BERLINALE 2025 AWARD WINNERS: ‘Dreams (Sex Love)’ Takes Home the Golden Bear (Full List)

The 75th Berlin International Film Festival concluded over the weekend after 9 days of new innovative and daring cinema.

The Todd Haynes-headed jury awarded this year’s Golden Bear for Best Film to Norwegian director Dag Johan Haugerud’s Dreams (Sex Love). The drama follows a teenage girl’s (Ella Øverbye) infatuation with her French teacher which ignites tensions within her family, some of whom confront their own unfulfilled dreams and desires. It has yet to be acquired for U.S. distribution, but a continued festival run (TIFF, NYFF, etc.) should not be counted out for this year’s top Berlinale winner.

Other top winners include Rose Byrne, who took home Best Lead Performance for her role in Mary Bronstein’s nerve-wracking drama If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, fresh off its buzzy Sundance premiere. A24 is set to release it sometime later this year. Another big performance winner was Andrew Scott who swooped up Best Supporting Performance for his role as famed composer Richard Rodgers in Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon, which Sony Pictures Classics will release stateside.

Other notable winners include Brazilian director Gabriel Mascaro’s The Blue Trail winning the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize (second place), Romania’s own Radu Jude winning Best Screenplay for his newest innovative feature Kontinental ’25, Lucile Hadžihalilovic’s buzzy Marion Cotillard-headed The Ice Tower winning Outstanding Artistic Contribution (awarded to the film’s creative ensemble and director), and Brandon Kramer’s documentary Holding Liat taking home the Documentary Award (which was presented last year to this year’s Oscar frontrunner No Other Land).

Led by jury president Haynes, the other Main Competition jurors included German filmmaker Maria Schrader, Chinese actress Fan Bingbing, Argentinean director Rodrigo Moreno (who HtN interviewed last year for The Delinquents), Franco-Moroccan filmmaker Nabil Ayouch, German costume designer Bina Daigeler, and American film critic/author Amy Nicholson.

See the full list of winners 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 Hadžihalilovic

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

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