Berlin Critics’ Week 2025 – Partners and cooperations
In addition to annual grant funding, the German Film Critics Association (VdFk) relies on the support of a broad network of partners, supporters, and cooperation partners to make Berlin Critics’ Week happen. The festival also advocates targeted cooperation and solidarity between initiatives and participants in film culture as well as regularly presenting jointly-conceptualized events. Here, as follows, is an overview of all the sponsors and partners of this year’s festival as well as cooperative events and the newly-founded Friends of Berlin Critics’ Week.
Sponsors and partners
The festival’s funding has been made possible by the Hauptstadtkulturfonds and the Rudolf Augstein Foundation. The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation and MUBI are both supporters of Berlin Critics’ Week and were involved through extensive collaborations.
We are grateful to the Film and Media Arts Section of the Akademie der Künste in Berlin for their generous support and dedicated collaboration, and to the Hackesche Höfe Kino, which has made Berlin Critics’ Week possible since the festival’s very first installment.
Additional partners of the 2025 edition include the Goethe-Institut Beijing, the Goethe-Institut Kairo, the Universität der Künste Berlin, and Hotel Catalonia Berlin-Mitte. We would also like to thank the European Children’s Film Association (ECFA), Kumpelnest 3000 Berlin, and Plakat Kultur.
The media partners of Berlin Critics’ Week 2025 are taz, Texte zur Kunst, der Freitag, and Indiekino.
This year, our online magazine will be guest-edited by the journal Politisch Schreiben.
Collaborative events during Berlin Critics’ Week 2025
MON Feb 10
7.30 pm
Bar Night
In collaboration with Kumpelnest 3000
Location: Kumpelnest 3000, Lützowstraße 23, 10785 Berlin
This year, before the Berlinale, we will be inviting the local film scene—and the whole Berlin Kiez crowd—for a film night at the local pub Kumpelnest 3000. Inspired by Rosa von Praunheim’s cult film Die Bettwurst and Jovana Reisinger’s short film Mad Girls Don’t Cry, we want to raise a glass to cinema with the local audience. Following the films, director Katharina Lüdin will host a pub chat involving everyone present.
DIE BETTWURST
D: Rosa von Praunheim, GER 1971, 78 min.
MAD GIRLS DON’T CRY
D: Jovana Reisinger, GER 2018, 22 min.
SUN Feb 16
11.30 am (admission from 11.00 am)
Special Screening: THE END
In cooperation with our partner MUBI
Location: Astor Film Lounge, Kurfürstendamm 225, 10719 Berlin
In an end-of-days musical with a star-studded cast, Joshua Oppenheimer (The Act of Killing) sheds unexpected light on contemporary debates about classism, racism, and the climate crisis. Together with MUBI, we will be presenting the film followed by a 30-minute discussion.
Guests: Joshua Oppenheimer, Tilda Swinton, George MacKay
THE END
D: Joshua Oppenheimer, C: Tilda Swinton, Michael Shannon, George MacKay, Moses Ingram, DOP: Michail Kritschman, DK/GER/IE/GB 2024, 148 min.
MON Feb 17
5.00 pm
Discussion: No need for a long read?
The landscape of children’s and young people’s film as viewed by film critics
In cooperation with the European Children’s Film Association (ECFA)
Location: Hackesche Höfe Kino, Rosenthaler Str. 40-41, 10178 Berlin
What would it take to sensitize both established media and more modern platforms like podcasts, blogs, and fan forums to children’s and young people’s films? Is it the films themselves that need to change—or is it our attitude towards them? This panel discussion will be held at the invitation of the European Children’s Film Association (ECFA), the German Film Critics Association (VdFk), and Berlin Critics’ Week. Film critics and writers from diverse media formats will discuss their critical perspectives on the varied production of children’s and young people’s films together with Axel Timo Purr (CdFk).
Guests: tbc
From Feb 12
Streaming Special with a Focus on Classism
Curated by our partner MUBI
Using the thematic focus of Berlin Critics’ Week 2025 as a starting point, our new partner MUBI has assembled a selection of films that address class relations in a particularly striking manner. This special event includes the films Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World by Radu Jude, Yannick by Quentin Dupieux, Kokomo City by D. Smith, Bloodsuckers by Julian Radlmaier, Money for Bread by Serap Berrakkarasu, Black Head by Korhan Yurtsever as well as Parasite by Bong Joon-ho.
Friends of Berlin Critics’ Week
As of now, it is possible to support the festival directly by becoming a member of the Friends of Berlin Critics’ Week. We established this group in order to provide the festival with greater stability and security in terms of planning while enabling fair and sustainable working conditions for team members. Membership of the Friends of Berlin Critics’ Week is accessible for a minimum annual contribution of 100 euros. In order to register, write to Dennis Vetter at freundeskreis@wochederkritik.de.
Program overview for Berlin Critics’ Week 2025
Ticket presale for Berlin Critics’ Week 2025
Announcement for the opening conference
Ticket sale for the opening conference
Press contact: Elisabeth Mohr, presse@wochederkritik.de