Screen staff preview all of the titles in the Berlin film festival’s competition strand, which this year includes films from Kornel Mundruczo, Ilker Catak, Emin Alper, Karim Ainouz, and Hanna Bergholm. The festival runs February 12-22.
At The Sea (US-Hun)
Dir. Kornel Mundruczo
The Hungarian filmmaker makes his Berlin debut with this drama starring Amy Adams. She plays a woman leaving rehab for the family’s Cape Cod home, where she wrestles with trauma and her own identity. The cast includes Rainn Wilson and Brett Goldstein and production took place in Boston in summer 2024, benefiting from the Massachusetts tax credit. Ryder Picture Company, AR Content and Hammerstone Studios produce in association with Ashland Hill, Proton Cinema, LB Entertainment and Jeff Rice Films.
Contact: WME Independent (US); mk2 Films (international)
Dao (Fr-Senegal-Guinea-Bissau)
Dir. Alain Gomis
French Senegalese filmmaker Gomis brings his sixth feature after the last three played in Berlin: Today in Competition in 2012, Félicité, which won the grand jury prize in 2017, and 2022 Forum documentary Rewind & Play. Dao centres on a family navigating its heritage through moments of joy and sorrow, namely a wedding celebration in Paris and a commemorative ceremony in Guinea-Bissau. The France-Senegal-Guinea-Bissau co-production is lead produced by Paris-based production outfits Les Films du Worso and Srab Films.
Contact: The Party Film Sales
Dust (Belg-Pol-Gre-UK)
Dir. Anke Blondé
Dust is the story of two Belgian tech visionaries who must come to terms with the loss of their empire when they learn their fraud is about to hit the papers, sending them on separate paths of redemption. Girl and The Goldman Case star Arieh Worthalter and Mr. Nobody’s Jan Hammenecker lead the cast. The script is by Angelo Tijssens, co-writer of Lukas Dhont’s Girl and Close. Blondé’s latest is produced through Belgium’s A Private View.
Contact: LevelK
Everybody Digs Bill Evans (Ire-UK)
Dir. Grant Gee
Anders Danielsen Lie, Bill Pullman, Laurie Metcalf and Barry Ward star in the 1961-set story of real-life US jazz pianist Bill Evans, and the tragedy that stops him playing. Alan Maher produces for Cowtown Pictures with Janine Marmot of Hot Property Films, and Fiona Kinsella co-producing. Financiers include Screen Ireland, Over The Fence Films and Finite Films. Break Out Pictures will release in the UK and Ireland. UK director Gee’s credits include Venice 2015 documentary Innocence Of Memories, also produced by Marmot, and music videos for Radiohead and Blur.
Contact: Mister Smith Entertainment
Flies (Mex)
Dir. Fernando Eimbcke
Mexican filmmaker Eimbcke’s previous film Olmo premiered at the Berlinale in 2025, and he has followed it up in short order with Flies, which went through San Sebastian’s WIP Latam showcase in 2025, winning the industry award. Produced by Kinotitlan and Michel Franco for Teorema, the drama centres on a reclusive woman dealing with trauma who connects with the child of a new tenant. Teresita Sanchez, Bastian Escobar and Hugo Ramirez star. Eimbcke is best known for 2004’s Duck Season, which won several prizes at Mexico’s Ariel Awards. A Contracorriente will distribute in Spain.
Contact: Alpha Violet
Home Stories (Ger)
Dir. Eva Trobisch
German filmmaker Trobisch jumps into Berlin Competition with her third film, after All Good won best first feature at Locarno in 2018 and 2024’s Ivo played in Berlin’s Encounters. Home Stories centres on a 16-year-old girl who embarks on a search for identity within and beyond her family’s hotel in the forests of the former East Germany. The cast includes Max Riemelt, Eva Löbau and Frida Hornemann, making her screen debut. It is produced by Trimafilm in co-production with Komplizen Film and if… Productions, and ZDF/ARTE in collaboration with The Post Republic.
Contact: The Match Factory
In A Whisper (Fr-Tun)
Dir. Leyla Bouzid
This family drama starring Eya Bouteraa, Hiam Abbass and Marion Barbeau centres on a woman living in Paris who returns to Tunisia for her uncle’s funeral. She sets out to uncover the truth behind his sudden death as family secrets are revealed. The film is produced by Unité and marks Bouzid’s third feature following As I Open My Eyes, which premiered in Venice Days in 2015, and A Tale Of Love And Desire, which closed Cannes Critics’ Week in 2021.
