Cine25 - The Ticket Shop for People Between 18 and 25

Competition

by Beth de Araújo
USA 2025

After eight-year-old Josephine accidentally witnesses a crime in Golden Gate Park, she begins to act out violently to protect herself. This emotional trauma leads to conflicts between her parents as they search for justice, and a way for the family to feel safe again.

Competition

by Karim Aïnouz
Italy / Germany / Spain / United Kingdom 2026

In a Spanish villa, American siblings Jack, Ed, Anna and Robert wallow in isolation and their inherited fortune. When Jack wants to move in with his girlfriend and Ed uncovers the truth about their mother’s death, the fabric of the family begins to unravel.

Competition

by Anke Blondé
Belgium / Poland / Greece / United Kingdom 2026

At the end of the 1990s, during the height of the Belgian tech boom, visionary entrepreneurs Luc and Geert watch their empire collapse as news of their fraud breaks. With just one day of freedom left, they part ways in search of redemption.

Competition

by Anthony Chen
Singapur 2026

A life-altering event forces 21-year-old Junyang and his girlfriend to face reality. At the same time, while Junyang’s father is struggling to hold their modest life together, a woman enters his life and both generations are forced to redefine their family.

Competition

by Yoshitoshi Shinomiya
Japan / France 2025

For the past four years, Keitaro has been living in a shuttered firework factory that is about to be closed for good. He is determined to unravel the mystery of the shuhari, a mythical firework created by his father before he disappeared without a trace.

Competition

by Fernando Eimbcke
Mexico 2026

Olga rents out a room to a man whose wife has been admitted to a hospital nearby. However, the man has a nine-year-old son he has been sneaking into the room, which leads to Olga’s carefully controlled world shifting as their lives become intertwined.

Competition

by Hanna Bergholm
Finland / Lithuania / France / United Kingdom 2026

Eager to start a family, Saga and Jon move to her childhood home in the Finnish forest. But after their baby is born, the couple’s dream of a perfect child turns into a nightmare – and only Saga senses the unsettling truth.

Berlinale Special

by Gore Verbinski
Germany / USA 2025
A man from the future enters a diner in Los Angeles. He has to recruit exactly the right combination of people from the customers present for a nighttime mission to save the world.

Berlinale Special

by Edwin
Indonesia / Singapore / Japan / Germany / France 2026
The world is forcing humans into excessive work. For the sake of the future and their loved ones, they sacrifice sleep to keep on working. It is at this moment that a dark figure appears and takes possession of their bodies.

Berlinale Special

by Sam Dunn, Tom Morello
USA 2026

The Ballad of Judas Priest follows heavy metal pioneers Judas Priest and their half-century journey from working-class origins in England to their recent induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Perspectives

by Kai Stänicke
Germany 2026

After 14 years away, Hein returns to his home village on a remote island, only to discover that the close-knit community no longer recognises him. Suspecting him to be an impostor, they demand a trial to determine his true identity.

Perspectives

by Ashley Walters
United Kingdom 2026

Behind the walls of a young offender institution, Troy is thrust into a brutal world of gangs, loyalty and violence from the moment he arrives. When an unspoken bond develops with a fellow inmate, it becomes a dangerous vulnerability for them.

Perspectives

by Liz Sargent
USA 2026

Anna, a 38-year-old woman with a cognitive disability, cares for her ageing adoptive parents until a Florida heatwave shatters their family and Anna’s routine. This intimate drama examines the shifting demands placed on a uniquely vulnerable family.

Panorama

by Anna Roller
Germany 2026

Novelist Tanja and web designer Jerome, both in their thirties, have perfected a balance of intimacy and separation in their long-distance relationship. When Tanja catches a glimpse of a settled future together, she wonders if it is really what she wants.

Panorama

by Aidan Zamiri
USA / United Kingdom 2026

A mockumentary about the highs and lows of success. Charli xcx does battle with immense expectations – both from others and herself … Aidan Zamiri presents the musician in her most personal role yet.

Panorama

by Ian de la Rosa
Spain / Germany / Belgium 2026

In a greenhouse in southern Spain, Iván falls in love with his newly hired co-worker, Hadoum. But his long-awaited promotion interferes with their relationship, forcing Iván to decide what kind of person he wants to be.

