Berlin Reveals First Wave of 2025 Titles: Ira Sachs, Michel Gondry, Denis Côté, and More

The Berlin Film Festival forges a new path next year with the first year under new artistic director Tricia Tuttle, who succeeds Carlo Chatrian and brings a background as a journalist and curator to the annual German showcase. This year’s festival runs February 13-23, and also in new positions this year are Jacqueline Lyanga and Michael Stütz, both serving as co-directors of programming.

With bigger announcements to come, the Berlinale unveiled its first wave of titles across the Panorama and Berlinale Special gala lineups on Tuesday. As previously announced, Tom Tykwer’s “The Light” is opening this coming 75th edition. Filmmakers getting a boost from today’s announcement include Denis Côté, Michel Gondry, and Ira Sachs, all bringing new films to the festival.

In the Berlinale Special lineup, German director Jan-Ole Gerster debuts the neo-noir thriller “Islands,” starring Sam Riley (“Control,” “Widow Clicquot”) and Stacy Martin (recently, “The Brutalist”). Per the festival synopsis, in the film, “Tom, a tennis coach at a luxury hotel, has his life changed when a new family arrives. Matters take a dark turn when the husband disappears and both Tom and the wife become suspects.”

Ido Fluk directs Mala Emde (“And Tomorrow the Entire World”) and John Magaro (“September 5”) in the Berlinale Special Gala title “Köln 75,” which is, per the festival, “The true story of Vera Brandes, teenage patron saint of the 1970s Cologne music scene, who risked everything to organize the greatest solo concert in music history: Keith Jarrett’s legendary Köln Concert.” The film is a Berlinale Special entry as well.

‘Islands’Copyright 2025 augenschein Filmproduktion / Leonine Licensing, still by Juan Sarmiento G.

Also in that section is “Honey Bunch” from Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli. Grace Glowicki (set to break out at Sundance with her directorial effort “Dead Lover”), Ben Petrie, Kate Dickie, Jason Isaacs, and India Brown star in a Canadian world premiere where “Diana’s husband takes her to an experimental trauma clinic deep in the wilderness, but she cannot remember why. As her memories begin to creep back so, too, do some unexpected and sinister truths about her marriage.”

Also announced, the Panorama lineup includes eight world premieres as well as titles that may be familiar to festival-goers, including Ira Sachs’s “Peter Hujar’s Day,” about the gay ’70s New York photographer and starring Ben Whishaw and Rebecca Hall. That’s playing Sundance before heading to Germany.

Other titles confirmed for the Panorama are “Night Stage” (Marcio Reolon and Filipe Matzembacher); “Under the Flags, the Sun” (Juanjo Pereira); “The Ugly Stepsister” (Emilie Blichfeldt); “Dreams in Nightmares” (Shatara Michelle Ford, and a movie IndieWire loves); “Home Sweet Home” (Frelle Petersen); “Khartoum” (Anas Saeed, Rawia Alhag, Ibrahim Snoopy, Timeea M Ahmed, and Phil Cox); “Lesbian Space Princess” (Emma Hough Hobbs and Leela Varghese); “The Moelln Letters” (Martina Priessner); “Paul” (Denis Côté); “Deaf” (Eva Libertad); and “Welcome Home Baby” (Andreas Prochaska). More Panorama films will be announced soon.

Berlinale also announced its Generation sidebar for younger audiences, which includes a screening of Michel Gondry’s new animated film “Maya, Give Me a Title,” which, per the festival, is “a stop-motion love letter to his daughter” that “Maya brings to life a poetic and amusing journey that invites you to dream and laugh.” The Berlinale slot marks the film’s international premiere. Head to Deadline to see the rest of the Generation titles.