Fresh off the premiere of his latest feature, the Golden Bear contender Dreams, Michel Franco joins us for this no holds barred chat about the collaborative nature of his craft, his work with actors and stars, and his responsibilities as director and producer.

Costume designer Bina Daigeler and production designer Inbal Weinberg have brought to life the worlds of many award-winning films, most recently Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door. Here, they discuss visual storytelling and the importance of collaboration.

Karim Aïnouz (Motel Destino) and Burhan Qurbani (No Beast. So Fierce.) explore the ways in which filmmakers can engage with the world around them, taking into consideration the current socio-political climate and its influence on their creative work.

Award-winning sound designer and filmmaker Rana Eid weighs in on her career, her quest to capture the soundscapes of war, the role of silence, and how her projects have helped her hone her craft in times of conflict.

In this career-spanning conversation, International Jury President Todd Haynes opens up about his journey through cinema and the significance of listening courageously as an indispensable tool for great storytelling.

Award-winning filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer and actor George MacKay join Berlinale Talents for an in-depth talk about their new work, The End, the love for genre cinema, and fascination with musicals.

Exceptional storytellers and groundbreaking artists, filmmaker Cheryl Dunye, producer Christine Vachon, and actor-filmmaker Sara Fazilat discuss their different approaches to cinematic storytelling, and the importance of staying true to one’s vision.

The newly created Perspectives sidebar aims to serve as a platform for bold, emerging filmmakers. Jury members María Zamora, Meryam Joobeur, and Aïssa Maïga join us to discuss and spotlight some of the most daring young voices in cinema.

How do you build and expand your audience in a world that’s saturated with moving images? Drawing from theoretical principles and the raw power of storytelling, this panel will outline ways to strengthen your release campaigns, and deepen your connection with viewers.

In this lively panel, the Berlinale Shorts Jury will engage in a question-and-answer game with the audience. Drawing from their work experiences on films of all lengths, they will explore how “Listen Courageously” has proved vital to their practice.

Filmmakers Orwa Nyrabia and Diana El Jeiroudi discuss their shared journey through cinema, the seminal films they have worked on, their relationship with their native country, Syria, as well as the intersection of the personal and the political in cinema.

Inuk filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk joins us for a career-spanning chat about his practice, the rise of and his relationship with Indigenous Cinema, and the importance of his native language and representation across his filmography.

In this third edition of the Teddy Talents Talks, a joint venture of TEDDY AWARD and Queer Academy, we invite four film professionals to reflect on the boundaries they have broken, and the special place that listening plays in their practice.

Kahlil Joseph’s debut feature, BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions, lands in Berlin. His work defies easy categorization—melding avant-garde cinema, documentary, and popular media into a genre-fluid experience that resonates across art, film, and music.