Movies 2025

All films marked with a TEDDY 2025 are the current Berlinale films, that center around LGBTIQ+ topics and are in the running for a TEDDY AWARD.

The films without a TEDDY label have queer contexts or are shown retrospectively and do not take part in the competition for the prizes.

You can find the films of previous years of the TEDDY AWARD in our ARCHIVE .

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Winner

A Horse Is Not A Metaphor

United States | Directed by Barbara Hammer

As a “cancer thriver” rather than “survivor,” Barbara Hammer rides through American landscapes changing illness into recovery.
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image caption Filmstill "The Nature of Invisible Things" ©Berlinale

A natureza das coisas invisíveis

(english) The Nature of Invisible Things

(german) Das Wesen unsichtbarer Dinge

Chile, Brazil | Directed by Rafaela Camelo

During the summer holidays, the paths of two ten-year-old girls cross in a hospital and they form an unexpected bond. Their connection leads them on a bittersweet journey of loss, farewells and quiet discoveries about life.
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image caption Ari © Geko Films - Blue Monday Productions - ARTE France - PICTANOVO - Wrong Men - 2025

Ari

France, Belgium | Directed by Léonor Serraille

Ari, a young teacher, quits his job and is thrown out of the house by his father. Lost and alone, he reconnects with old friends, triggering a journey of self-discovery.
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image caption Filmstill "Night Stage" ©Avante Films, Vulcana Cinema

Teddy icon Competition 2025

Ato noturno

(english) Night Stage

Brazil | Directed by Marcio Reolon, Filipe Matzembacher

An actor and a politician start a secret affair and together discover their fetish for having sex in public places. The closer they get to their dream of fame, the more they feel the urge to put themselves at risk.
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image caption Filmstill "Houses" ©Yaniv Linton

Teddy icon Competition 2025

Batim

(english) Houses

Germany, Israel | Directed by Veronica Nicole Tetelbaum

Sasha is non-binary and came to Israel from the Soviet Union as a child in the 1990s. Haunted by memories, they visit the houses they used to live in. A quiet meditation in black and white on what it means to feel at home in a house, a body, and in time.
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image caption Blue Moon © Sabrina Lantos / Sony Pictures Classics

Teddy icon Competition 2025

Blue Moon

Directed by Richard Linklater

On the evening of March 31, 1943, legendary lyricist Lorenz Hart confronts his stattered self-confidence in Sardi's bar as his former collaborator Richard Rodgers celebrates the opening night of his groundbreaking hit musical "Oklahoma!".
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image caption Casi septiembre © ESCAC FILMS

Teddy icon Competition 2025

Casi septiembre

(english) Close to September

Spain | Directed by Lucía G. Romero

Alejandra lives on a campsite close to the big hotels. She takes care of her siblings, hangs out in the neighbourhood and flirts casually with the tourists – until she meets Amara. A romance develops that grows more serious than Alejandra would like.
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image caption Filmstill "Where the Night Stands Still" ©Walang Hanggan

Come la notte

(english) Where the Night Stands Still

Italy, Philippines | Directed by Liryc Dela Cruz

Three Filipino siblings, all domestic workers in Italy, meet in the villa that one of the sisters has inherited. Shared memories and buried grievances come to the surface and put their fragile relationship to the test.
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Das Licht

(english) The Light

Directed by Tom Tykwer

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.
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image caption Die Zärtlichkeit der Wölfe © Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation

Die Zärtlichkeit der Wölfe

(english) Tenderness of the Wolves

Directed by Ulli Lommel

Ulli Lommel’s film about a serial killer in the early post-war era echoes the real story of “wolf man” murderer Fritz Haarmann. A mix of Fritz Lang’s M and Hitchcock’s Psycho that follows in the tradition of Weimar cinema.
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image caption Filmstill "Dreamers" © Dreamers Production Ltd.

Teddy icon Competition 2025

Dreamers

Great Britain | Directed by Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor

As her freedom is threatened, Isio, a Nigerian migrant freshly placed in a UK asylum removal centre, searches for the will to battle the system and finds a kindred spirit who might help her through. Freedom is elusive, but love is eternal.
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image caption Filmstill "Dreams in Nightmares" ©Po Wei Su_118W Films

Teddy icon Competition 2025

Dreams in Nightmares

United States, Taiwan, Great Britain | Directed by Shatara Michelle Ford

Three Black queer femmes in their mid-thirties take a road trip across the American Midwest in search of their friend who has seemingly disappeared off the grid.
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image caption Drømmer © Motlys

