Feeling stuck wading through the hundreds of films on offer at the 2025 Berlinale? Let us help you. From brand new dramas to classic restorations to groundbreaking documentaries, here’s our selection of the very best of Berlinale.
Magic Farm
Chloë Sevigny and Alex Wolff star in this biting satire about the state of modern journalism. A film crew from an edgy new media company have travelled to South America to film a musician who started a viral trend. The only issue is, they’ve landed in the wrong country. The team decide to cut their losses and make a fake documentary, and what follows is a witty takedown of how western media portrays Latin America.
- Magic Farm (d. Analia Ulman), Feb 16-22, various venues, details.
Hot Milk
Fiona Shaw and Emma Mackey play a mother-daughter pair in this sizzling drama based on the Booker-shortlisted novel by Deborah Levy. In a village on the Spanish coast, Rose and her daughter Sofia track down a controversial healer in the hope he can cure Rose’s illness. While Rose is treated, Sofia tastes freedom for the first time, pushing her codependent relationship with her mother to its limits. It’s one of this year’s hot tickets as it’s been selected for the prestigious Berlinale Competition.
- Hot Milk (d. Rebecca Lenkiewicz), Feb 14-21, various venues, details.
One or the Other of Us
Before Wolfgang Petersen broke into Hollywood with Das Boot, he was thrilling audiences with his first feature film; the smaller-scale but equally gripping One or the Other of Us (Einer von uns beiden) . The 1974 film follows a broke university dropout who discovers that a renowned sociology professor is a fraud and decides to blackmail him for financial gain. One or the Other of Us plays as part of Berlinale’s “Retrospective” programming, a series showcasing a brilliant range of films from 1970s FDR and GDR.
- One or the Other of Us (d. Wolfgang Petersen), Feb 14 & 17, Akademie der Künste, details.
Timestamp
With no voice-overs, interviews or reenactments, Kateryna Goronstai’s documentary instead lets its footage, captured at several schools across Ukraine, speak for itself. This intimate glimpse into how war affects everyday life is the only documentary chosen for this year’s central Competition.
- Timestamp (d. Kateryna Gornostai), Feb 20-23, various venues, details.
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
Linda has had the worst week ever. Her child is sick, her feckless husband is absent, her therapist is losing patience with her and there’s a giant hole in her ceiling. Tense and terrifying, this Competition-selected film is perfect for those who like their comedy pitch-black or who want to see what happens when you cast Rose Byrne, A$AP Rocky and Conan O’Brien in a film together. Byrne’s central performance is already receiving heaps of praise from critics for her depiction of the horrors of motherhood.
- If I had Legs I’d Kick You dir. Mary Bronstein, Feb 17-23, various venues, details.
All I Had Was Nothingness
In 1985, Claude Lanzmann released his monumental documentary, Shoah, a Holocaust film so historically significant that it is now part of UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register. Forty years later, Guillaume Ribot pays homage to this masterpiece and its director, using only Lanzmann’s words and unseen footage from Shoah. Berlinale is screening the world premiere of All I had Was Nothingness alongside a re-screening of Shoah to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II
- All I Had Was Nothingness (d. Guillaume Ribot), Feb 17-22, various venues / Shoah (d. Claude Lanzmann), Feb 16, Akademie der Künste, details.
The Message
Settle in for the world premiere of this charming Competition-selected road film. During an economic downturn in Argentina, a girl works as a pet medium. Does she genuinely have a gift or is she being exploited by her money-hungry guardians? As the family travels through the countryside in a motorhome, Iván Fund explores family fractures and the blurred line between truth and deception.
- The Message (d. Ivan Fund), Feb 18-23, various venues, details.
The Paradine Case
This courtroom thriller followers a happily married lawyer who falls in love with the accused murderer he is defending. With an all-star cast including Gregory Peck, Ethel Barrymore and Alida Valli, this lesser known Hitchcock is shown in a new digitally restored version for the first time.
- The Paradine Case dir. Alfred Hitchcock Feb 15-22, various venues, details.
Paul
Self-described “Cleaning Simp Paul” combats his depression and anxiety by scrubbing the floors of dominatrixes’ apartments and sharing his eccentric routines on social media. This documentary is a non-judgemental take on the lengths we go to find wellbeing. If you’re not intrigued by the concept alone, come along to see what director Denis Côté, an auteur known for making films that challenge conventional narratives, brings to this story.
- Paul (d. Denis Côté), Feb 15-22, various venues, details.
Friendship’s Death
A young Tilda Swinton is (true to form) an extra-terrestrial android in Peter Wollen’s film from 1987. “Friendship” (played by Swinton) has been sent by aliens on a peace mission to Earth and accidentally landed in war-torn Jordan. Holed up in a hotel room, she strikes an unlikely friendship with a boozy British journalist. This year Swinton will be awarded the Honorary Golden Bear for lifetime achievement and in this charming early-career performance it’s clear to see the spark was there from the start.
- Friendship’s Death (d. Peter Wollen), Feb 14, Zoo Palast, details.
Scars of a Putsch
In this documentary, Nathalie Borgers embarks on a personal journey to uncover the hidden stories behind the scars on her husband’s body. As a young man in Turkey, Abidin (Borger’s husband) was a revolutionary who was crushed by the 1980 military coup. In her search for other victims, Borgers uncovers how this act shaped the country to this day.
- Scars of a Putsch (d. Nathalie Borgers), Feb 19-21, various venues, details.
The Wife of Seisaku
This 1965 classic explores poverty and prejudice in the period around the Russo-Japanese war. The local community are stunned when a highly regarded soldier begins a relationship with Okane, a woman they shun as a witch. When he is called up for war, Okane turns to drastic measures. Both a critique of the horrors of militarism and a lush romantic melodrama, Yasuzô Masumura’s film stuns in a new digitally restored version.
- The Wife of Seisaku (d. Yasuzô Masumura), Feb 19-23, various venues, details.
Dressed in Blue
One of the best trans films you’ve probably never heard of, Dressed in Blue is a cult documentary about six trans women in 1980s Madrid. As they tell their astonishing life stories, a picture is built of the prejudices and possibilities of post-Franco Spain.
- Dressed in Blue (d. Antonio Giménez-Rico), Feb 15-23, various venues, details.
Shennü
Ruan Lingyu, known as the “Garbo of the East”, stars in this 1934 social drama about a single mother who turns to prostitution to support her son. Described as a “tragedy of the streets”, this beautifully-restored societal critique still feels prescient nearly 100 years later.
- Shennü (d. Wu Yonggang), Feb 20-23, various venues, details.
