The 75th Berlin International Film Festival kicks off next week, and this year’s line-up looks very promising… Here are our most anticipated titles of this anniversary edition.
The 2025 Berlinale is just around the corner (13-23 February), and for Tricia Tuttle’s first year as festival boss the former director of the BFI London Film Festival and her programming team have spoiled us for choice.
And rightly so – it’s the festival’s 75th anniversary after all.
That said, they’ve made whittling our most anticipated films to a mere 10 titles a tough ask. Of course, we’ll be there on the ground to watch all the Competition films vying for the coveted Golden Bear, but there are other sidebar sections to think of and it’s going to be a challenge fitting them all in.
That said, here goes.
These are movies that have already piqued our interest.
Mickey 17
(Berlinale Special Gala)
Delayed and rescheduled countless times, Bong Joon-ho’s long-awaited follow-up to his Oscar-winning Parasite is finally coming our way… And the Berlinale hit the jackpot thanks to the delays by securing the World Premiere. Set in the dystopian future, Mickey 17 sees Robert Pattinson star as a space traveller who agrees to be endlessly cloned each time he snuffs it. However, when he comes face-to-face with another version of himself, shit truly hits the fan for the two “disposables”. Based on Edward Ashton’s 2022 novel, the delicious premise recalls Duncan Jones’ Moon with a black comedy twist. There’s every reason to get excited, especially since the South Korean filmmaker has proven he can ace spectacle (The Host), dystopia (Snowpiercer) and excels when it comes to merging humour and social commentary (Okja, Parasite).
Blue Moon
(Competition)
Blue Moon is Richard Linklater’s latest feature and his first return to the Berlinale since the premiere of his epic coming-of-age drama Boyhood in 2014 – a film which won him the Silver Bear for Best Director and went on to nab six Oscar nominations. Set during the opening night of the musical Oklahoma!, the first project of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s creative partnership, it details a fateful interaction between American lyricist Lorenz Hart and Rogers. Starring Ethan Hawke and Margaret Qualley, Blue Moon is already one of the most anticipated titles in Competition this year.
Kein Tier. So Wild. (No Beast. So Fierce.)
(Berlinale Special)
A retelling of Shakespeare’s “The Tragedy of Richard the Third” doesn’t necessarily sound like the most enticing prospect considering how many times the Bard’s works have been adapted. However, when the man behind the camera is Burhan Qurbani, who wowed in 2020 at the Berlinale with his stunning adaptation of Alfred Döblin’s “Berlin Alexanderplatz”, there’s every chance we’re in for a treat. The director has reportedly relocated the action to present-day Berlin, where a bloody gang war sees the youngest daughter of the Yorks rise to become the leader of the underworld. Sign us up.
Honey Bunch
(Berlinale Special)
After an accident, Diana suffers from crippling pain and memory loss. Her husband Homer takes her to a remote trauma clinic where she is promised that she will make a full recovery with the help of an innovative therapy. However, the more treatments she undergoes, the less like herself she begins to feel and sinister truths about her marriage come to light. From the press notes alone, this Canadian thriller from Dusty Mancinelli and the wonderful writer-director Madeleine Sims-Fewer (whose 2020 horror drama Violation is utterly essential and quite scarring) sounds like one of the most promising titles this year. Starring Grace Glowicki, Kate Dickie and Jason Isaacs, this movie can’t screen soon enough.
Reflet dans un diamant mort (Reflection In A Dead Diamond)
(Competition)
Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani’s Reflection In A Dead Diamond seems like it’s going to be a standout in Competition this year. Directed by the French husband-and-wife filmmakers behind 2013’s experimental giallo The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears and 2017’s fantastic neo-western crime epic Let the Corpses Tan, this action thriller centres on a 70-year-old retired spy who is forced to confront his demons when his neighbour mysteriously disappears. Press notes indicate that audiences have 1960s Eurospy genre references and plenty of gore to look forward to – as well as latex-clad figures with huge blades… All in a taut 87 minutes. Can’t wait.
ADVERTISEMENTLa Tour de Glace (The Ice Tower)
(Competition)
We’re huge fans of Lucile Hadžihalilović here at Euronews Culture – having named her 2016 film Evolution one of the Greatest European Films of the 21st Century. So you can imagine our giddiness levels when her new film was announced in Competition. Set in the 70s and starring Marion Cotillard as an actress who is shooting a film adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale “The Snow Queen”, the film seems to be about a mutual fascination between the actress and a young runaway teenager who takes refuge in the studio where the film is being shot. Hadžihalilović tackling obsession, magic and warped mind games – with Geoff Cox back on screenplay duties and Irreversible’s Gaspar Noé also starring? There’s every reason to get excited.
The Thing With Feathers
(Berlinale Special Gala)
Have you read Max Porter’s “Grief Is The Thing With Feathers”? Oh, you should. You really should. It’s a devastating account of loss, mourning and acceptance, which was brilliantly adapted on stage by Edna Walsh with Cillian Murphy. Sadly, Murphy isn’t starring in this big screen treatment about a father of two who is left devastated by the unexpected death of his wife and who loses his hold on reality. Instead, Benedict Cumberbatch has the daunting task of helming this eagerly anticipated adaptation, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. By all accounts, he’s nailed it. We can’t wait to see how he fares in Dylan Southern’s take on Porter’s incredible debut novel – which is also his debut feature-length fiction film, after his music docs Meet Me In The Bathroom and Shut Up And Play the Hits. Talk about diving in at the deep end!
ADVERTISEMENTDen stygge stesøsteren (The Ugly Stepsister)
(Panorama)
Another Sundance title which heads to Berlin. This time it’s the debut feature from Emilie Blichfeldt, who reimagines the fairy tale Cinderella through the eyes of Elvira, who will go to any lengths to compete with her insanely beautiful stepsister Agnes. There have been several reversal twists on classic stories over the years, and we’re hoping that this one will offer a fresh take on the story – with a sinister spin, of course. Shudder have already secured the rights.
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
(Competition)
“Linda is a working mother at her wits’ end. When her ceiling literally comes crashing down on her, she is forced to face yet another crisis, staying in a motel with her young daughter while she navigates how to fix the hole in her ceiling, her child’s illness, a missing patient and a parade of people who seem incapable of helping her.” Motherhood sounds like a breeze, doesn’t it? Director Mary Bronstein (Yeast) writes and directs what sounds like a nerve-shredding mental unraveling. We can’t wait to see what Rose Byrne does as Linda. If she aces it, this sounds like the kind of performance that could very well go home with a Bear. We’re also curious about A$AP Rocky and Conan O’Brien in the cast list…
ADVERTISEMENTLurker
(Berlinale Special Gala)
A Mubi stamp of approval is usually the mark that you’re signing up for quality cinema. And this year, they’ve already nabbed the distribution rights to Lurker, a tense-sounding indie about a hipster and the rising pop star he’s exploiting for fame. Written and directed by Alex Russell, a veteran of TV writers’ rooms on everything from Beef to The Bear, this feature debut sounds mighty intriguing. It also features some rising stars – Théodore Pellerin (Never Rarely Sometimes Always), Archie Madekwe (Midsommar, Saltburn), Havana Rose Liu (Bottoms) – and we’re a little concerned about how shredded our nerves are going to be after watching this one.
The Berlin Film Festival runs from 13-23 February 2025. Stay tuned to Euronews Culture for news, film reviews, interviews, and all this year’s Berlinale has to offer.
