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The Berlinale has announced the full line-ups of its Panorama, Forum and Generation sidebars for the 74th edition running from February 15 to 24. (scroll down for full list)

Panorama will showcase 31 titles including one series and 25 world premieres.

Highlights include Swedish-Georgian director Levan Akin’s Crossing, his first feature since 2019 Cannes breakout And Then We Danced, which opens the selection.

The drama revolves around a retired teacher whose search for her long-lost niece Tekla takes her to Istanbul where she becomes acquainted with a trans rights lawyer.

Other buzzy titles set for a world premiere include André Téchiné’s My New Friends, starring Isabelle Huppert as a solitary police officer, and and Myriam El Hajj’s documentary Diaries From Lebanon, following three people as they navigate their country on the brink of revolution.

A number of Sundance titles will also be making a Panorama splash including Nathan Silver’s Between The Temples,...

Laura Bispuri’s moving, fiery Sworn Virgin comes in a recent tradition of cinematic meditations on gender as a form of identity like Tomboy and All About My Mother, but her film is, above all, about the privilege of access. For Mark (a revelatory Alba Rohrwacher), changing his gender identity was about personal freedom, but it’s not about self-expression or empowerment as much as a reflection of Mark’s need to conform to societal expectations in order to be recognized as a human being with agency.

As Sworn Virgin begins, Mark leaves his life-long Albanian village of Ragam for Rome, Italy, to find Lila (Flonja Kodheli), his long-estranged sister. More than a decade since their last meeting, Mark and Lila’s friendship is speckled with lingering bitterness and a mutual disappointment. Each of these characters had the same goal of escaping their fate, but their paths diverged long ago.

A pair of sections that we’ve been covering almost since its inception, the American Film Institute (AFI) announced their selections for the New Auteurs and American Independents line-ups and we’ve got a noteworthy, eyebrow-raising sampling of award-winning items from the Cannes played hellish immigration drama Mediterranea from Jonas Carpignano to Sundance (Josh Mond’s James White) to SXSW (Trey Edward Shults’ Krisha) winners. Since Park City days, our Nicholas Bell has reviewed a good chunk of these titles, but we’ll still likely have a couple of more reviews once the festival begins. Here are the selections and jury members.

New Auteurs Selections (11 Titles)

From Afar – When a middle-aged man is assaulted and robbed by a young criminal, an unlikely relationship develops. Dir Lorenzo Vigas. Scr Lorenzo Vigas. Cast Alfredo Castro and Luis Silva. Venezuela/Mexico. U.S. Premiere

Disorder – Matthias Schoenaerts plays an ex-soldier who becomes locked...

Neil Armfield.s Holding the Man, Simon Stone.s The Daughter, Jeremy Sims. Last Cab to Darwin and Jen Peedom.s feature doc Sherpa will have their world premieres at the Sydney Film Festival.

The festival program unveiled today includes 33 world premieres (including 22 shorts) and 135 Australian premieres (with 18 shorts) among 251 titles from 68 countries.

Among the other premieres will be Daina Reid.s The Secret River, Ruby Entertainment's. ABC-tv miniseries starring Oliver Jackson Cohen and Sarah Snook, and three Oz docs, Marc Eberle.s The Cambodian Space Project — Not Easy Rock .n. Roll, Steve Thomas. Freedom Stories and Lisa Nicol.s Wide Open Sky.

Festival director Nashen Moodley boasted. this year.s event will be far larger than 2014's when 183 films from 47 countries were screened, including 15 world premieres. The expansion is possible in part due to the addition of two new screening venues in Newtown and Liverpool.

As previously announced, Brendan Cowell...

World premieres of Wim Wenders’ Every Thing Will Be Fine, Oliver Hirschbiegel’s Elser (13 Minutes) and Pablo Larraín’s The Club added to programme.

The 65th Berlin International Film Festival (Feb 5-15) has unveiled its full Competition line-up.

Some 21 of the 23 titles will be world premieres, and 19 features from across Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia will compete for Golden and Silver Bears.

New additions include Wim Wenders’ Every Thing Will Be Fine, which will play out of competition. The film, shot in 3D, stars James Franco as a writer who accidentally hits and kills a child while out driving. Co-stars include Charlotte Gainsbourg and Rachel McAdams.

As previously announced, Wenders will be awarded an Honorary Golden Bear for lifetime achievement and will have ten of his films screened as part of the Homage strand.

Also playing out of competition will be the world premiere of Elser (13 Minutes) from Oliver Hirschbiegel, the German...