Slowly, 12-year-old Anna and her deaf mum are starting to feel a bit cramped in their flat. It’s not just the lack of privacy that’s causing friction – Anna has just started secondary school and quickly realises what’s important now: brand-name clothes and a sense of belonging. In her debut, director and author Marie Luise Lehner stages a confrontation with classist structures, which Anna tackles with a mixture of shame and grit.

Arsenal – Institute for Film and Video Art is now a member of FIAF (Fédération Internationale des Archives du Film / International Federation of Film Archives). At its general assembly in Montreal on May 1 and 2, it was decided to covert Arsenal’s associate membership, which had been in place since 2019, into a full membership.

How do fatally ill patients face death? And how can you help them fill their remaining time with as much quality of life as possible? In his feature film debut, Philipp Döring explores these questions by following everyday routines at the palliative care unit at the Franziskus Hospital in Berlin. The film will be available for rental starting November 17, before which it is reserved for festival screening.

Wilhelm Hein died on March 15^th at the age of 85 following a long illness. He was one of the most influential and radical experimental filmmakers of the generation that turned cinema inside out from the 1960s onwards. His life partner, photographer Annette Frick, with whom he published the image magazine “Jenseits der Trampelpfade” since 1992, announced the news yesterday.  

In 1970, Ghanaian filmmaker Nii Kwate Owoo managed to outsmart the directors of the British Museum and its security system to gain access to the museum’s secret underground vaults and film valuable African artifacts stowed away there. One day was enough to shoot this short film revealing the extent of the theft of African artifacts, stashed in plastic bags and wooden crates — and to make a case for their restitution.

In addition to the Silver and Golden Bears, various independent juries award prizes at the Berlinale. Forum films received several awards this year.

The Berlinale Documentary Award 2025 goes to HOLDING LIAT by Brandon Kramer. The Forum films CANONE EFFIMERO and LA MEMORIA DE LAS MARIPOSAS (The Memory of Butterflies) received Honorary Mentions.