The festival’s acting prizes went to two Hollywood heavy hitters. Rose Byrne took home Best Leading Performance for her tour-de-force, “Uncut Gems”-esque turn in “If I Had Legs I'd Kick You,” commanding almost every minute of screen-time in this squirmy panic attack of a film. Andrew Scott won Best Supporting Performance for playing Broadway titan Richard Rodgers in Richard Linklater’s chamber piece, “Blue Moon,” which earned one of the festival’s biggest ovations.
Haynes’ jury also gave Silver Bears to Huo Meng for directing “Living the Land,” his chronicle of rural China in the 1990s. The ensemble of “The Ice Tower” won a special prize for Outstanding Artistic Contribution for the Marion Cotillard-led fantasy. Berlinale mainstay Radu Jude won Best Screenplay for “Kontinental ‘25” after taking home the top prize for “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn” four years ago.
Under the direction of new helmer, Tricia Tuttle, the 75th Berlinale also saw a number of stars descend on Berlin.
Timothée Chalamet dominated the first weekend of the festival, strutting the red carpet in all pink for Valentine’s Day with his girlfriend and surprise guest Kylie Jenner. For a day, the fact that Jenner lovingly caressed his cheek at the German premiere of Chalamet’s Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown” superseded any discussion of the film on social media.
Rapturous applause filled the Palast for Ethan Hawke, the star of “Blue Moon,” who donned a Bottega Veneta suit and leopard-print tie to the premiere. As he gave his curtain call, an older woman walked to the front of the theatre and interrupted his speech, shouting “Brava!” and “I love you!” After the speech, he hopped off the stage to wrap the grinning fan in a hug.
Braving the cold, fans lined up to see “Sex Education” star Emma Mackey, who headlined “Hot Milk,” a surreal sapphic drama. The screening started late after she gave in to spectators on the red carpet chanting “Emma!” and demanding autographs.
Critics gave high marks to “Mickey 17,” Bong Joon-ho’s first film since “Parasite,” in which a dopey Robert Pattinson plays a series of expendable clones on an ice planet. They were not as kind to the “Run Lola Run” director Tom Tykwer’s new feature “The Light,” assailing the opening night film for virtue signaling and its bloated run time.
“A Complete Unknown,” “Mickey 17,” “The Light” and “Köln 75,” which all premiered in Berlinale’s star-studded Special section, come soon to German cinemas.
The Panorama section once again delivered some of the festival’s most exciting programming.
The audience award, voted on by any festivalgoer who attends a Panorama screening, went to “Sorda,” a bracing drama about a deaf mother and her hearing partner starting a family. The film stars the sister of Catalan director Eva Libertad and was inspired by her sister’s real-world experiences with ableism and motherhood.
“The Moelln Letters” won best documentary for revisiting the far-right firebombing of a Turkish family’s apartment in 1992. Three decades later, the family discovers that Germans across the country had penned letters of support and solidarity, which the town never shared with the victims. It’s a moving, plainly told exploration on the lasting effects of far-right violence and how to commemorate, process, and archive tragedy.
“Lesbian Space Princess,” a wildly inventive animated musical, took home the Teddy Award for best queer film in Panorama while also placing second in the audience vote. The Australian comedy is a fantastical romp about an introverted space princess who must save her girlfriend from “Straight White Maliens.”
“Maya, Give Me a Title” won the Crystal Bear, the festival’s top prize in the children’s section. The film is a charming series of eccentric stop-motion-animated shorts hand-drawn by the “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” director Michel Gondry, dedicated to his daughter, Maya. Giggles filled the screening room as young audience members watched the title character fill the ocean with French fries and explore the inside of the earth’s core in a construction paper kaleidoscope of a film.
Other standouts were “Paul,” Denis Côté’s artful documentary about a “simp” named Paul who conquers his crippling social anxiety by cleaning the homes of dominatrixes. Perhaps even more of an achievement than the film was the fact that Côté coaxed his fascinating protagonist to attend the premiere and take audience questions, as they discussed the push-and-pull relationship between documentarian and subject.
“Queerpanorama” from Jun Li featured several of the director’s non-actor former hook-ups in a gorgeous black-and-white feature about love and identity backdropped by the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement. And “Lurker” spotlighted the perils of fame, obsession, and social media stardom when a rabid fan infiltrates a singer’s entourage in a stylish modern thriller.
The full list of the Berlinale 2025 winners can be found here.
