The 2025 Berlin Film Festival is about to begin! Here’s Loud and Clear Reviews’ list of 20 movies to watch at the Berlinale, from the most anticipated films to lesser known releases!
The 2025 Berlin Film Festival is just around the corner, and we made a list of 20 movies to watch this year! It’s going to be an exciting edition, with the festival celebrating 75 years of the Berlinale and Tricia Tuttle‘s first year as festival director.
The programme was announced last week, with 19 films in competition, 22 movies and shows in Berlinale Special and Gala, and a new promising “Perspectives” strand showcasing 14 works. The Panorama programme, one of audiences’ favorites, comprises 35 titles from 28 countries, including many debuts and World Premieres. We’ll also have 40 movies in Generation and 55 in Forum and Forum Expanded, on top of the always exciting Retrospective, Classics, and Berlinale Shorts sections.
The 75′ Berlinale will take place on February 13-23, and if you’re looking for recommendations, we have you covered! Our staff writers Georgi Petkov, Jack Walters, and Serena Seghedoni, who’ll be at the festival, made a list of 20 movies to watch at the 2025 Berlin Film Festival! Read the list below in alphabetical order, and enjoy the festival!
20 FILMS YOU SHOULD WATCH AT THE 2024 BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL
1. After This Death
Director: Lucio Castro
Starring: Mia Maestro, Lee Pace, Rupert Friend, Gwendoline Christie, Philip Ettinger
Country: USA
Lucio Castro is an Argentinian filmmaker, coming to Berlinale with his second feature after his debut End of the Century (2019) premiered at New Directors / New Films in MoMA, New York. His short film Trust Issues (2018) made it to the selection of the Cannes Film Festival in 2018.
Lee Pace (Bodies Bodies Bodies) and Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones) star in After This Death, which seems to be Castro’s biggest project to date.The film is about an underground musician who throws into chaos the life of the married woman with whom he’s having an affair after he suddenly disappears. The woman is left to confront herself and her marriage for the sake of her future. (G.P.)
2. Arï
Director: Léonor Serraille
Starring: Andranic Manet, Pascal Rénéric, Théo Delezenne, Ryad Ferrad, Eva Lallier Juan
Countries: France, Belgium
There’s a captivating self-discovery journey on the horizon of the Competition section at this year’s Berlinale. Writer-director Léonor Serraille introduces us to Arï, a 27-year-old student teacher who quits his job after collapsing during a school inspector’s visit. His disappointed father throws him out, leaving him stranded alone in the city and forced to reach out to old forgotten friends. Arï wrestles with the realization that he may be sleepwalking through his own life.
Andranic Manet is rumored to be a revelation in the leading role. Thanks to him, this quietly powerful film could find itself among the festival highlights, showing Manet the path towards broader international recognition. (G.P.)
3. Blue Moon
Director: Richard Linklater
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Margaret Qualley, Bobby Cannavale, Andrew Scott
Countries: USA, Ireland
Blue Moon is Richard Linklater’s latest feature film, detailing one fateful interaction between American lyricist Lorenz Hart and his former collaborator Richard Rogers on the opening night of his new musical “Oklahoma!”. The movie is a cutting examination of ambition and failure, and the crushing impact of artistic expression on our own self-worth. With starring performances from Ethan Hawke (Before Sunrise, Training Day) and Margaret Qualley (Maid, The Substance), Blue Moon is sure to be one of the festival’s highlights.
The film marks Linklater’s first return to the Berlinale since the premiere of his film Boyhood in 2014, which went on to be nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards in the following year. (J.W.)
4. The Blue Trail
Director: Gabriel Mascaro
Starring: Denise Weinberg, Rodrigo Santoro, Miriam Socorrás, Adanilo
Countries: Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Netherlands
Brazilian writer-director Gabriel Mascaro, who earned acclaim for August Winds (2014) and Neon Bull (2015) at various festivals, returns to Berlin with his first film after 2019’s Divine Love. The Blue Trail (O Último Azul) takes place in a not-so-distant future where the Brazilian Government is forcing all senior citizens to move to a colony the moment they turn 80, as a means to fight economical collapse and maximize productivity. One day, the authorities announce an age reduction that would force the 77-year-old Tereza (Denise Weinberg) to live the rest of her life in isolation. But our protagonist, who lives in a village, refuses to comply.
