New films from Richard Linklater, Michel Franco and Hong Sang-soo are among the competition highlights for the 75th Berlin International Film Festival, the worlds largest public film festival, which unveiled it full lineup today.

Linklaters Blue Moon, a period drama about the final days of Lorenz Hart, half of the Rodgers Hart songwriting team, will have its world premiere at the Berlinale, marking Linklaters fourth time in Berlin competition. At his last go-around, with Boyhood in 2014, he walked away with the Silver Bear for best director. The feature, starring Ethan Hawke, Margaret Qualley, Bobby Cannavale and Andrew Scott, will be released worldwide by Sony Pictures Classics. Berlinale regular, and four-time Silver Bear winner Hong Sang-soo returns with his latest intimate drama, What Does That Nature Say to You?; and Norwegian director Dag Johan Haugerud, whose feature Sex was an audience favorite at Berlin last year, is back with Dreams, the last feature in his Sex, Love, Dreams trilogy.

Other competition highlights include Hot Milk, the directoral debut of Polish screenwriter Rebecca Lenkiewicz (Ida, Disobedience), starring Emma Mackey and Vicky Krieps; Michel Francos Dreams, the Mexican helmers re-teaming with his Jessica Chastain; and French drama The Ice Tower from director Lucile Hadihalilovi, starring Marion Cotillard, Gaspar No, and August Diehl.

Marion Cotillard in The Ice Tower 3B-Davis-Sutor Kolonko-Arte Opening the press conference, Tuttle nodded to Berlins reputation as the most political of the big festivals.

People often ask me, and the press often ask me if were a political festival, and we cannot, and we do not shy away from this, Tuttle said. Its arguably in the DNA of the city itself and also in the festival itself, but its fair to say that the Berlinale is many things, and for all festivals and all culture right now, the news agenda can often dominate the discourse, but we really hope, and we believe, that the films that audiences are going to see over the next over the weeks of the festival are going to get people talking about the vibrancy of the art form itself and the films themselves.

Last year in Berlin, politics overshadowed the cinema, when Berlinale award winners who called for a ceasefire in Gaza and made pro-Palestinian statements on stage sparked a backlash in Germany. Prominent politicians, both left- and right-wing, branded the statements antisemitic and called for consequences from the festival.

Tuttle admitted the situation in Berlin this year will be challenging, especially as Germany is in the midst of a national election campaign, with voting to be held on Feb.23, the final day of the festival.

But lets be honest, this year has been really challenging for every festival, said Tuttle. Were living in a world thats very divisive and divided, and discourses not always friendly and open, and so that creates a challenging environment. But as challenging as its been, and I mean this really honestly, its also been really joyous, really pleasurable, and a real privilege to watch the films that weve just talked about here and to work with our teams to put together a program. So I think it would be crazy for me to complain about the challenges when we have these amazing films to show to audiences.

There are certainly plenty of political talking points in the official lineup, which include the world premieres of Marcin Wierzchowskis Das Deutsche Volk, a look at the far-right attacks in the German city of Hanau in 2020; Michtav LeDavid (A Letter to David) from Israeli director Tom Shoval, a cinematicletterto his friend DavidCunio, who was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7th; and My Undesirable Friends: Part I Last Air in Moscow, a documentary from U.S. director Julia Loktev, which documents independent journalists in Moscow facing government crackdown as Russia invadesUkraine. All three films will screen in the Berlinale Special program.

Berlin has already announced most of the films screening in its gala sections this year, including Mickey 17, the sci-fi feature starring Robert Pattinson from Parasite director Bong Joon-Ho, which will bow out of competition, and Das Licht, the new film from German helmer Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run, Cloud Atlas), which will open the 2025 Berlinale on Feb. 13.

Berlins sidebars are also complete. The full lineup for Panorama an explicitly queer, explicitly feminist, explicitly political section featuring indie arthouse cinema from around the world as well as for Forum (experimental cinema) and Generation (youth and childrens films) were unveiled earlier this month.

Sidebar highlights include new features from arthouse favorites Ira Sachs (Peter Hujars Day), Denis Ct (Paul), and Michel Gondry(Maya, Give Me a Title).

U.S. director Todd Haynes (Carol, Far From Heaven), whose debut feature Poison won the Teddy Award at Berlin in 1991, is president of this years international jury which will pick the winners of Berlins Gold and Silver Bears. Tilda Swinton, who has screened a total of 26 films in Berlin over the years, will receive this years Honorary Golden Bear for lifetime achievement.

