Berlinale 2023: Most Anticipated Films at the Festival

The movie year has already unleashed a lot of memorable work, from Sundance breakouts to “M3GAN.” But things are about to get a lot more global. Even as a new Marvel movie opens in theaters worldwide, the Berlin International Film Festival begins on Wednesday to offer a whole lot more. Nestled in between Sundance and SXSW, Berlin is like a firehose of international cinema.

More than 200 films from around the world will premiere at the festival this week, many of which are potential discoveries. Berlin premieres sometimes creep into awards consider (this year’s Oscar nominee “The Quiet Girl” premiered there last year) but can also deliver major new works from rising filmmaker talent. Some of the more promising titles from this year’s lineup speak to its versatility. It’s also a valuable European launchpad for Sundance highlights: The festival’s hit “Past Lives” plays in competition.

From its Golden Bear competition to intriguing sidebars like Encounters, you never know what you’re going to get with Berlin, which makes the opportunity to peruse the lineup all the more worthy of exploration. Here are some of most appealing premieres as this year’s edition gets underway.

Kate Erbland, Jude Dry, and Ryan Lattanzio also contributed to this article.

“Afire”

German Christian Petzold continues his post-Nina Hoss era with his latest film to premiere in Berlin, “Afire.” It’s also the second entry in his “elemental trilogy,” which launched in 2020 with Berlinale FIPRESCI winner “Undine.” That film incorporated fantasy and folklore to tell a melancholy love story set against the backdrop of water as a connective tissue for romantic connection and separation, winning Paula Beer (Petzold’s closest collaborator since “Transit”) the Silver Bear for Best Actress. While “Afire,” in which Beer returns, is set along the Baltic Sea, this one has more to do with the flames of passion erupting and fizzling between four people trapped in a holiday home that is also surrounded by forest fires. The film also stars Thomas Schubert, Langston Uibel, Enno Trebs, and Matthias Brandt. —RL

“The Adults”

Director Dustin Guy Defa may be familiar to festival audiences for his 2017 Sundance “Person to Person,” a very New York ensemble piece more contend to hang out with a memorable group of eccentric characters than to shoehorn them into a convoluted plot. Now Defa has repeated that talent on a smaller scale, re-teaming with “Person to Person” standout Michael Cera for the charming and bittersweet look at grownup siblings attempting to rekindle their fragile bonds.

Cera plays Eric, a dodgy poker player who resurfaces in his upstate hometown to see his two sisters (Hannah Gross and Sophia Lillis). In a tender, finely-tuned performances that ranks among his best, Cera oscillates from maniacal card shark and passive-aggressive loner to caring older brother, as Defa’s subtle approach to dialogue once again calls to mind the inquisitive, character-based approach of another Eric — French New Wave director Eric Rohmer — as he turns the old trope of arrested development into a touching and intimate look at family bonds come undone. —EK

“Boom! Boom! The World vs. Boris Becker”

“Boom! Boom! The World vs. Boris Becker”

Prolific documentarian Alex Gibney has built out a career out of trenchant explorations of American dysfunction (“Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room,” the COVID-focused “Totally Under Control”) and absorbing portraits of famed, troubled individuals (“The Armstrong Lie,” “Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine”). His latest falls into the latter camp, tracking famed tennis giant Boris Becker, who made the record books as the youngest winner of the Wimbledon Championships when he was 17.

That was nearly 40 years ago; in the ensuing time, his mounting financial problems landed him behind bars. Building a personal portrait of the complicated figure with interviews from 2012 and 2022 — before and after his recent prison sentencing — “Boom! Boom!” promises to resurrect the remarkable prowess of early Becker’s talent in tandem with the flaws that brought him down. —EK

“Inside”

“Inside”

Wolfgang Ennenbach / Focus Featu

A clever inversion of the survival story — what if a dude got stuck inside, not outside, and still had to use all his wits to survive? — that also somehow manages to not feel too much like all that COVID Lockdown Cinema we’ve been steeped in for the past three years, Greek filmmaker Vasilis Katsoupis’ narrative debut “Inside” lives and dies by the strength of its leading man, Willem Dafoe. Few working actors today could be as interesting and credible in such a narrow role, but Dafoe is more than up for the task.

