‘Dreams (Sex Love)’ Wins Berlinale Golden Bear: See the Full List
The 75th Berlin Film Festival has concluded after nine days of fearless cinema in Germany. IndieWire was on the ground this year and earlier this week took a closer look at the top contenders for the Berlinale Golden Bear, which will be announced today along with other prizes.
That Rose Byrne and director Mary Bronstein had returned to the Palast red carpet meant their film “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” (which bowed early on at Berlin after world premiering at Sundance in January) was bound to win something. Byrne won the Silver Bear for Best Lead Performance for her turn as a stressed-out mother in crisis in the A24 psychodrama. Hopefully, this award gives Byrne momentum for the 2025 awards season ahead; it’s one of the great screen performances and certainly the crown of her career.
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Today’s ceremony marked the first under new artistic director Tricia Tuttle, whose festival opened with Tom Tykwer’s “The Light” last week. The Golden Bear went to Norwegian filmmaker Dag Johan Haugerud’s “Dreams (Sex Love).” It’s the third in a trilogy about human sexuality, and this one centers on a young woman’s (Ella ?verbye) crush on her female French teacher (Selome Emnetu), which proves explosive for her other personal relationships. “Dreams (Sex Love)” played in Norway last fall, and IndieWire understands Strand has rights to release all three films in the U.S. The first installment in the director’s trilogy, “Sex,” played the Panorama in Berlin last year. The second installment, “Love,” premiered at the 2024 Venice Film Festival, where it competed for the Golden Lion.
Other acclaimed films at the festival that took home awards include 2021 Golden Bear winner Radu Jude’s “Kontinental ’25” (screenplay winner), Gabriel Mascaro’s “The Blue Trail” (Silver Bear Grand Jury prize winner), Richard Linklater’s “Blue Moon” (a supporting winner for actor Andrew Scott), Huo Meng’s “Living the Land” (Best Director winner), and Lucile Had?ihalilovi?’s “The Ice Tower” (Artistic Contribution winner).
The 2025 Berlinale international competition jury is headed up by Todd Haynes, whose narrative feature debut “Poison” won a Teddy prize for queer filmmaking there in 1991. He’s joined by jurors Nabil Ayouch (Morocco/France), costume designer Bina Daigeler (Germany), actor Fan Bingbing (China), director Rodrigo Moreno (Argentina), Los Angeles Times critic Amy Nicholson (U.S.), and writer/director/actor Maria Schrader (Germany).
The Berlinale acting awards went gender-neutral in 2021, meaning we’d only get two acting winners today for Lead and Supporting Performance. Last year, Mati Diop’s Senegalese Oscar-contending documentary “Dahomey” won the Golden Bear. This year, only one documentary premiered in competition at Berlin, the Ukraine wartime portrait “Timestamp.”
Presenter Désirée Nosbusch, who opened the festival on February 13, returned to emcee tonight’s awards. All the winners are below.
Main Competition
Golden Bear: “Dreams (Sex Love”) (dir. Dag Johan Haugerud)
Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize: “The Blue Trail” (dir. Gabriel Mascaro)
Silver Bear Jury Prize: “The Message” (dir. Iván Fund)
Silver Bear for Best Director: Huo Meng, “Living the Land”
Silver Bear for Best Lead Performance: Rose Byrne, “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You”
Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance: Andrew Scott, “Blue Moon”
Silver Bear for Best Screenplay: “Kontinental ’25” (Radu Jude)
Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution: “The Ice Tower” for the film’s creative ensemble and director Lucile Had?ihalilovic
Perspectives
Best First Feature: “The Devil Smokes (and Saves the Burnt Matches in the Same Box)” (dir. Ernesto Martinez Bucio)
Special Mention: “We Believe You” (dirs. Arnaud Dufeys, Charlotte Devillers)
Documentary Prizes
Documentary Award (with a prize of 40,000 euros): “Holding Liat” (dir. Brandon Kramer)
Special Mention: “The Memory of Butterflies” (dir. Tatiana Fuentes Sadowski)
Special Mention: “Canone effimero” (dirs. Gianluca and Massimiliano De Serio)
Short Film Prizes
Golden Bear for Short Film: “Lloyd Wong, Unfinished” (dir. Lesley Loksi Chan)
Silver Bear Jury Prize: “Ordinary Life” (dir. Yoriko Mizushiri)
CUPRA Filmmaker Award: Quenton Miller, “Koki, Ciao”
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