Berlinale announced the creation of an international competitive strand for fiction feature debuts, called Perspectives. The new stand-alone competition will include up to 14 fiction debuts from all over the world, with a jury of three deciding on the Best First Feature Award. The award is endowed with 50,000 euros, funded by GWFF (Gesellschaft zur Wahrnehmung von Film- und Fernsehrechten), a society dedicated to safeguarding film and television rights. The prize money is to be split between the producers and the directors of the winning film.
Perspectives emerged from the Best First Feature Award at the Berlinale, run in partnership with GWFF since 2006. Previously nominations were embedded across all of the festival’s sections; this new strand brings the films together into a high profile focal point competition.
Tricia Tuttle, Berlinale Director, commented: “Perspectives will offer a more visible platform for exceptional emerging filmmakers from around the world. We are looking for features representing a genuinely international range of voices which have a bold and fluent cinematic language and offer arresting perspectives and new ways of seeing the world. I would like to thank the GWFF for their decades of support in our commitment to emerging filmmakers and for continuing to accompany us in the reorientation of the award.”
Dr. Gertraude Müller-Ernstberger, Managing director of GWFF: “2025 will mark the 20th year of GWFF’s backing of debut feature filmmakers at the Berlinale, and I am very happy that the festival is finding a way to raise the profile of emerging filmmakers through the creation of a standalone competitive strand. GWFF is dedicated to supporting the next generation of talent and it’s our honor to continue our longstanding commitment as founder of the Best First Feature Award.”
Films selected to participate in the Perspectives competition will be curated by the Festival Director together with the Co-Directors of Film Programming and the section heads of Panorama, Forum and Generation. World premieres will be given preference, but films that have already premiered in their country of origin can also be considered at the discretion of the Festival Director.
The Berlinale has traditionally been committed to supporting up-and-coming filmmakers and the various festival sections will also continue to present feature film debuts. The festival also announced that the Encounters section will no longer be continued. As is historically the case, the Berlinale will still seek to profile aesthetically and structurally daring works from independent filmmakers across different sections of the festival.