Teddy icon Competition 2025

Drømmer

(english) Dreams (Sex Love)

Norway | Directed by Dag Johan Haugerud

Johanne’s intimate writings about her crush on her teacher ignite both tension and self-reflection within her family, as her mother and grandmother confront their own unfulfilled dreams and desires.
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image caption Filmstill "Two Times João Liberada" ©Fresco Mafalda, Cristiana Cruz Forte, Paula Tomás Marques Copyright: ©Fresco Mafalda, Cristiana Cruz Forte, Paula Tomás Marques

Teddy icon Competition 2025

Duas Vezes João Liberada

(english) Two Times João Liberada

Portugal | Directed by Paula Tomás Marques

João stars in a biopic about the gender-nonconforming Liberada, who was persecuted by the Inquisition. When the film’s director is struck down by a mysterious paralysis, João navigates the chaos, determined to honour Liberada’s story and finish the film.
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image caption Extra Life (and Decay) © Stéphanie Lagarde / Constantin Jopeck

Extra Life (and Decay)

France, Netherlands | Directed by Stéphanie Lagarde

A polyphonic narrator – filmmaker, parent, forest, insects, fungi, childcare worker – declares their absolute refusal of labor exploitation, and their necessity to join collective bodies in resistance.
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image caption Filmstill "Generations"

Winner

Generations

United States | Directed by Barbara Hammer, Joey Carducci

Celebrating Hammer’s spontaneous shooting style and dense editing montage with Carducci’s studied cinematography, the two filmmakers, generations apart in age, shoot the last days of the amusement park Astroland in Coney Island, New York.
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image caption Hot Milk © Nikos Nikolopoulos, MUBI

Teddy icon Competition 2025

Hot Milk

Great Britain | Directed by Rebecca Lenkiewicz

Rose and her daughter Sofia journey to a Spanish seaside town to meet an enigmatic healer. As Sofia embraces an affair with an alluring stranger, tensions with her overbearing mother threaten their fragile bond.
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image caption Howl © Matthew Chuang

Teddy icon Competition 2025

Howl

Australia | Directed by Domini Marshall

Daisy and Lila are best friends. At a suburban house party, shifting desires and tough choices force them to reconsider their place in the world and what they mean to each other.
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image caption Filmstill "Janine Moves to the Country" ©Eilhardt Productions

Teddy icon Competition 2025

Janine zieht aufs Land

(english) Janine Moves to the Country

Germany | Directed by Jan Eilhardt

Far away from the big city, Janine is unwelcome, yet an eye-catcher: a sensual, queer subject of projection with wine-red hair. Jan Eilhardt travels with her to engage with his own rural past, opening old wounds and infiltrating a hostile milieu.
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image caption Julian and the Wind © John Ker

Teddy icon Competition 2025

Julian and the Wind

Canada | Directed by Connor Jessup

Arthur and Julian share a dorm at a boys’ boarding school. Arthur is in love with Julian, but Julian ignores him. When Julian begins to sleepwalk, a strange intimacy develops between the two.
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image caption Filmstill "Little Trouble Girls" ©SPOK Films

Kaj ti je deklica

(english) Little Trouble Girls

Slovenia, Italy, Croatia, Serbia | Directed by Urška Djukić

During a weekend of rehearsals with the school choir at a convent, an introverted teenager begins to view the world from a new perspective. New desires, beliefs and values emerge, and this awakening threatens to disrupt her friendships and the choir.
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image caption Kein Tier. So Wild. © Lukasz Bak Sommerhaus Filmproduktion - Port au Prince Pictures - Goodfellas

Teddy icon Competition 2025

Kein Tier. So Wild.

(english) No Beast. So Fierce.

Germany, Poland, France | Directed by Burhan Qurbani

After a bloody gang war, Rashida, the youngest daughter of the Yorks, rises to become the leader of the Berlin underworld. Shakespeare’s “Richard III” is retold in the here and now as the story of an Arab gangster queen.
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image caption La Tour de Glace © 3B-Davis-Sutor Kolonko-Arte

La Tour de Glace

(english) The Ice Tower

Germany, France | Directed by Lucile Hadžihalilović

Colder than ice, her kiss pierces the heart ... The 1970s. Jeanne, a young runaway, falls under the spell of Cristina, the enigmatic star of The Snow Queen, a film which is being shot in the studio where Jeanne has taken refuge.
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image caption Filmstill "That Summer in Paris" ©2024 Comme des Cinemas - Cinq de Trefle Productions

