Berlin Festival Introduces New Section, Perspectives for Film Debuts

The Berlin International Film Festival has introduced a new competitive sidebar section called Perspectives, dedicated to feature debuts.

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The new section will launch in 2025 as part of the Berlinale reboot spearheaded by incoming festival director Tricia Tuttle.

The new section, which aims “to provide a more prominent platform for emerging filmmakers,” will showcase up to 14 debut features. A jury of three industry professionals will pick a winner for the best first feature film award, which will come with a $53,000 (€50,000) cash prize. The award money will be split between the producers and directors of the winning film.

“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,” Tuttle said in a statement.

Previously, the best first feature award was selected from debut features across all sections.

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The selection process for Perspectives will involve collaboration between the festival director, the co-directors of film programming, and the section heads of the Panorama, Forum, and Generation sidebars.

Preference will be given to world premieres, but films that have already debuted in their country of origin may also be considered.

As part of Tuttle’s reshuffling at the festival, the Berlinale has dropped its Encounters section, which focused on more experimental cinema.

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