And so begins a clandestine journey through the Amazons, as Tereza keeps hiding and exploring, getting closer to fulfilling her dream: taking flight on a plane. The Blue Trail, which Mascaro co-wrote with Tibério Azul, Murilo Hauser, and Heitor Lorega, is one of the most exciting and unique titles in the competition this year. (S.S.)
5. Dreamers
Director: Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor
Starring: Ronkę Adékoluęjo, Ann Akinjirin, Diana Yekinni, Aiysha Hart, Harriet Webb
Country: UK
This is a very promising feature directorial debut from producer Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor (Blue Story), who returns to the festival circuit after her 2021 short For Love. She writes and directs Dreamers, the story of a Nigerian woman named Isio (Ronke Adekoluejo) who is caught working in the UK without papers and taken to an asylum removal centre. There, she finds a kindred spirit who helps her in unexpected way. The film, which will have its World Premiere in the Panorama section, explores themes of freedom and love, and couldn’t be more relevant. (S.S.)
6. Dreams
Director: Michel Franco
Starring: Jessica Chastain, Isaac Hernandez, Rupert Friend, Marshall Bell
Country: Mexico
Michael Franco’s Dreams will have its World Premiere in competition at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, telling the story of a young Mexican ballet dancer who crosses the American border to achieve his dreams in San Francisco. However, he soon learns that success isn’t the dream he’s been sold from the outside, and he’s forced to face the harsh realities of love, loss, and longing.
Michael Franco is the mind behind acclaimed films such as Memory and New Order, both of which explore the pain of lost love and the impossibility of climbing the social ladder in modern society. The film marks a highly-anticipated reunion between Franco and Chastain following their collaboration in Memory, which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. (J.W.)
7. Drømmer (Dreams)
Director: Dag Johan Haugerud
Starring: Ella Øverbye, Selome Emnetu, Ane Dahl Torp, Anne Marit Jacobsen
Country: Norway
Drømmer (Dreams) is the final film in writer-director Dag Johan Haugerud’s “Sex, Dreams, Love” trilogy, consisting of three movies with different characters that all explore relationships. Sex, the first film – though, when we spoke with Haugerud last year, he told us that it was the last one they shot – had its World Premiere in Berlin last year, followed by Love (Kjærlighet) in Venice. Now, the trilogy comes full circle with a story that begins with the discovery of a young woman’s intimate writings about her crush on her teacher. Johanne’s (Ella Øverbye) diary sparks tension, but it also ignites something else within two generations of women in her family, as her mother and grandma connect with their most intimate, unfulfilled desires too.
If there’s one thing we’ve learned about Dag Johan Haugerud’s filmmaking, it’s that the director has a knack for taking a simple premise and transforming into something completely unexpected. His movies are usually truthful, insightful, and quietly daring, but they’re also surprisingly funny and heartwarming – the kind of films that demand your attention from start to end, and that you won’t be able to stop thinking about when they’re over. This makes Drømmer one of our most anticipated movies at the 2025 Berlin Film Festival. (S.S.)
8. Girls on Wire
Director: Vivian Qu
Starring: Liu Haocun, Wen Qi, Zhang Youhao, Zhou You, Peng Jing
Country: China
The anticipation is high for Girls on Wire (Xiang fei de nv hai – 想飞的女孩), which might even turn out to be this year’s Past Lives. It comes from Beijing-born writer-director Vivian Qu, producer of the Golden Bear-winning Black Coal, Thin Ice (2014). Having its World Premiere in the competition strand, the movie is about a single mother named Tian Tian (Haocun Liu). One day, Tian Tian kills a drug dealer who comes after her for vengeance. With a five-year-old daughter to look after, our protagonist turns to the only person she can ask for help: her cousin Fang Di (Vicky Chen).