Teddy icon Competition 2025

Le Rendez-vous de l'été

(english) That Summer in Paris

France | Directed by Valentine Cadic

Paris, the 2024 Olympic Games. Blandine (30) arrives from Normandy to watch the swimming competitions. Disorientated by the hustle and bustle of the city where nothing seems to go her way, she navigates the chaos of Paris and an unexpected reunion.
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image caption Filmstill "Lesbian Space Princess" ©We Made A Thing Studios

Teddy icon Competition 2025

Lesbian Space Princess

Australia | Directed by Leela Varghese, Emma Hough Hobbs

The introverted space princess Saira is forced to leave her home planet of Clitopolis on an inter-gay-lactic mission to save her ex-girlfriend who has been kidnapped and is being held ransom by the Straight White Maliens.
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image caption Lloyd Wong, Unfinished © Lloyd Wong

Teddy icon Competition 2025

Lloyd Wong, Unfinished

Canada | Directed by Lesley Loksi Chan

In the 1990s, Chinese-Canadian artist Lloyd Wong began a video work about his living with HIV. It remained unfinished. Thirty years after his death, filmmaker Lesley Loksi Chan discovers and edits the material.
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image caption Filmstill "Looking for Langston" ©Isaac Julien

Winner

Looking For Langston

Great Britain | Directed by Isaac Julien

The 1989 film Looking for Langston is a lyrical exploration of the world of poet and social activist Langston Hughes (1902–1967) and his fellow Black artists and writers of the 1920s Harlem Renaissance.
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image caption Lurker © Berlinale

Lurker

United States, Italy | Directed by Alex Russell

A sales assistant who is bored with his job infiltrates the inner circle of a musician on the verge of mainstream success. The closer he gets to the budding pop star, the more this contact becomes a matter of life and death to him.
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image caption Filmstill "Magic Farm" ©MUBI Copyright: ©MUBI

Magic Farm

United States, Argentina | Directed by Amalia Ulman

An American film crew working for an edgy media company travels to Argentina to cover a musician who has the potential to go viral. When they realise they have landed in the wrong country, they decide to hire local people to fabricate a trend.
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Winner

Maya Deren's Sink

United States | Directed by Barbara Hammer

This evocative tribute to the mother of American avant-garde film provides an elusive agency for a filmmaker who was larger than life, as recounted by those who knew her.
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image caption Monk in Pieces - Foto : © 110th Street Films

Teddy icon Competition 2025

Monk in Pieces

United States, Germany, France | Directed by Billy Shebar, David Roberts

Visionary composer and performer Meredith Monk overcame hostile critics to become one of the great artists of her time. In her seventh decade of creativity, she ponders how her unique work can continue without her.
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image caption O último azul © Guillermo Garza, Desvia

Teddy icon Competition 2025

O último azul

(english) The Blue Trail

Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Netherlands | Directed by Gabriel Mascaro

To maximise economic productivity, the government orders the elderly to relocate to distant housing colonies. Tereza, 77, refuses – and instead embarks on a journey through the Amazon that will change her destiny forever.
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image caption Filmstill "Once Again... (Statues Never Die)" ©Isaac Julien

Teddy icon Competition 2025

Once Again... (Statues Never Die)

Great Britain | Directed by Isaac Julien

This film explores the storied relationship between Dr. Albert C. Barnes, an early US collector and exhibitor of African cultural artefacts, and the renowned philosopher and cultural critic Alain Locke, known as the “Father of the Harlem Renaissance”.
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image caption Filmstill "Peter Hujar's Day" ©One Two Films

Teddy icon Competition 2025

Peter Hujar's Day

United States, Germany | Directed by Ira Sachs

A 1974 conversation between photographer Peter Hujar and his friend Linda Rosenkrantz provides a glimpse into the New York downtown art scene of the time and the personal struggles and epiphanies that define an artist’s life.
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image caption Pidikwe © Caroline Monnet

Pidikwe

(english) Rumble

Canada | Directed by Caroline Monnet

Featuring Indigenous women of various generations, Pidikwe integrates traditional and contemporary dance in an audiovisual whirlwind that straddles the border between film and performance, somewhere between the past and the future.
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image caption Queer as Punk - Foto : © Queer As Punk

Teddy icon Competition 2025

Queer as Punk

Indonesia, Malaysia | Directed by Yihwen Chen

Being LGBT is criminalised in Muslim-majority Malaysia. Trans man Faris and his punk band still travel the country playing gigs and protesting on the streets. A documentary portrait of courageous people, humorous friendship and the spirit of punk.
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image caption Filmstill "Queerpanorama" ©Felix Lam, Good Sin Production

