The Programme of Berlinale Special is Complete with Further Galas Added, Including James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown

The final nine titles have been added to the Berlinale Special programme. Four of them will be screened as Berlinale Special Gala: Lucio Castro’s After This Death, A Complete Unknown by James Mangold, Heldin (Late Shift) by Petra Volpe and Alex Russell’s Lurker. There is also Das Deutsche Volk by Marcin Wierzchowski, Burhan Qurbani’s Kein Tier. So Wild. (No Beast. So Fierce.), Leibniz – Chronik eines verschollenen Bildes (Leibniz – Chronicle of a Lost Painting) by Edgar Reitz and Anatol Schuster, Michtav Le’David (A Letter to David) by Tom Shoval as well as Julia Loktev’s My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow as Berlinale Special.

Thus, this year‘s Berlinale Special comprises a total of 21 films from 16 countries, among them four documentary forms, 16 feature films and one series. 15 are world premieres. The programme is complemented by a screening of Peter Wollen’s Friendship’s Death in honour of Tilda Swinton, the 2025 Honorary Golden Bear award winner.

“Berlinale Special is one of the most varied sections of the festival, and we take a great deal of care in thinking about different audiences when we make our selections. There are delicious popular forms – from genre films to those that harness the star power and charisma of well-known talents. Likewise there are ‘talking-point’ documentary and fiction films that invite dialogue on issues such as the global health care crisis, or ask us to reflect on the importance of memory as a guard against violence and hate. Berlinale Special is an invitation to our many diverse audiences to experience the pleasures and provocations cinema can offer,” says Festival Director Tricia Tuttle.

The complete programme of Berlinale Special