Set entirely in a super-fancy — and ostensibly technologically advanced — Manhattan penthouse, the film chronicles what happens after Dafoe’s art thief Nemo is trapped inside (get it?) the apartment when a heist goes awry. The film has plenty of twists and turns that go beyond watching Nemo try to survive in a mostly barren joint that’s also filled with prized art, but Dafoe is enthralling as ever, and his performance is lively enough to paper over some of the film’s biggest swings. Focus Features will release it in theaters in March, so anyone looking to catch what seems destined to become a signature role for the star doesn’t have long to wait. Just bring supplies to the theater; you never know what might happen. —KE

“Kill Boksoon”

Even the Berlinale can’t escape the long arm of Netflix, but the streaming giant has brought one of its most exciting new projects to the starry festival this year, in the form of Byun Sung-hyun’s South Korean actioner “Kill Boksoon.” The film stars Jeon Do-yeon, Sol Kyung-gu, Esom, and Koo Kyo-hwan in a twisty thriller that sees Jeon (who has enjoyed internatiaonal acclaim for years, most notably thanks to her boundary-breaking Best Actress win at Cannes for her turn in “Secret Sunshine”) as a single mother who also happens to be a skilled contract killer. Even better? She’s struggling to find balance in her fraught life, an ask made all the more complicated by her twinned desires to 1) kill people and 2) raise a good kid. Now those are some modern problems. —KE

“#Manhole”

“#Manhole”

From “The Shallows” to “Buried” and “All is Lost,” there are plenty of strong minimalist thrillers built around one person forced trapped in a challenging situation with nobody else around. Catalyzed, perhaps, by pandemic-related claustrophobia, this year’s Berlinale has two new examples: There’s Willem Dafoe as a robber stuck in an apartment with “Inside” (above) as well as “#Manhole,” which — you guessed it! — all takes place within the confines of a manhole. And this particular curious exercise holds a lot of potential.

Japanese director Kazuyoshi Kamakiri’s addition to the subgenre revolves around an enterprising young man (Yuto Nakajima) who falls down the hole in question the night before his wedding. The ensuing scramble to make his way out of the space in time for his moment at the altar promises a fresh twist on the genre and an acting showcase for Japanese singer and model Nakajima, who is said to single-handedly carry this movie on his shoulders for obvious reasons. —EK

“Manodrome”

“Manodrome”

With “The Wound,” Johannesburg filmmaker John Trengove explored a closeted gay relationship in the Eastern Cape mountains of South Africa amid an initiation ritual. That 2017 film nearly made it all the way to the Oscars — it ended up on the shortlist for Best International Feature — but also cemented the stature of an eerie and unusual new queer classic.

Five years later, Trengove is back with his English-language debut “Manodrome,” a thriller starring Jesse Eisenberg, Adrien Brody, and Odessa Young. Her character was originally played by Riley Keough, who had to decamp the project — like “The Wound,” also an interrogation of masculinity — but stayed on as a producer. Eisenberg appears to be playing almost totally against type — at least if his turn in “Fleishman Is in Trouble” is any establishment of “type” — as a pierced bodybuilder and Uber driver. He is inducted into a “libertarian masculinity cult,” according to a synopsis, and his tether to reality begins to unravel. —RL

“She Came to Me”

“She Came to Me”

Berlinale

This year’s Berlinale opens with a starry offering: Rebecca Miller’s first film since 2015’s underseen (and, we’d argue, underappreciated) Greta Gerwig vehicle “Maggie’s Plan” boasts a cast that includes Peter Dinklage, Anne Hathaway, and Marisa Tomei. Dinklage stars as a composer suffering from writer’s block who finds himself (miraculously?) freed up after a one-night-stand with a delightful new woman, but early reports hint at something even more wide-ranging, a multi-generational rom-com that examines many facets of love. Miller is aces when it comes to finding the heart and humor in complicated, deeply human situations, and “She Came to Me” sounds like the sort of thing she excels at. Even better: Bruce Springsteen has written an original song for the movie, which sounds like it’s got complicated crowdpleaser written all over it. —KE