Generation

by Allan Deberton
Brazil 2026

Gugu, an almost-twelve-year-old boy with football dreams, is raised in the accepting care of his grandmother, Dilma. As she becomes increasingly frail and their world shifts, he struggles to protect the place where he is free to be who he is.

Generation

by Lexie Bean, Logan Rozos
USA 2026

Co-directors Lexie and Logan weave together the stories of two trans boys who died by suicide and their trans masculine+ community, offering resources and imagination for a way forward.

Generation

by Victoria Linares Villegas
Dominican Republic 2026

After her girlfriend’s death, Liz hides her true self until a weekend trip with friends awakens forbidden desires. The result is paranoia and violence that consumes the group as Liz’s secret unleashes a deadly force.

Berlinale Shorts

Miriam by Karla Condado
Yawman ma walad (Someday a Child) by Marie-Rose Osta
Stallion y la bola de cristal (Stallion and a Crystal Ball) by Christian Avilés
Chuuraa by Evgenia Arbugaeva

Berlinale Shorts

Oupatevak het tam phnom (Incident on the Mountain) by Savunthara Seng
Di san xian (Kleptomania) by Jingkai Qu
Cosmonauts by Leo Černic
Les juifs riches by Yolande Zauberman

Berlinale Shorts

La hora de irse (Time to Go) by Renzo Cozza
Flim Flan by Siegfried A. Fruhauf
Henry is a Girl Who Likes to Sleep by Marthe Peters
Les âmes du Fouta (Souls of Fouta) by Alpha Diallo
Plan contraplan (Shot Reverse Shot) by Radu Jude, Adrian Cioflâncă

Forum

by Yusuke Iwasaki
Japan 2026

A supermarket as both a microcosm of Japanese society and the setting for a socially critical horror film. Expressionless faces and a supervisor who demands zombie-like friendliness. Only the young Sakai doesn’t stop hoping. What a debut!

Forum

by Marie Wilke
Germany 2026

In Europe’s biggest military model city, war isn’t just rehearsed, but also conveyed directly. Marie Wilke’s sober, focused observation shows the Bundeswehr navigating how to deal with the past, adapt to the future and its own self-representation.

Forum

by The Critics, Pietra Brettkelly
New Zealand / Nigeria 2026

In Nigeria, the young art-collective The Critics, armed with makeshift gear, conjures homemade sci-fi spectacles, chronicling their reality while blasting into wild imagined worlds. A vibrant documentary and a gleeful ode to the power of (self)invention.

Forum Expanded

by Fil Ieropoulos
Greece / Netherlands 2026

Arthur Rimbaud’s ghost wanders through history, meeting revolutionary figures such as Emma Goldman, David Wojnarowicz and Marsha P. Johnson. A layered collage of encounters questioning identity, revolution and the role of the artistic avant-garde.

Forum Expanded

This Desirable Device by Mina Simendić
Phi Pattana (In Sum) by Komtouch Napattaloong
Pink Schlemmer by Oliver Husain
Katabasis by Martin Moolhuijsen

Retrospective

by Ernest R. Dickerson
USA 1992

Spike Lee’s cinematographer Ernest R. Dickerson’s directorial debut. A story of four young Black men in Harlem featuring hip-hop stars Tupac Shakur and Queen Latifah. Quincy dreams of becoming a star DJ, while his pal Bishop wants to be a rich gangster.

Retrospective

by Daisy von Scherler Mayer
USA 1995

After she is arrested for organising an illegal dance party, a madcap New Yorker works in a public library to pay off her bail money. Parker Posey is brilliant as the “Gen X Holly Golightly” in this indie version of a screwball comedy.

Retrospective

by Mykhailo Belikov
USSR / Ukrainian SSR / USA 1990

After the nuclear meltdown in Chernobyl, a journalist attempts to report from the site of the catastrophe. Raspad is an unusual disaster film, with decay raging on many levels, interspersed with astonishing breaks from reality

Retrospective

by Richard Linklater
USA 1990

An improvised circle dance of some 100 players on the streets of Austin, Texas. The fanciful experiences and absurd dialogue of these young “slackers” turn Richard Linklater’s first theatrical outing into a manifesto for Generation X.

Berlinale Classics

by Grigori Kromanov
USSR / Estonian SSR 1979

There is a murder at a snowed-in mountain hotel. Could supernatural forces be at work here? This genre-busting film noir with elements of fantasy is based on the eponymous book by legendary Soviet writing duo Arkady and Boris Strugatsky.