John Magaro, Kate Dickie and Jason Isaacs will be heading to the chilly streets of Berlin. The Berlin Film Festival unveiled the first gala screenings for its 2025 edition, which runs Feb. 13-23.
Islands, the new feature from German director Jan-Ole Gerster (Lara, A Coffee in Berlin), is among the gala highlights. The thriller stars British actor Sam Riley (Control, Maleficent) as a once-promising tennis professional now working as a tennis coach for holidaymakers on a resort island, filling his time with alcohol and brief affairs. Stacy Martin, Jack Farthing, and Dylan Torrell co-star.
Köln 75 from director Ido Fluk, follows the true story of Vera Brandes, teenage patron saint of the 1970s Cologne music scene, who risked everything to organize Keith Jarrett’s legendary Köln Concert, considered by many to be the greatest solo concert in music history. German actress Mala Emde play Fluk with John Magaro, Michael Chernus and Alexander Scheer co-starring.
The Canadian feature Honey Bunch, directed by Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli, is set in an experimental trauma clinic deep in the wilderness, where a women begins to discover unexpected and sinister truths about her marriage. Real-life couple Grace Glowicki and Ben Petrie star alongside Kate Dickie, Jason Isaacs and India Brown.
Opening the 75th Berlinale, for the third time, will be acclaimed German director Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run, Cloud Atlas), who will kick things off with the world premiere of his new feature, Das Licht (The Light), screening out of competition.
This will be the first Berlin Film Festival under its new director, Trica Tuttle, the former head of the London Film Festival, who replaces Berlinale co-directors Carlo Chatrian and Mariëtte Rissenbeek. Tuttle has revamped the Berlinale management and selection process, appointing Michael Stütz, head of Berlin’s Panorama sidebar, and Jacqueline Lyanga, U.S. delegate to the Berlinale, co-directors of film programming, naming a new selection committee, and expanding the festival’s network of advisors and delegates.
In London, Tuttle was known for her close contacts with the U.S. studios, which helped bring many a star-studded premiere to the British capital. Berlin was a bit celebrity-starved in the Chatrian/Rissenbeek years and there are hopes Tuttle and her team will be upping the star quotient for the 75th edition.
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