Berlinale 2025 Competition

Ari, director: Lonor Serraille

France / Belgium (2025)

Blue Moon, director: Richard Linklater

USA / Ireland (2025)

La cache (The Safe House), director: Lionel Baier

Switzerland / Luxembourg / France (2025)

Dreams, director: Michel Franco

Mexico (2025)

Drmmer (Dreams (Sex Love)), director: Dag Johan Haugerud

Norway (2024)

Geu jayeoni nege mworago hani (What Does That Nature Say to You), director: Hong Sangsoo

South Korea (2025)

Hot Milk, director: Rebecca Lenkiewicz

United Kingdom (2025)

If I Had Legs Id Kick You, director: Mary Bronstein

USA (2024)

Kontinental 25, director: Radu Jude

Romania (2025)

El mensaje (The Message), director: Ivn Fund

Argentina / Spain (2025)

Mothers Baby, director: Johanna Moder

Austria / Switzerland / Germany (2025)

O ltimo azul (The Blue Trail), director: Gabriel Mascaro

Brazil / Mexico / Chile / Netherlands (2025)

Reflet dans un diamant mort (Reflection in a Dead Diamond), directors: Hlne Cattet, Bruno Forzani

Belgium / Luxembourg / Italy / France (2025)

Sheng xi zhi di (Living the Land), director: Huo Meng

Peoples Republic of China (2025)

Strichka chasu (Timestamp), director: Kateryna Gornostai

Ukraine / Luxembourg / Netherlands / France (2025)

La Tour de Glace (The Ice Tower), director: Lucile Hadihalilovi

France / Germany (2025)

Was Marielle wei (What Marielle Knows), director: Frdric Hambalek

Germany (2025)

Xiang fei de nv hai (Girls on Wire), director: Vivian Qu

Peoples Republic of China (2025)

Yunan, director: Ameer Fakher Eldin

Germany / Canada / Italy / Palestine / Qatar / Jordan / Saudi Arabia (2025)

Berlinale Special 2025

After This Death, director: Lucio Castro

USA (2025)

A Complete Unknown (Like A Complete Unknown), director: James Mangold

USA (2024)

Heldin (Late Shift), director: Petra Volpe

Switzerland / Germany (2025)

Islands, director: Jan-Ole Gerster

Germany (2025)

Kln 75, director: Ido Fluk

Germany / Poland / Belgium (2025)

Das Licht (The Light), director: Tom Tykwer

Germany (2025)

Lurker, director: Alex Russell

USA / Italy (2025)

Mickey 17, director: Bong Joon Ho

USA / South Korea / United Kingdom (2024)

The Thing with Feathers, director: Dylan Southern

United Kingdom (2025)

Ancestral Visions of the Future, director: Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese

France / Lesotho / Germany / Saudi Arabia (2025)

Das Deutsche Volk, director: Marcin Wierzchowski

Germany (2025)

Honey Bunch, directors: Madeleine Sims-Fewer, Dusty Mancinelli

Canada (2025)

Je navais que le nant Shoah par Claude Lanzmann (All I Had Was Nothingness), director: Guillaume Ribot

France (2025)

Kein Tier. So Wild. (No Beast. So Fierce.), director: Burhan Qurbani

Germany / Poland / France (2025)

Leibniz Chronik eines verschollenen Bildes (Leibniz Chronicle of a Lost Painting), directors: Edgar Reitz, Anatol Schuster

Germany (2025)

A melhor me do mundo (The Best Mother in the World | Die beste Mutter der Welt), director: Anna Muylaert

Brazil / Argentina (2025)

Michtav LeDavid (A Letter to David), director: Tom Shoval

Israel / USA (2025)

My Undesirable Friends: Part I Last Air in Moscow, director: Julia Loktev

USA (2024)

Pa-gwa (The Old Woman with the Knife), director: Min Kyu-dong

South Korea (2025)

Shoah, director: Claude Lanzmann

France (1985)

Friendships Death, director: Peter Wollen

United Kingdom (1987)

Berlinale Perspectives 2025

Al Mostamera (The Settlement), director: Mohamed Rashad

Egypt / France / Germany / Saudi Arabia / Qatar (2025)

Baksho Bondi (Shadowbox), directors: Tanushree Das, Saumyananda Sahi

India / France / USA / Spain (2025)

BLKNWS: Terms Conditions, director: Kahlil Joseph

USA (2025)

Come la notte (Where the Night Stands Still), director: Liryc Dela Cruz

Italy / Philippines (2025)

El Diablo Fuma (y guarda las cabezas de los cerillos quemados en la misma caja) (The Devil Smokes (and Saves the Burnt Matches in the Same Box)), director: Ernesto Martinez Bucio

Mexico (2025)

Duas Vezes Joo Liberada (Two Times Joo Liberada), director: Paula Toms Marques

Portugal (2025)

H mn (Eel), director: Chu Chun-Teng

Taiwan (2025)

How to Be Normal and the Oddness of the Other World, director: Florian Pochlatko

Austria (2025)

Kaj ti je deklica (Little Trouble Girls), director: Urka Djuki

Slovenia / Italy / Croatia / Serbia (2025)

Mad Bills to Pay (or Destiny, dile que no soy malo), director: Joel Alfonso Vargas

USA (2025)

Minden Rendben (Growing Down), director: Blint Dniel Ss

Hungary (2025)

Mit der Faust in die Welt schlagen (Punching the World), director: Constanze Klaue

Germany (2025)

On vous croit (We Believe You), directors: Arnaud Dufeys, Charlotte Devillers

Belgium (2025)

Le rendez-vous de lt (That Summer in Paris), director: Valentine Cadic

France (2025)