This was a significant year for the Berlinale, the nickname for the Berlin International Film Festival. Not only is 2025 the 75th anniversary of the event, but it was also the first edition with Tricia Tuttle as festival director. The festival returned to its former organisational structure, with a single individual responsible for the market section and the creative direction. Between 2020 and 2024, those duties were shared between Carlo Chatrian and Mariëtte Rissenbeek. Thus there was an evident curiosity about what Tuttle would bring to the festival in this pivotal edition. There was no lack of challenges for the new director. Being a newcomer on her first run at an A-list film festival is challenging enough, but Berlin festival has its very own logistical issues, such as cinemas closing in the festival area.
Challenges for the New Director
Then there are the political aspects, which have always been more pronounced in Berlin compared to similar events. Now, those issues might have reached a boiling point with the Israeli-Palestine conflict, causing certain groups such as the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) to demand a boycott of the festival. To add fuel to the fire, Germany had a federal election on the last day of the Berlinale, called Berlinale Publikumstag (Audience Day), when tickets are sold at reduced prices to the public. The threatening rise of the right wing political party AfD (Alternativ für Deutschland) was a continuous discussion point among Germans on site.
On the opening night of the film “A Letter to David,” which focuses on David Cunio, a hostage taken by Hamas, Tuttle participated in a red carpet vigil, which annoyed some pro-Palestinian groups. Tuttle responded by explaining that empathy for one group doesn’t necessarily mean being against someone else. Generally, Tuttle handled these kinds of questions eloquently.
Commercial Success and Sponsorships
Regarding the commercial part of the festival, things seem to have worked out well, with the sponsor portfolio going through some changes, as they sometimes do. The new festival lounge, HUB75, was supported by the Czech beer Staropramen, who stepped in as a co-partner. Cupra replaced Uber as the new mobility partner and also funded the jointly initiated Berlinale Shorts CUPRA Filmmaker Award, the winner of which was selected by the International Short Film Jury. There was also a late addition of funding from the Ministry of Culture (BKM), adding almost EUR €2 million (USD $2.17 million), making it possible for Tuttle and her team to deliver a festival with a balanced budget.
The European Film Market (EFM) taking place during the Berlinale hosted 998 market screenings this year, slightly fewer than last year’s 1028, but not a significant drop. On the other hand, there were slightly more buyers this year, 1,314 compared to 1,263 in 2024. The market people I talked to did not notice much difference but seemed pleased with the experience. The festival people I spoke to echoed the same sentiment. Kateřina Dvořáková, who is in charge of international public relations at the A-list festival Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF), told me that ” the festival feels pretty much the same. It is very well organised, with a busy market in the Martin-Gropius-Bau exhibition hall.”
When I talked to Berlinale veteran Mahari Seghid, he told me that the minister of culture, Claudia Roth, asked Rissenbeek to stay on for an additional six months to assist Tuttle with the management part of the festival. That may be one of the reasons why the transition worked so smoothly. Festival ticket sales broke an all-time record, with 336,000 tickets sold for public screenings compared to roughly 330,000 last year.
Perspectives: A Welcome New Section
This year, one of the more substantial sections of the film program, Encounters, initiated by Chatrian, is now gone. Tuttle said that she agreed that many of the most beautiful films were in that section but instead found room for such titles in the Forum section devoted to more experimental fare. Unlike Encounters, Forum is not a competitive strand. Replacing Encounters was a new section called Perspectives, a competition section for debut features composed of 14 works. Five films were directed or co-directed by women, and two were directed by non-binary directors.
According to several critics, including myself, his section unexpectedly turned out to be the highlight at this year’s Berlinale. The winner of Perspectives was the Mexican film “The Devil Smokes (and Saves the Burnt Matches in the Same Box),”, but the strand housed several other memorable films. Personal favourites included “Two Times João Liberada” about gender-nonconforming Liberada, who was persecuted by the Inquisition in 18th-century Portugal. Another gem was the Hungarian “Growing Down,” where a father is challenged to protect his son after a terrible incident.
The Main Competition Comes With Some Surprises
For the general public and critics alike, the main competition is still the heart of the Berlinale and what many people will use as a yardstick to measure the festival’s success. A new programming team was put in place to lead the festival, topped by Tuttle, Jacqueline Lyanga and Michael Stütz. The latter is known for heading the popular Panorama section, a duty he maintained while becoming one of the festival’s main programmers. From the outside, that sounds like an impossible task. The aforementioned Mahari Seghid asked the question about how this was possible during the programmer press conference in January. Tuttle quipped, “What you don’t know is that Michi hasn’t slept for six months.”
All jokes aside, there were some curious selections this year. The Berlinale typically screens some films from the Sundance Film Festival which takes place each January in Park City, Utah, in the United States. Last year saw “Love Lies Bleeding” make the leap from Sundance to the Berlinale, though such entries rarely end up in the competition. In this year’s edition, Mary Bronstein’s “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” was part of the main competition after debuting at Sundance and ended up walking away with a prize for best leading actor. Another surprising inclusion was “Hot Milk,” which had been floating around for three years until it unexpectedly found a home in the Berlinale competition.
However, the most surprising selection was Dag Johan Haugerud’s “Dreams (Sex Love).” It is the third part of a trilogy, whose first entry, “Sex,” premiered in last year’s Panorama section. The peculiar thing is that the film opened in cinemas in Norway last October. Even Norwegian colleagues were surprised to see “Dreams (Sex Love)” in Berlin. In recent years, it has been unorthodox to select European films which have already screened for the public. There have been some exceptions with Nanni Moretti films at the Cannes Film Festival, but “international premiere” typically refers to films screened only at other festivals. An even bigger surprise was when “Dreams (Sex Love)” won the Golden Bear, the Berlinale’s top prize. The film also won the FIPRESCI prize and the Guild Film Prize earlier in the day. The film’s queer theme evidently appealed to the jury president Todd Haynes and the other jury members.
Reflections on the Main Competition
Many critics’ favourite, “The Blue Trail” by Gabriel Mascaro, won the runner-up Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize, while the third place Silver Bear Jury Prize was given to “The Message” by Iván Fund. Neither of the two was among my very favourites, but both are worthy winners. The consensus among film critics seems to be that this was not a strong edition of the competition. Taking over one of the largest A-list festivals is a mighty challenge, and maybe the challenge was underestimated in some quarters. When Chatrian took over the Berlinale, he and his main programmer, Mark Peranson, came with seven years of experience from Locarno, another A-list festival. Surely, it will take some time to establish the necessary contacts to lobby filmmakers to premiere their works at the Berlinale. There is a major difference in selecting films from other festivals, like at the London Film Festival, and shaping a comprehensive programme mainly consisting of world premieres. There were many rewarding qualities at this year’s Berlinale, but the competition might need more programmers whose only duty is to select films for the main competition.
