Berlin Festival Introduces First Titles for Panorama, Berlinale Special, and Generation Strands
The Berlin International Film Festival has revealed the first titles for its milestone 75th edition, scheduled to take place from February 13-23, 2025. This year's program, under the leadership of new artistic director Tricia Tuttle, includes selections across Panorama, Berlinale Special, and Generation sections, highlighting world premieres, international debuts, and retrospectives.
The Panorama section will feature 12 initial titles, eight of which are world premieres. Canadian filmmaker Denis Côté returns with his documentary "Paul," exploring themes of social anxiety through the story of a man who cleans homes for women. U.S. director Ira Sachs will present "Peter Hujar’s Day," an international premiere starring Ben Whishaw and Rebecca Hall that chronicles the life of the iconic New York photographer in 1974. Other noteworthy titles include Shatara Michelle Ford’s "Dreams In Nightmares," following three queer women on a road trip, and the Brazilian drama "Night Stage" by Marcio Reolon and Filipe Matzembacher.
Additional films include Eva Libertad’s Spanish relationship drama "Deaf" and Austrian filmmaker Andreas Prochaska’s "Welcome Home Baby." The animation "Lesbian Space Princess" by Australian directors Emma Hough Hobbs and Leela Varghese will also premiere, alongside Frelle Petersen’s Danish drama "Home Sweet Home."
The Berlinale Special section includes the neo-noir thriller "Islands," directed by Germany's Jan-Ole Gerster, and "Honey Bunch," a Canadian feature by Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli. The true-story-based "Köln 75" by Ido Fluk recreates the events surrounding a pivotal concert organized by a teenage girl in 1975 Cologne.
In the Generation strand, French auteur Michel Gondry’s "Maya, Give Me A Title" makes its debut after its October release in France. Other highlights include India’s "Village Rockstars 2" by Rima Das and the Egyptian family drama "The Tale Of Daye’s Family" by Karim El Shenawy.
The festival’s Retrospective section will revisit "wild, weird, and bloody" German genre films of the 1970s. Iconic titles such as Franz Josef Gottlieb’s "Lady Dracula" and Roland Klick’s spaghetti western "Deadlock" will be among 15 restored classics.
This year’s event will open with Tom Tykwer’s "The Light," setting the tone for a diverse and dynamic edition. Further titles for the competition and other sections are expected in the coming weeks.
Berlinale 2025: First Titles
Berlinale Special
- "Honey Bunch" / Directors: Madeleine Sims-Fewer, Dusty Mancinelli / Canada
- "Islands" / Director: Jan-Ole Gerster / Germany
- "Köln 75" / Director: Ido Fluk / Germany-Poland-Belgium
Panorama
- "Night Stage" / Directors: Marcio Reolon, Filipe Matzembacher / Brazil
- "The Ugly Stepsister" / Director: Emilie Blichfeldt / Norway-Poland-Sweden-Denmark
- "Dreams In Nightmares" / Director: Shatara Michelle Ford / USA-Taiwan-UK
- "Home Sweet Home" / Director: Frelle Petersen / Denmark
- "Lesbian Space Princess" / Directors: Emma Hough Hobbs, Leela Varghese / Australia
- "Peter Hujar’s Day" / Director: Ira Sachs / USA-Germany
- "Deaf" / Director: Eva Libertad / Spain
- "Welcome Home Baby" / Director: Andreas Prochaska / Austria-Germany
Panorama Dokumente
- "Under The Flags, The Sun" / Director: Juanjo Pereira / Paraguay-Argentina-USA-France-Germany
- "Khartoum" / Directors: Anas Saeed, Rawia Alhag, Ibrahim Snoopy, Timeea M. Ahmed, Phil Cox / Sudan-UK-Germany-Qatar
- "The Moelln Letters" / Director: Martina Priessner / Germany
- "Paul" / Director: Denis Côté / Canada
Generation Kplus
- "The Nature Of Invisible Things" / Director: Rafaela Camelo / Brazil-Chile
- "Maya, Give Me A Title" / Director: Michel Gondry / France
- "Space Cadet" / Director: Eric "Kid Koala" San / Canada
Generation 14plus
- "Our Wildest Days" / Director: Vasilis Kekatos / Greece-France
- "Têtes Brûlées" / Director: Maja Ajmia Zellama / Belgium
- "Village Rockstars 2" / Director: Rima Das / India-Singapore
- "Sandbag Dam" / Director: Čejen Černić Čanak / Croatia-Lithuania-Slovenia
- "The Tale Of Daye’s Family" / Director: Karim El Shenawy / Egypt
Retrospective
- "Bloody Friday" / Director: Rolf Olsen / 1972
- "Deadlock" / Director: Roland Klick / 1970
- "One Or The Other Of Us" / Director: Wolfgang Petersen / 1974
- "Spare Parts" / Director: Rainer Erler / 1979
- "Strange City" / Director: Rudolf Thome / 1972
- "Hat Off When You Kiss" / Director: Rolf Losansky / 1971
- "Jonathan" / Director: Hans W. Geißendörfer / 1970
- "Lady Dracula" / Director: Franz Josef Gottlieb / 1978
- "The Girls From Atlantis" / Director: Eckhart Schmidt / 1970
- "Carnations In Aspic" / Director: Günter Reisch / 1976
- "Don’t Cheat, Darling!" / Director: Joachim Hasler / 1973
- "Orpheus In The Underworld" / Director: Horst Bonnet / 1973
- "Output" / Director: Michael Fengler / 1974
- "Rocker" / Director: Klaus Lemke / 1972
- "Tenderness Of The Wolves" / Director: Ulli Lommel / 1973