The Berlinale has confirmed that it will screen Bong Joon Ho’s Mickey 17 at its 75th festival in February. The film will play in the Berlinale Special section getting its international premiere at the annual festival.
Robert Pattinson headlines the film as Mickey Barnes who has found himself in the extraordinary circumstance of working for an employer who demands the ultimate commitment to the job… to die, for a living.
Benedict Cumberbatch and Richard Boxall will also appear in the strand with Dylan Southern’s The Thing With Feathers. The film has the following synopsis, as provided by the festival: Following the death of his wife, a young father’s hold on reality crumbles as a seemingly malign presence begins to stalk him from the shadowy recesses of the apartment he shares with his two young sons.
Justin Kurzel series The Narrow Road to the Deep North will also play in the Berlinale Special category. The film has Jacob Elordi, Ciarán Hinds, Odessa Young, Olivia DeJonge, and Simon Baker in the cast. The series follows a celebrated World War II hero who is haunted by his experiences in a Japanese prisoner of war camp and memories of an affair that took place just before the war. It is an adaptation of Richard Flanagan’s Booker Prize-winning novel.
Tom Tykwer’s The Light opens the festival on 13th February.
A full list of new additions to the Berlinale Special programme is as follows:
Ancestral Visions of the Future
by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese | with Siphiwe Nzima, Sobo Bernard, Zaman Mathejane, Mochesane Edwin Kotsoane, Rehauhetsoe Ernest Kotsoane
France / Lesotho / Germany / Saudi Arabia 2025
Berlinale Special | World premiere | Documentary form
A poetic allegory of the filmmaker Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese’s childhood, an ode to cinema and an inner nod to his mother. Through fragmented narratives and mythic imagery, Mosese crafts a haunting reflection on dislocation and belonging.
Honey Bunch
by Madeleine Sims-Fewer, Dusty Mancinelli | with Grace Glowicki, Ben Petrie, Kate Dickie, Jason Isaacs, India Brown
Canada 2025
Berlinale Special | World premiere
Diana’s husband is taking her to an experimental trauma facility deep in the wilderness, but she can’t remember why… As her memories begin to creep back in so do some unwelcome sinister truths about her marriage.
Islands
by Jan-Ole Gerster | with Sam Riley, Stacy Martin, Jack Farthing, Dylan Torrell
Germany 2025
Berlinale Special Gala | World premiere
Tom, a tennis coach at a luxury hotel, has his life changed when a new family arrives. Matters take a dark turn when the husband disappears and both Tom and the wife become suspects.
Je n’avais que le néant – “Shoah” par Lanzmann (All I Had Was Nothingness) by Guillaume Ribot
France 2025
Berlinale Special | World premiere
Forty years after the release of Claude Lanzmann’s monumental film Shoah, Guillaume Ribot reveals the director’s relentless pursuit to tell the untold, using only Lanzmann’s words and unseen footage from the masterpiece.
Köln 75
by Ido Fluk | with Mala Emde, John Magaro, Michael Chernus, Alexander Scheer
Germany / Poland / Belgium 2025
Berlinale Special Gala | World premiere
The true story of Vera Brandes, teenage patron saint of the 1970s Cologne music scene, who risked everything to organise the greatest solo jazz concert in music history: Keith Jarrett’s legendary Köln Concert.
Das Licht (The Light)
by Tom Tykwer | with Nicolette Krebitz, Lars Eidinger, Tala Al-Deen, Elke Biesendorfer, Julius Gause
Germany 2025
Berlinale Special Gala | World premiere
The Engels family is comfortably living separate lives under the same roof until the enigmatic Farrah, their new housekeeper who has just arrived in Berlin from Syria, enters their lives and challenges each of them in unexpected ways.
A melhor mãe do mundo (The Best Mother in the World | Die beste Mutter der Welt) by Anna Muylaert | with Shirley Cruz, Seu Jorge, Rihanna Barbosa, Benin Ayo
Brazil / Argentina 2025
Berlinale Special | World premiere
To escape an abusive relationship, Gal puts her two young children into the recycling cart she uses to collect trash on the city’s streets and runs away. Alone and facing the dangers of homelessness, she convinces them that they are on an adventure.
Mickey 17
by Bong Joon Ho | with Robert Pattinson, Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette, Mark Ruffalo
USA / South Korea / United Kingdom 2024
Berlinale Special Gala | German premiere
The unlikely hero, Mickey Barnes has found himself in the extraordinary circumstance of working for an employer who demands the ultimate commitment to the job… to die, for a living.
The Narrow Road to the Deep North
by Justin Kurzel | with Jacob Elordi, Ciarán Hinds, Odessa Young, Olivia DeJonge, Simon Baker
Australia 2025
Berlinale Special Gala | World premiere | Series
A celebrated World War II hero is haunted by his experiences in a Japanese prisoner of war camp and memories of an affair that took place just before the war in this adaptation of Richard Flanagan’s Booker Prize-winning novel.
Pa-gwa (The Old Woman With the Knife)
by Min Kyu-dong | with Hyeyoung Lee, Kim Sung-cheol, Yeon Woo-jin, Kim Moo-yul, Shin Sia
South Korea 2025
Berlinale Special | World premiere
Hornclaw, a legendary assassin in her 60s, specialises in eliminating the scum of the earth. She has learned to accept loss but finds new meaning in her mundane yet bloody life when she meets Bullfight, a promising young killer who wants to work with her.
Shoah
by Claude Lanzmann
France 1985
Berlinale Special | No premiere
Claude Lanzmann’s monumental Holocaust film, made over 12 years from interviews filmed around the globe with survivors, bystanders and perpetrators, powerfully recounts the extermination of six million Jews during the Second World War.
The Thing with Feathers
by Dylan Southern | with Benedict Cumberbatch, Richard Boxall, Henry Boxall, Sam Spruell, Vinette Robinson
United Kingdom 2025
Berlinale Special Gala | European premiere
Following the death of his wife, a young father’s hold on reality crumbles as a seemingly malign presence begins to stalk him from the shadowy recesses of the apartment he shares with his two young sons.
