SAN FRANCISCO
Lee Heidhues 2.15.2025
One of my favorite actors Tilda Swinton https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilda_Swinton will be feted at the 2025 Berlin International Film Festival. One of my favorite movies is the 2007 Michael Clayton for which Tilda Swinton, portraying a relentless corporate attorney, won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. In case you don’t recognize him, that’s George Clooney.
Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 2.13.2025
The 75th Berlin International Film Festival, which runs from February 13-23, kicks off on Thursday with the world premiere of “The Light,” by Tom Tykwer. The German filmmaker behind “Run Lola Run” (1998) and the series “Babylon Berlin” returns with a drama starring Lars Eidinger and Nicolette Krebitz. It depicts a middle-class family whose routine is upturned when a housekeeper from Syria enters their lives.
During the opening event, Tilda Swinton will receive the Honorary Golden Bear, which recognizes her lifetime achievement. The Scottish actor has attended the Berlinale many times over the years, whether as jury president in 2009 or to accompany her films — 26 of which have been featured at the film festival.
One of Swinton’s trademarks is her androgyny, her otherness among more traditionally feminine Hollywood actresses. The tall, lanky Scot wears her hair short and often prefers suits to gowns on the red carpet. She has often played men or ostensibly gender-fluid characters.
In her late 20s, Swinton — then an unknown actress — took a long trip through West Berlin on her bike for Cycling the Wall. In the three decades since, Swinton’s become one the Europe’s biggest and most interesting film stars, and Berlin has blossomed into one of Europe’s most vibrant cultural centers.
Beyond the glitzy red carpet events, the festival is also putting the spotlight on different current and historical events.
With the film festival taking place 80 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, screenings of Claude Lanzmann’s monumental “Shoah” (1985) is part of the special program, as well as a new documentary revisiting the groundbreaking work that revolutionized the representation of the Holocaust in cinema, titled “All I Had was Nothingness,” by Guillaume Ribot.
“My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow” is a documentary about intellectuals being driven in to exile under Russia’s current regime. “Das Deutsche Volk” revisits the racist shootings in Hanau in 2020. And “A Letter to David” is a cinematic letter to Hamas hostage David Cunio, who is still detained in Gaza.
https://www.dw.com/en/what-to-expect-at-the-2025-berlinale/a-71554165
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