The full Berlinale competition lineup will be announced shortly in the German capital.
Follow live as the titles are revealed.
This year’s Berlin Film runs February 13–23. The festival will mark Tricia Tuttle’s first edition at the helm. Tuttle replaced the festival’s former dual-directors Carlo Chatrian and Mariette Rissenbeek. Tuttle was last head of the BFI’s London Film Festival.
The festival has already announced a series of titles. German filmmaker Tom Tykwer will open the Berlin Film Festival with his latest feature The Light (Das Licht). The screening will take place on February 13. It will be a world premiere and the film will screen out of competition in the Berlinale Palast. Starring in the pic are German actors Lars Eidinger (Dying) and Nicolette Krebitz (A Cloud in Our House).
The film tells the story of the Engels family. Tim (Lars Eidinger), Milena (Nicolette Krebitz), their twins Frieda (Elke Biesendorfer) and Jon (Julius Gause) and Milena’s son Dio (Elyas Eldridge) are a family that lives more side by side than together and nothing holds them together until the housekeeper Farrah (Tala Al-Deen) enters their lives. The mysterious woman from Syria puts the Engels’ world to an unexpected test and brings to light feelings that have long been hidden. In the process, she pursues a plan all of her own that will fundamentally change the family’s life.
Tom Tykwer has opened the Berlinale twice before: in 2002 with his first international production Heaven and in 2009 with the political thriller The International.
Michel Gondry and Ira Sachs are among the headline filmmakers set to debut new feature works within the sidebar competitions at next year’s Berlin Film Festival. Gondry will screen Maya, Give Me a Title (Maya, donne-moi un titre) in Berlin’s Generation sidebar. The festival’s website describes the film as Gondry’s “stop-motion love letter to his daughter Maya brings to life a poetic and amusing journey that invites you to dream and laugh.” Sachs returns to the Berlinale’s Panorama competition with Peter Hujar’s Day, starring Ben Wishaw and Rebecca Hall. The film is described as a “1974 conversation between photographer Peter Hujar and his friend Linda Rosenkrantz.” Bong Joon Ho’s latest Mickey 17 starring Robert Pattinson will also screen at Berlin.
Live updating line-up below:
Berlinale Special Gala
After This Death by Lucio Castro | with Mia Maestro, Lee Pace, Rupert Friend, Gwendoline Christie, Philip Ettinger USA 2025 World premiere
A Complete Unknown (Like A Complete Unknown) by James Mangold | with Timothée Chalamet, Edward Norton, Elle Fanning, Monica Barbaro, Boyd Holbrook USA 2024 German premiere
Heldin (Late Shift) by Petra Volpe | with Leonie Benesch, Sonja Riesen, Urs Bihler, Margherita Schoch, Jürg Plüss Switzerland / Germany 2025 World premiere
Lurker by Alex Russell | with Théodore Pellerin, Archie Madekwe, Zach Fox, Havana Rose Liu, Sunny Suljic USA / Italy 2025 International premiere | Debut film
Das Deutsche Volk by Marcin Wierzchowski Germany 2025 World premiere | Documentary form
Kein Tier. So Wild. (No Beast. So Fierce.) by Burhan Qurbani | with Kenda Hmeidan, Verena Altenberger, Hiam Abbass, Mona Zarreh Hoshyari Khah, Mehdi Nebbou Germany / Poland / France 2025 World premiere
Leibniz – Chronik eines verschollenen Bildes (Leibniz – Chronicle of a Lost Painting) by Edgar Reitz, Anatol Schuster | with Edgar Selge, Aenne Schwarz, Michael Kranz, Lars Eidinger, Barbara Sukowa Germany 2025 World premiere
Michtav Le’David (A Letter to David) by Tom Shoval | with David Cunio, Eitan Cunio, Sharon Aloni-Cunio, Silvia Cunio, Luis Cunio Israel / USA 2025 World premiere | Documentary form
My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow by Julia Loktev | with Anna Nemzer, Elena Kostyuchenko, Ksenia Mironova, Sonya Groysman, Alesya Marokhovskaya USA 2024 International premiere | Documentary form
Perspectives Films
Baksho Bondi (Shadowbox) by Tanushree Das, Saumyananda Sahi | with Tillotama Shome, Chandan Bisht, Sayan Karmakar, Suman Saha India / France / USA / Spain 2025 World premiere
BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions by Kahlil Joseph | with Kaneza Schaal, Hope Giselle, Shaunette Renée Wilson, Funmilayo Akechukwu, Peter Hernandez USA 2025 International premiere | Debut film
Come la notte (Where the Night Stands Still) by Liryc Dela Cruz | with Jenny Llanto Caringal, Tess Magallanes, Benjamin Vasquez Barcellano Jr. Italy / Philippines 2025 World premiere