Chen is a frequent collaborator of Qu’s, having starred in the filmmaker’s 2017 film Angels Wear White, which also earned recognition on the festival circuit. Qu’s stories revolve around women who refuse to conform to the norms and who take action to write their own stories. Here, this means teaming up to stand against injustice, and we cannot wait to watch this very promising story for ourselves. (S.S.)
9. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
Director: Mary Bronstein
Starring: Rose Byrne, A$AP Rocky, Conan O’Brien, Danielle Macdonald, Ivy Wolk
Country: USA
Rose Byrne is one of the stars of the Insidious franchise as well as knee-slapping comedies like Bridesmaids (2011) and Neighbors (2014). These titles vastly vary in genre and, consequently, in their requirements of actors, but Byrnes delivers engaging performances in each one, proving she is an actress of impressive range. At Berlinale, we’re about to see her in her next leading role as Linda in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, written and directed by Mary Bronstein.
The comedy-drama drops us into Linda’s deteriorating life as a mother of a mysteriously ill child, a wife of an absent husband, struggling to navigate a hostile relationship with her therapist, and a missing person to top it all off. The little that we know about Bronstein’s film already promises a chaotic character-centered story that will stir up all kinds of reactions at the festival. (G.P.)
10. The Incredible Snow Woman
Director: Sébastien Betbeder
Starring: Blanche Gardin, Philippe Katerine, Bastien Bouillon, Ole Eliassen, Martin Jensen
Country: France
Writer-director Sébastien Betbeder is no stranger to stories set in the Arctic, having previously directed the Cannes-premiering Journey to Greenland (2016). This year, he brings us the story of an explorer named Coline Morel, who one day turns up unannounced in the village where she was born, in the Jura mountains, where her estranged brothers live. While Coline is used to facing hardships during her travels – she has faced anything from camped on an iced floe to wrestling a bear on her own – but she’s not such an expert when it comes to familial and romantic relationships. So why is Coling back at the village? Eventually, it all becomes clear, but not before complete chaos unfolds as a result of her actions.
What makes us so excited about The Incredible Snow Woman (L’ Incroyable Femme des Neiges) is that Blanche Gardin plays Coline. We cannot wait to see the star – an acclaimed comedian, writer and actress in France, whom international audiences will recognize for her roles in gems like Yannick and Bloody Oranges – tackle a role that’s both comedic and introspective. Philippe Katerine (Sink or Swim) and Bastien Bouillon (The Count of Monte-Cristo) also star in the movie, which will have its World Premiere in Panorama. (S.S.)
11. Kontinental 25
Director: Radu Jude
Starring: Eszter Tompa, Gabriel Spahiu, Adonis Tanța, Oana Mardare, Șerban Pavlu
Country: Romania
Over the course of two decades, Romanian writer-director Radu Jude has taken the festival circuit by storm with his very specific brand of filmmaking: provocative, socio-political movies that are not only made with intelligence, but also so distinctive in both style and (black) humor that one can’t help but be in awe. In the past few years, Jude has been particularly prolific, delivering gems like Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (2021), Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (2023) and Eight Postcards from Utopia (2024).
This year, he returns with another relevant satire that tackles many topics, including the housing crisis and the rise in nationalism. Kontinental ’25 takes place in Cluji, Transylvania, where bailiff Orsolya (Eszter Tompa) has to evict a homeless man from a cellar. What follows is a moral crisis, triggered by the tragic consequences of her actions. (S.S.)
12. Late Shift
Director: Petra Volpe
Starring: Leonie Benesch, Sonja Riesen, Urs Bihler, Margherita Schoch
Countries: Germany & Switzerland
Late Shift (Heldin, in German) is one of the many World Premieres in the Berlinale’s Special Gala section, and it looks to be among the festival’s most exciting and intense movies. The story follows a young nurse in an understaffed hospital ward whose unwavering dedication to her work turns one long shift into a neverending race against time.
