Berlin Film Festival organizers unveil 2025 competition line-up

Richard Linklater's new feature about a Broadway composer, a documentary about young people in war-torn Ukraine, and an homage to 1960s spy films were among the films unveiled on Tuesday as part of the 2025 Berlin Film Festival's competition lineup.

"This is a major A-list festival with a thriving market," said new festival director Tricia Tuttle, with guests from more than 150 countries coming to the 75th edition of the festival.

The 19 films in contention for the festival's Golden Bear top prize feature several directors returning to the German capital, including Romania's Radu Jude, with his new dark comedy "Kontinental '25," and South Korea's Hong Sang-soo, with his languorous family comedy "What Does That Nature Say to You."

Linklater, the U.S. director known for "Before Sunrise," makes a buzzy return to the festival after more than a decade with "Blue Moon," about composer Lorenz Hart - the other half of the famous songwriting team Rodgers and Hart - with an all-star cast including Ethan Hawke, Margaret Qualley and Andrew Scott.

"Reflection in a Dead Diamond" is Belgium-based duo Helene Cattet and Bruno Forzani's maximalist spy feature, while "Dreams" stars Jessica Chastain as an heiress who falls in love with a Mexican ballet dancer, and "If I Had Legs I'd Kick You" about a child's mysterious illness features Rose Byrne along with late-show TV host Conan O'Brien and rapper ASAP Rocky.

"Timestamp," Kateryna Gornostai's observational documentary about life in Ukraine after Russia's 2022 invasion, is one of the more overtly political entries this year.

Politics as usual?

The Berlin Film Festival, which runs from February 13 to February 23 this year, is considered more political than its peers, Cannes, Venice, Sundance, and Toronto.

"We do not shy away from this. It's arguably in the DNA of the city itself and also in the festival itself," U.S.-born Tuttle told reporters.

The festival ends on the day of Germany's national election, though Tuttle said it plans to mark the event only by encouraging people to vote.

Outside the competition, Oscar-winning "Parasite" director Bong Joon-ho's sci-fi "Mickey 17" with Robert Pattison will have its German premiere during the festival, as will James Mangold's Bob Dylan biopic with Timothee Chalamet "A Complete Unknown".

Tuttle took charge amid financial uncertainty at the festival, which had to slim down its program last year, and Berlin slashed its 2025 culture budget by millions of euros.

However, ahead of Tuesday's news conference, Germany's culture ministry announced that it would contribute an extra 1.9 million euros ($1.97 million) to the festival to mark its 75th anniversary.

That boost "allows us to deliver the festival with a balanced budget this year and... to relive the festival in the way that we want to in this anniversary year," said Tuttle.

U.S. director Todd Haynes heads the international jury that will award this year's top prize. "Run Lola Run" director Tom Tykwer's new film "The Light" will open the festival.