Contact: Playtime
Josephine (US)
Dir. Beth de Araujo
Channing Tatum, Gemma Chan and youngster Mason Reeves are the leads in this drama, which receives its international premiere after debuting last month at Sundance. De Araujo’s second feature shot around San Francisco in summer 2024, and centres on an eight-year-old girl whose behaviour changes after she witnesses a sexual assault in Golden Gate Park. The production from Kaplan Morrison and Vibrato received the SFFilm Rainin filmmaking grant and went through the 2018 Sundance directors and screenwriters labs. Financing came from Kinematics — the company that was involved for a while in Ali Abbasi’s The Apprentice — and Spark Features.
Contact: WME Independent; CAA Media Finance
The Loneliest Man In Town (Austria)
Dirs. Tizza Covi, Rainer Frimmel
Set in Vienna, The Loneliest Man in Town centres on a blues musician, played by Alois Koch, living in a condemned apartment that is filled with memories. Out of the ruins of his existence, a long-forgotten dream suddenly resurfaces. The Loneliest Man In Town has a cast of non-professional actors and was shot on Super 16mm. It is produced through Vienna-based Vento Film. Austrian directing duo Covi and Frimmel’s films have played in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight and Locarno; their most recent, Vera, represented Austria in the 2024 international feature Oscar race.
Contact: Be For Films
My Wife Cries (Ger-Fr)
Dir. Angela Schanelec
Actress and filmmaker Schanelec returns to Berlin Competition after her previous two films — 2019’s I Was At Home, But and 2023’s Music — won Silver Bears for best director and screenplay respectively. Her latest is about a crane operator who finds his wife crying after a car accident. She tries to tell him everything, but he withdraws into himself. The cast includes Vladimir Vulevic and Agathe Bonitzer. Schanelec’s credits include Cannes Un Certain Regard titles Places In Cities (1998) and Marseille (2004), and Cannes Special Screening Bridges Of Sarajevo (2014).
Contact: SBS International
A New Dawn (Japan-Fr)
Dir.Yoshitoshi Shinomiya
This anime is the debut feature from Shinomiya, an animator and background artist whose credits include 2016 hit Your Name. Set after the earthquake that hit Japan in 2011, the story takes place in a fireworks factory slated for demolition. The film is produced by Japan’s Asmik Ace and France’s Miyu Productions, and is set for release in Japan on March 6. Shinomiya wrote the screenplay in addition to directing. Miyu co-produced Japanese titles such as Ghost Cat Anzu, which played in Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes in 2024, and Masaaki Yuasa’s upcoming film Daisy’s Life.
Contact: Charades
Nightborn (Fin-Lith-Fr-UK)
Dir. Hanna Bergholm
Bergholm’s debut feature, horror Hatching, launched at Sundance in 2022 and won three of Finland’s Jussi Awards. Her second effort Nightborn is another genre piece, a dark thriller following a Finnish woman and her British husband as they move to an isolated house deep in the forest to have their first child — only for the mother to realise immediately that something is wrong with the boy. Compartment No. 6’s Seidi Haarla stars with Harry Potter’s Rupert Grint. The film is Bergholm’s first English-language feature, while also using Finnish dialogue.
Contact: Flavien Eripret, Goodfellas
Nina Roza (Can-It-Bul-Belg)
Dir. Genevieve Dulude-de Celles
Dulude-de Celles won the Berlin Crystal Bear in 2019 for her debut feature A Colony, which screened in Generation Kplus. She returns with this drama about an art dealer in Quebec who must travel back to the countryside of his Bulgarian homeland to assess whether the paintings of a so-called child prodigy are genuine or a hoax. Canada’s Colonelle Films is the producer, and co-producers are Italy’s Umi Films, Bulgaria’s Ginger Light Films and Premier Studio, and Belgium’s Echo Bravo. The project picked up two awards for post-production and marketing materials at Locarno Pro Awards in 2025.
Contact: Best Friend Forever
Queen At Sea (UK)
Dir. Lance Hammer
US filmmaker Hammer’s second feature — following 2008’s Sundance best director prize winner and Berlin Competition title Ballast — stars Juliette Binoche, Anna Calder- Marshall, Tom Courtenay and Florence Hunt, and follows the story of a woman with advanced dementia, whose husband and daughter struggle to act in her best interests. It is produced by Tristan Goligher for The Bureau, who is also a co-producer on Perspectives premiere A Prayer For The Dying.
Contact: The Match Factory
Rose (Austria-Ger)
Dir. Markus Schleinzer
Sandra Hüller stars in this 17th-century drama, set in the aftermath of the Thirty Years’ War, as an enigmatic soldier who returns to a secluded German village and claims to be the heir of a long-abandoned farmstead, all the while pretending to be a man. Hüller’s character is inspired by numerous documented accounts of women disguised as men in European history. Rose is the third feature by Austrian director and actor Schleinzer after 2011 Cannes Competition title Michael and 2018 Toronto premiere Angelo. The Austria-Germany co-pro is a Schubert, Row Pictures and Walker+Worm Film production.