The film is said to be a fast-paced, relentless thriller that uses the chaos of its location to explore many topical themes about healthcare and classism in Switzerland. Still, these are ideas that can be understood all across the globe, speaking to the universal struggles of those whose job requires them to go above and beyond for little compensation. (J.W.)
13. Lurker
Director: Alex Russell
Starring: Théodore Pellerin, Archie Madekwe, Zach Fox, Havana Rose Liu, Sunny Suljic
Countries: USA; Italy
There’s so much to be intrigued by in Lurker. Writer-director Alex Russell has been a credited writer on acclaimed shows of recent years, such as Beef and The Bear, but he’s making his feature directorial debut with this tension-filled drama. Young names on the Hollywood rise – Havana Rose Liu (of Bottoms), Archie Madekwe (of Midsommar, Saltburn), and Théodore Pellerin (of Franklin, Never Rarely Sometimes Always) – all star in Lurker, which has all the ingredients for a memorable drama. The film revolves around a retail employee, bored of their mundane job, who infiltrates the inner circle of an up-and-coming mainstream music star. The closer they become, the more their predicament becomes a matter of life and death. (G.P.)
14. Mad Bills to Pay (or Destiny, Dile Que No Soy Malo)
Director: Joel Alfonso Vargas
Starring: Juan Collado, Destiny Checo, Yohanna Florentino, Nathaly Navarro
Country: USA
Joel Alfonso Vargas‘s feature debut has just premiered at Sundance, where it won the NEXT Special Jury Award for Ensemble Cast. Now, it’s coming to Berlin for its international premiere in the festival’s new Perspectives strand. With Mad Bills to Pay (or Destiny, Dile Que No Soy Malo) the writer-director adapts his 2024 short May It Go Beautifully for You, Rico, which earned him the Best Director Prize at Locarno. The movie follow a young man named Rico (Juan Collado), who spends his summer going after girls and selling homemade cocktails in the Bronx. One day, his his pregnant teenage girlfriend Destiny (Destiny Checo) moves in with his family to put an end to his carefree days.
At the press conference revealing the 2025 Berlinale programme, Film Programming Director Jacqueline Lyanga described it as an “emotionally potent story” where Vargas “explores textures from his Dominican American upbringing,” using long takes and collaborating with actors who were cast on the streets of the Bronx. (S.S.)
15. The Message
Director: Iván Fund
Starring: Mara Bestelli, Marcelo Subiotto, Anika Bootz, Betania Cappato
Countries: Argentin, Spain, Uruguay
This Argentinian-Spanish production from director Iván Fund takes place in the Argentinian countryside, where a young girl has a unique gift. Our protagonist would appear to be a pet medium, and whether her talent is magic or fraud, it has the power to earn her and her opportunistic guardians a living, as she begins to offer pet consultations for money. The Message (El Ménsaje), premiereing in competition, is an ode to the innocence of children that takes place in a country of contradictions. We cannot wait to watch it. (S.S.)
16. Mickey 17
Director: Bong Joon-ho
Starring: Robert Pattinson, Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette, Mark Ruffalo
Countries: USA, South Korea
After several significant delays in the release of the science-fiction dark comedy Mickey 17 with Robert Pattinson (of The Batman, The Lighthouse), it’s an understatement to say that audiences are restless and impatient to see what Bong Joon-ho has been preparing for us. Thanks to those delays, the world premiere of Mickey 17 found itself at the Berlinale.
Bong Joon-ho has not released any features since his groundbreaking achievement that was Parasite in 2019, which swept almost every prestigious film award in the industry that year, including the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay.
Mickey 17 is adapted from Edward Ashton’s 2022 novel “Mickey7”, in which Mickey Barnes is an “expendable”: an employee who is sent on dangerous missions and regenerated in a new body every time he dies. The unravelling begins once the seventeenth version of Mickey accidentally survives a colonization mission and ends up head to head with the eighteenth, already regenerated. (G.P.)
