ger-Neth), dir. Miri Ian Gossing, Lina Sieckmann
- The Swan Song of Fedor Ozerov (Lithuania), dir. Yuri Semashko
- The Trio Hall (Taiwan), dir. Su Hui-yu
- Underground (Japan), dir. Kaori Oda
- Our Time Will Come (Australia), dir. Ivette Löcker
- Tiger’s Pond (India-Singapore), dir. Natesh Hegde
- If You Are Afraid You Put Your Heart into Your Mouth And Smile (Austria), dir. Marie Luise Lehner
- What’s Next? (Hong Kong-China), dir. Cao Yiwen
- When Lightning Flashes Over the Sea (Ger-Ukr), dir. Eva Neymann
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