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Blue Moon

Competition 2025
© Sabrina Lantos / Sony Pictures Classics
“You know how in marriage they say ‘for better or for worse’? I think, in terms of my life, I have entered the ‘for worse’ part, and it happened so quietly I didn’t even recognize it.”
Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon tells the story of the legendary lyricist Lorenz Hart bravely facing the future as his professional and private life unravel during the opening night party for his former partner Richard Rodgers’ hit show, “Oklahoma!”. In 100 minutes, the film unspools in real-time the events in Sardi’s bar on the evening of March 31, 1943. It is a meditation on friendship, art and love, featuring a rich tapestry of writers, actors, musicians, friends and protégés – a parade of the famous and the soon-to-be-famous. By the time this night is over, Hart will have confronted both a world irrevocably changed by the war, and the seeming impossibility of love.
With powerful performances from Ethan Hawke as Lorenz Hart, Andrew Scott as Richard Rodgers, Margaret Qualley as Hart’s protégé Elizabeth and Bobby Cannavale as Hart’s bartender, buddy and confidante, the film perfectly captures, with Linklater’s deft, comic touch, a singular, astonishing moment in time.
by Richard Linklater (Director), Robert Kaplow (Screenplay)
with Ethan Hawke, Margaret Qualley, Bobby Cannavale, Andrew Scott USA / Ireland 2025 English 100' Colour World premiere

With

  • Ethan Hawke (Lorenz Hart)
  • Margaret Qualley (Elizabeth Weiland)
  • Bobby Cannavale (Eddie)
  • Andrew Scott (Richard Rodgers)

Crew

Director Richard Linklater
Screenplay Robert Kaplow
Cinematography Shane F. Kelly
Editing Sandra Adair
Music Graham Reynolds
Sound Design Tom Hammond
Production Design Susie Cullen
Casting Olivia Scott-Webb
Producers Mike Blizzard, John Sloss, Richard Linklater
Executive Producers Steven Farneth, Macdara Kelleher, John Keville, Donna Eperon, Lisa Crnic, David Kingland, Aaron Wiederspahn
Co-Producer Joshua Foster

Produced by

Detour Filmproduction

Cinetic Media

World Sales

Sony Pictures Classics

Photos

Press Conference

Red Carpet

Richard Linklater

© David Rice

Born in Houston, Texas, USA in 1960, the director and screenwriter founded the Austin Film Society in 1985 to bring films from all over the world to Austin. To date, he has directed 25 feature-length films, received five Oscar nominations and has won two Golden Globes and two BAFTAS. His work was first presented in the Berlinale Competition in 1995 with Before Sunrise which won the Silver Bear for Best Director. The sequels Before Sunset and Before Midnight also screened at the Berlinale. In 2013, he was awarded the Berlinale Camera. In 2014, his film Boyhood won him another Silver Bear for Best Director.

Filmography

1988 It’s Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books 1993 Dazed and Confused 1995 Before Sunrise 1997 Suburbia 1998 The Newton Boys 2001 Waking Life; animation · Tape 2003 Live From Shiva’s Dance Floor; short film · School of Rock 2004 Before Sunset 2005 Bad News Bears 2006 A Scanner Darkly; animation · Fast Food Nation 2008 Inning by Inning: A Portrait of a Coach; documentary 2009 Me and Orson Welles 2012 Bernie · Up to Speed; series 2013 Before Midnight · Boyhood 2016 Everybody Wants Some!! 2017 Last Flag Flying 2019 Where’d You Go, Bernadette (Bernadette) 2022 Apollo 10 ½: A Space Age Childhood 2023 Hit Man 2024 Hometown Prison; series, 1 episode 2025 Nouvelle Vague · Blue Moon

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2025