17. The Narrow Road To The Deep North
Director: Justin Kurzel
Starring: Jacob Elordi, Ciaran Hinds, Odessa Young, Olivia DeJonge
Country: Australia
The Narrow Road to the Deep North is one of the few limited series having their premiere at the Berlinale this year, and it’s one of the programme’s most exciting features. Starring Jacob Elordi as a celebrated World War II hero haunted by his experiences as a prisoner of war, the series is an adaptation of Richard Flanagan’s Booker Prize-winning novel of the same name.
The project is directed by Justin Kurzel, whose most recent works have included The Order and Nitram. Both of these films explore the dangers of social exclusion and the instability of the world’s current political climate, and it’s likely that The Narrow Road to the Deep North will be no different. It’s a character-driven story that draws on the protagonist’s traumatic experiences to dissect the brutality of warfare and its dehumanizing effects. (J.W.)
18. No Beast. So Fierce
Director: Burhan Qurbani
Starring: Kenda Hmeidan, Verena Altenberger, Hiam Abbass, Mona Zarreh Hoshyari Khah, Mehdi Nebbou
Countries: Germany, Poland, France
Shakespeare’s works have been adapted to the screen countless time, but Burhan Qurbani’s (Berlin, Alexanderplatz) new film puts a new spin to the genre, reimagining “Richard III” as the story of an Arab gangster queen who becomes the leader of the Berlin underworld. Premiering in the Berlinale Special strand, No Beast. So Fierce is told in the here an now but promises to retain a theatrical aspect too. It’s certainly an experience we’re not going to miss. (S.S.)
19. The Thing With Feathers
Director: Dylan Southern
Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Richard Boxall, Henry Boxall, Sam Spruell
Country: United Kingdom
The European Premiere of Dylan Southern’s stylish horror The Thing With Feathers will take place in this year’s Berlinale Special Gala section, just a few weeks after its World Premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. The movie is described as a neo-Gothic horror that deals with themes of grief, loss, and acceptance as a young father’s (Benedict Cumberbatch, of Doctor Strange) hold on reality begins to slip after the unexpected death of his wife.
The film explores the long-lasting impacts of grief through a modern twist on the classic haunted house story, following Cumberbatch’s protagonist as he’s stalked by a malign presence that lives in his small apartment. It’s a sharp examination of how crushing a loved one’s absence can feel, navigated through the lens of parenthood and family. (J.W.)
20. What Does That Nature Say to You
Director: Hong Sangsoo
Starring: Ha Seongguk, Kwon Haehyo, Cho Yunhee, Kang Soyi, Park Miso
Country: South Korea
It’s not rare for Hong Sang-soo (Night and Day; Right Now, Wrong Then) to have a film premiering at the Berlinale, given the speed at which he releases new movies. Last year alone, the prolific writer-director gave us A Traveler’s Needs and By the Stream. Though some of Sang-soo’s recent releases have missed the mark, most of his movies still retain the charm that acquired him recognition: the director tells us intimate, slow-paced stories that depict the everyday in South Korea in a unique way, often with interesting moral dilemmas.
What Does That Nature Say to Yo (Geu jayeoni nege mworago hani) promises to be just that, revolving around a young poet who drops his girlfriend off at her parents’ house and ends up spending a day there with the whole family. (S.S.)
More Movies to Watch at the Berlinale 2025:
- 1001 Frames
- BLKNWS: Terms and Conditions
- The Devil Smokes (and Saves the Burnt Matches in the Same Box)
- The Good Sister
- The Heart is a Muscle
- Hot Milk
- The Ice Tower
- Islands
- Köln 75
- Living The Land
- Little Rebels Cinema Club
- Maya, Give Me a Title
- Pa-gwa (The Old Woman with the Knife)
- Peter Hujar’s Day
- Queer as Punk
- Queerpanorama
- Reflection In A Dead Diamond
- Special Operation
- Yunan
- Tales from the Magic Garden
The 2025 Berlin Film Festival will take place on February 13 – 23. Follow us on our socials for more Berlinale updates and come back soon for our reviews!
Header Credits: © Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin / Claudia Schramke, Berlin
