2025 | Berlinale Talents | Meet the Sections
A Courageous Space
The Berlinale Talents 2025 Key Design
With this year's theme of “Listen Courageously – Cinematic Narratives in Times of Dissonance” Berlinale Talents extends an invitation to its audiences not only to visit the exciting programme, but to actively engage, to explore new ideas, to broaden horizons and welcome new narratives; to listen, courageously, together. Taking the art of listening as the overarching focus, Berlinale Talents strives to encourage not only diversity in the stories we hear, but understanding and tolerance among cinema-loving audiences, guests and Talents.
“In a world full of media noise and an audio-visual overload, we are faced with so much spectacle and opinions screaming for our attention that we can easily fall into a pattern of merely absorbing what we see and hear rather than examining it more carefully in order to analyse and understand it. The power of good cinematic storytelling lies in empathy, which in turn releases immense creativity. In this way, film consciously and unconsciously shapes our worldviews, our moral compasses and our stories, forging an unlimited space for diverse narratives. We want Berlinale Talents to be a courageous space in which people can listen to discover something new and exciting, embrace the existence of ambiguity and emerge stronger from it,” says the Berlinale Talents management duo Nikola Joetze and Tobias Pausinger.
Renowned director Todd Haynes will be one of the many guests of Berlinale Talent 2025
Some highlights from the public programme include:
The award-winning director and President of the International Jury Todd Haynes joins Berlinale Talents for a career-spanning conversation as he opens up about his journey through cinema and the significance of listening courageously as an indispensable tool for great storytelling. The audience can hear all about the groundbreaking career of Inuk filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk; his background and craft, the rise of Indigenous Cinema and his relationship with it, and the importance of language and representation across his filmography.
In "Creating Your Characters’ World from Scratch" costume designer Bina Daigeler and production designer Inbal Weinberg will discuss visual storytelling and the importance of collaboration in their creative teams. Award-winning sound designer and filmmaker Rana Eid discusses her career, her quest to capture the soundscapes of war and the role of silence in "Haunting Sounds and Deafening Silences".
The successful format of the TEDDY Talents Talks, a joint venture between Berlinale Talents, TEDDY AWARD and Queer Academy will return for a third time under the title "TEDDY Talents Talks: Listen to Your Heart". In another multi-membered panel, the International Jury of Berlinale Shorts will play a question-and-answer game with the audience.