Teddy icon Competition 2025

Queerpanorama

United States | Directed by Jun Li

A gay man impersonates men he has had sex with and brings this new persona with him to his next hook-up. Only by pretending to be someone else can he be truly himself.
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RAPTURE

France, Germany | Directed by Alisa Berger

A diptych about the exiled Ukrainian vogue dancer Marko and his abandoned apartment in Donbas, Ukraine. Marko embarks on a VR experiment, visiting his inaccessible home, recreated through 3D scans and original photographs from the occupied area.
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image caption Satanische Sau 1 © Rosa von Praunheim Filmproduktion

Teddy icon Competition 2025

Satanische Sau

(english) Satanic Sow

Germany | Directed by Rosa von Praunheim

Rosa von Praunheim is the satanic sow, incarnated by the wanton actor Armin Dallapiccola. A poetic compendium of life and death with pushy fans, the Good Lord, lovers and Rosa’s horrified mother.
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image caption Silent Sparks © Taiwan Public Television Service Foundation

Teddy icon Competition 2025

Silent Sparks

Taiwan | Directed by Ping Chu

Freshly released from prison, Pua plunges into the world of gangsters. His long-awaited reunion with his former cellmate Mi-ji falls short of his expectations. Both men will soon have to make some difficult choices.
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image caption Sirens Call © GossingSieckmann / filmfaust / Kochmann

Teddy icon Competition 2025

Sirens Call

Germany, Netherlands | Directed by Miri Ian Gossing, Lina Sieckmann

In this feature-length debut, nomadic siren Una journeys through postmodern reality, navigating survival, identity and belonging. A dive into the merfolk subculture between self-care and political activism, a hybrid of science fiction and documentary.
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image caption Sous ma fenêtre, la boue © Violette Delvoye

Teddy icon Competition 2025

Sous ma fenêtre, la boue

(english) The Mud Under My Window

France, Belgium | Directed by Violette Delvoye

One of Emma’s mothers is too busy; the other is too far away. One is rejected, the other idealised. Out of a trivial tension, an intimate and unsettling face-to-face confrontation suddenly arises.
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image caption STARS © Mojisola Adebayo

Teddy icon Competition 2025

STARS

Great Britain, Germany | Directed by STARS Collective

STARS tells of the Nommo: extra-terrestrial Afro-hermaphrodite anthro-amphibian migrants. Delivered from outer space via the Dogon of Mali, STARS is a queer African tale of tails, told through animation, music, and poetry.
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image caption The Trio Hall © Jing Moving Image

The Trio Hall

Taiwan | Directed by Su Hui-yu

This spectacularly eccentric satire by Su Hui-yu draws on 1970s Taiwanese TV culture and has a roller-skating Hitler dance with Stalin and Mao do the same with Chiang Kai-shek. A revue show of dictators in cahoots with the entertainment industry.
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image caption Vestida de azul © Video Mercury Films

Vestida de azul

(english) Dressed in Blue

Spain | Directed by Antonio Giménez-Rico

Documentary form about six trans women and their lives in 1980s Madrid. They speak frankly about their experiences as performers and prostitutes, facing marginalisation and the repressive laws that endured even after the end of the Franco era.
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image caption Wenn du Angst hast nimmst du dein Herz in den Mund und lächelst 2 © Nikolaus Geyrhalter Filmproduktion

Wenn du Angst hast nimmst du dein Herz in den Mund und lächelst

(english) If You Are Afraid You Put Your Heart into Your Mouth and Smile

Austria | Directed by Marie Luise Lehner

Anna, 12, lives with her deaf mother in a loving bond, yet under humble conditions that are a source of social shame, when she begins high school. Staying close to its heroines, this refreshing debut blends solidarity, feminism and tons of melodies.
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image caption Filmstill "Wish You Were Ear" © Mirjana Balogh

Wish You Were Ear

Hungary | Directed by Mirjana Balogh

In a world where ex-partners have to swap a chosen body part after breaking up, someone rediscovers their former ear on someone else. A journey towards self-acceptance begins.
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image caption Zečji nasip © Kinorama

Teddy icon Competition 2025

Zečji nasip

(english) Sandbag Dam

Croatia, Lithuania, Slovenia | Directed by Čejen Černić Čanak

In a village on the brink of flooding, Marko’s life is turned upside down when Slaven returns for his father’s funeral and rekindles their forbidden romance. Marko must confront his family and make a difficult choice.