Contact: The Match Factory
Rosebush Pruning (It-Ger-Sp-UK)
Dir. Karim Aïnouz
Callum Turner, Riley Keough, Jamie Bell, Lukas Gage, Elle Fanning and Pamela Anderson are among the starry cast for this contemporary satire from Motel Destino and Firebrand director Aїnouz. Set in an opulent villa in Catalonia, it is about the unravelling of an American family who wallow in isolation and their inherited fortune. Efthimis Filippou wrote the script, an adaptation of Marco Bellocchio’s 1965 debut film Fists In The Pocket. Mubi has rights to a number of key territories including the UK, Ireland, Germany, Latin America, Benelux and India.
Contact: The Match Factory
Salvation (Turkey-Fr-Neth-Gre-Swe-Saudi)
Dir. Emin Alper
Turkish director Alper’s fifth feature is set in a remote Kurdish village and tracks the return of an exiled clan that reignites a decades-old land dispute and past resentments. Caner Cindoruk, Feyyaz Duman and Berkay Ates star. The film is produced by Turkey’s Liman Film and co-produced by France’s Meltem Films and TS Productions, the Netherlands’ Circe Films and Kaap Holland, and Greece’s Horsefly Films. Bir Film also co-produces and will release in Turkey. MCF Megacom has rights to the Balkans, and Beta will distribute in Bulgaria.
Contact: Lucky Number
Soumsoum, The Night Of The Stars (Fr-Chad)
Dir. Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
Chadian director Haroun’s latest feature is set in the scenic Ennedi desert in his birth country, and follows a woman who experiences haunting visions and an outcast rejected by the community. The pair form a strong bond in the face of village hostility. Paris-based Pili Films produced in co-production with Haroun’s Chad-based outfit Goï-Goï Productions. The veteran filmmaker is a festival mainstay whose films have earned prizes in Venice (1999’s Bye Bye Africa and 2006’s Dry Season) and Cannes, including A Screaming Man which won the jury prize in 2010. Haroun’s Grigris (2013) and Lingui, The Sacred Bonds (2021) also played in Cannes Competition.
Contact: Films Boutique
We Are All Strangers (Sing)
Dir. Anthony Chen
Chen’s latest film is the first from Singapore to compete in Berlinale Competition, completing his ‘Growing Up’ trilogy that began with Cannes 2013 Camera d’Or winner Ilo Ilo and was followed by 2019’s Wet Season. Set over three years, We Are All Strangers explores unconventional surrogate relationships through a 21-year-old man and his modest father who must redefine their family when a woman enters their lives. Yeo Yann Yann and Koh Jia Ler return after starring in the first two films. Through his Giraffe Pictures, Chen is also a co-producer of Sleep No More by Indonesian director Edwin, which plays in Berlin’s Special Midnight strand.
Contact: Paradise City Sales
Wolfram (Australia)
Dir. Warwick Thornton
Indigenous Australian filmmaker Thornton returns with the successor to his acclaimed 2017 drama Sweet Country, winner of Venice’s special jury prize and Toronto’s Platform award. Set in the 1930s, Wolfram follows three children who escape their white masters and journey across central Australia seeking safety. Inspired by the family stories of Thornton and co-writer David Tranter, it is produced by Bunya Productions’ Greer Simpkin and David Jowsey. It premiered as the closing feature of Adelaide Film Festival in October, and is set to open in Australian cinemas on April 30.
Contact: Paradise City Sales
Yellow Letters (Ger-Fr-Turkey)
Dir. Ilker Catak
Yellow Letters follows Catak’s Oscar-nominated The Teachers’ Lounge, which played in Berlin’s Panorama in 2023. The political drama is about a celebrated artist couple from Turkey whose marriage is pushed to breaking point when they are targeted by the state. Starring Turkish actors Ozgu Namal and Tansu Bicer, it reunites Catak with The Teachers’ Lounge producer Ingo Fliess of if…Productions. Alamode Film has rights in Germany, Cineart in Benelux and Haut et Court in France.
Contact: Be For Films
YO Love Is A Rebellious Bird (US)
Dirs. Anna Fitch, Banker White
Mirabel Pictures produced this documentary in which Fitch pays tribute to her older late friend Yo by building a scale model of Yo’s house after her death and inserting a puppet of her inside. The film took 16 years to make and blends vérité footage of Yo’s last year with recreations of stories from her life. Support programmes include Sundance Institute Documentary Fund, Hot Docs Forum, Tribeca Film Institute/Pond5, and National Endowment for the Arts.
Contact: First Hand Films
Profiles by Ellie Calnan, Ben Dalton, Tim Dams, Elaine Guerini, Jeremy Kay, Rebecca Leffler, Michael Rosser, Matt Schley, Mona Tabbara, Silvia Wong
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