A lesbian crime saga set in New Mexico in 1989, it stars Kristen Stewart as Lou, a gym employee who becomes embroiled with bodybuilder Jackie (Katy O’Brian). It’s a relationship that soon goes awry when they cross paths with Lou’s criminal family, led by a splendid pony-tailed Ed Harris.
With Dave Franco and Jena Malone also featuring, this is a thrillingly violent slice of pulp fiction that exceeds the huge promise British director Glass showed with her 2019 debut Saint Maud.
2. A Different Man
The only film in the competition selection that wasn’t a world premiere – it showed at Sundance in January – Aaron Schimberg’s New York fable proved a fascinating, twisted slice of body horror.
Winning the “leading performance” prize at the festival, a prosthetic-wearing Sebastian Stan is Edward, his face disfigured by neurofibromatosis. As he lusts after his aspiring playwright neighbour (Renate Reinsve), the film gets stranger by the minute as Schimberg forces audiences to examine issues of beauty and ugliness.
Adam Pearson, who has this rare condition for real, plays a key role in a marvellous meta-film that feels like a spiritual cousin to the work of Charlie Kaufman.
3. All Shall Be Well
Also taking third prize in the Panorama Audience Award, Yeung’s Teddy Award winner is a subtle but powerful exploration of life, love and legalities.
And, topping it all, was the return of actress Maggie Li Lin-lin, who hadn’t been seen on screen for 30 years – and here gave a touching turn as the woman who dies, her presence lingering across the film.
4. Shambhala
Stunning mountainous vistas brought a Zen-like calm to this story of a pregnant bride, Pema (Thinely Lhamo) – in a polyandrous marriage with three brothers – who goes on a spiritual odyssey when one of her partners goes missing.
The film walked away empty-handed from the prize-giving, but surely deserved recognition.
5. Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger
Featuring in the Berlinale Special strand, this two-hour-plus documentary from director David Hinton is a lush film-school tutorial. Guiding us through the movies of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, the team behind such classics as The Red Shoes and A Matter of Life and Death, is the one and only Martin Scorsese.
Seen on camera, the director, who also received an honorary Golden Bear in Berlin, is the ideal candidate to lead this illuminating deep dive, given how influenced he has been by their work. His encyclopedic knowledge – and his ability to link these indelible films to his own movies – made this a real treat.
6. Crossing
Sometimes, the simplest films work the best. Playing in Panorama, Swedish director Levan Akin (And Then We Danced) told this appealing odd-couple story, as a Georgian teacher (Mzia Arabuli) heads to Istanbul to honour her sister’s dying wish and find her estranged daughter Tekla (Tako Kurdovanidze), who we later learn is transgender.
Joined by a former pupil, Achi (Lucas Kankava), who claims to know where Tekla is, she begins an engaging cross-border journey that muses on trans rights and issues of identity.
Appealingly made and acted, especially by Arabuli, who is amusingly frosty throughout, Crossing is a minor gem of a movie.
7. I Saw the TV Glow
Trans issues also form the backdrop of this smart, unsettling horror about two queer kids (Justice Smith, Brigette Lundy-Paine) obsessed by a Buffy-esque TV show that gets cancelled.
Featuring a cracking performance from Jurassic World star Smith, it marks the second part of a proposed “screen” trilogy from trans director Jane Schoenbrun, who previously made 2021’s We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, set in the world of online gaming.
“To me the films are very intertwined with transition,” Schoenbrun told this writer. “I think I always knew this [TV Glow] was a film about dysphoria or a film about feeling that your world or your identity is not your own.”
8. Last Swim
Opening Berlin’s Generation section, Last Swim marked the promising debut of music video director Sasha Nathwani. The film sits comfortably alongside the recent run of British coming-of-age films such as Scrapper, How to Have Sex and Hoard.
Set in a vibrant and realistically portrayed London, it sees the excellent Deba Hekmat (who featured in Hoard) take the lead as an academically gifted British-Iranian girl facing an uncertain future.
What really impressed is the natural chemistry that Hekmat forges with those playing her peers – youngsters who must all temper their dreams as reality crashes into their worlds.
9. Treasure
British actor-comedian-director Stephen Fry and Girls creator Lena Dunham make for an odd father-daughter pairing, especially with Fry adopting a thick Polish accent.
As hammy as this sounds, Julia von Heinz’s story draws you in, as Dunham’s American music journalist takes her father on a trip to his homeland to appreciate his roots and ultimately back to the “death camp” that is Auschwitz, where he was incarcerated in his youth.
10. Janet Planet
There was genuine excitement in the Potsdamer Platz with the arrival of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Annie Baker (The Flick), who brought her debut feature to the festival.
Julianne Nicholson stars as the titular Janet, an acupuncturist living in Massachusetts in 1991, with vibrant newcomer Zoe Ziegler sublime as her 11-year-old clingy offspring Lacy.
“I had wanted to write something about a single mother and a daughter and their pseudo-marriage for a long time,” Baker told this writer of her coming-of-age story, inspired in particular by Maurice Pialat’s 1968 film L’enfance nue.