“Perpetrator”

The absurd resale value of JNCOs notwithstanding, ’90s nostalgia has some benefits. And the return of Alicia Silverstone, not just in Super Bowl ads but in unusual feminist horror, is definitely cause to celebrate. The “Clueless” star takes a delightful turn as the steely guardian of a mysterious family secret in “Perpetrator,” a surreal horror thriller from provocateur Jennifer Reeder (“Knives and Skin”). Silverstone delivers her lines in a hyper-stylized staccato, the comical over-enunciation evoking a mix of some otherworldly presence or a WASP-y childless aunt. Her youthful features belie her age when she’s introduced as the great aunt of teenager Jonny (Kiah McKirnan), a scrappy loner who’s trying to survive high school in a town where young women have been turning up missing.

Reeder makes amusing satire out of the pearl-clutching protection of young girls, with over-the-top active-shooter drills rolling out at a high-pitched frenzy. The missing girls, and Jonny’s unsettling ability to feel their pain, collide in a chilling conclusion with gore and guts to match. Reeder’s ability to conjure sightly askew worlds that mirror and poke fun at contemporary fears is as daring as ever, and a refreshing departure from most male-driven big-budget horror. —JD

“Tótem”

“Tótem”

Mexican director Lila Avilés’ 2018 debut “The Chambermaid” all took place in claustrophobic hotel rooms; her latest expands the space only enough to encompass one house. Set over the course of a single day, the story revolves around a family gathering for an ailing painter and father who at first attempts to hide from his relatives. The focused, atmospheric drama is said to be both somber and uplifting as it explores the experiences of a man coming to terms with his mortality, and should further cement Avilés as one of the most promising filmmakers to emerge from Latin America in recent years. —EK

“Reality”

“Reality”

The saga of Reality Winner is well-documented: In 2017, the young military contractor was sentenced to over five years in prison after she leaked evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 elections to The Intercept. She has since been released, but her story continues to be scrutinized. While the 2021 documentary “United States vs. Reality Winner” explored the circumstances that led to Winner’s capture (and the disproportionate punishment she received), playwright Tina Satter took a more ambitious report for her play “Is This a Room” the same year, using the actual FBI transcripts of Winner’s initial interrogation and arrest to construct an absorbing drama.

Now, that same material has been transformed into a remarkable chamber piece that serves as Satter’s directorial debut, with Sydney Sweeney (perhaps best known for “White Lotus” Season 1) in a gripping turn as the woman in question. The movie provides a snapshot of the strange and often eccentric nature of the interrogation process, as Winner comes to terms with her circumstances while navigating the strange linguistic hoops that the FBI agents force her to go through. Blending first-rate suspense with thematic intrigue and unexpected flashes of humor, “Reality” brings a sharp personal lens to the consequences faced by a modern-day whistleblower through the prism of the labyrinthine rituals of the American justice system. —EK

“Superpower”

“Superpower”

As Russian troops prepared to invade Ukraine in early 2021, one of the more surprising characters to show up in coverage from the country was Sean Penn, who was trailing Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky long before he became a global icon of resilience. Penn’s initial interest in Zelensky revolved around his fascinating transition from famous actor (in which he had recently played the Ukrainian president on TV!) to serious politician. Obviously, things went in a different direction, and the international community has been obsessed with Zelensky’s resolve for the past two years. But Penn and co-director Aaron Kaufman got there before most people, as their cameras captured the tense evolution of Zelensky into a wartime president in closeup detail.

“Superpower” includes a sit-down with the president on the night that Russia’s invasion began, and the documentary promises to remind the world of Zelensky’s remarkable challenge just as he attempts to do the same thing. —EK

Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.