Berlin Film Festival’s New Boss Wants to Bring Back the Glamour and Tone Down the Drama

Tricia Tuttle, the new head of the Berlin International Film Festival, could have hoped for an easier start.

Tuttle, who was head of the BFI London Film Festival from 2018 to 2023, takes over the Berlinale (the world’s largest public film festival) after an Annus horribilis.

Last year’s event ended in chaos, with a furious political debate about the war in Gaza overshadowing any discussion of the movies. To make matters worse, Berlin saw its budget slashed, with cuts in government funding and a loss of major corporate sponsors coming up against rising costs due to inflation. At the same time, the expectations have only grown, with film fans and market attendees eager to see the Berlinale return to its past glory when it was counted alongside Cannes and Venice as one of the world’s top three film festivals.

Asked to do more with less, Tuttle has, impressively, pulled it off.

The lineup for the 75th Berlinale, which Tuttle announced today, is Berlin’s most star-studded in years, including a trio of studio movies — Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon from Sony Pictures Classics, starring Ethan Hawke and Margaret Qualley; James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown with Timothée Chalamet, which will have its German premiere, via Disney’s Searchlight Pictures in Berlin; and the international premiere of Bong Joon-Ho’s Mickey 17, the sci-fi feature starring Robert Pattinson which marks Bong’s first feature since his Oscar-winner Parasite. Add to that movies featuring Jessica Chastain (Michel Franco’s Dreams), Marion Cottilard (The Ice Tower by Lucile Hadžihalilović), Ben Wishaw ( Ira Sachs’ Peter Hujar’s Day) and Vicky Krieps (Hot Milk, the feature debut of screenwriter-turned-director Rebecca Lenkiewicz), and Berlin’s 2025 red carpet looks sorted.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Tuttle says she hopes this Berlinale, which runs Feb. 13-23, the focus will be on the movies.

Going into your first Berlin Festival, what are you most proud of having accomplished?

I knew I had big financial challenges coming in so I’m really proud of the things that I’ve achieved in the first year. I’m thinking about our budget, about our communication structures, about the way we work together. We got that done and still hit the ground when we needed to and delivered a really beautiful program as well, too.

It sounds sad, but while we were putting the competition together, I had this little list on my phone, and I would just look at it every day and feel so excited as we were adding new films to it, and the textures were emerging and the different voices were emerging. I love the balance and the diversity of the program, which we put together in the context of the absolutely massive job of bedding into a new country, a new political system, into new communities, a new film industry, so I’m really proud of that. And I can’t wait for next year now, when I can just think about the films all year and what we want to do with the festival.

What surprised you about the conditions in Berlin compared to the situation in London?

I knew there were big financial challenges. I took the job knowing that. And I wanted to make sure that the industry side and the public side of the program worked in a very integrated way. So none of that surprised me. If I’m being transparent, I’ll say the thing that was a surprise was, you know, coming into an environment where there was this strong political discourse around closing night, around the hack of Panorama, and all these issues. I mean, October 7 was a paradigm shift for a lot of cultural institutions, but it certainly impacted the festival. That’s probably something that was unexpected for me when I took on the role.

Am I to understand that you won’t be making political statements from the Berlinale stage, as directors in the past have done?

There are no hard and fast rules because different situations call for different measures and responses. But I would say I don’t want to become the story of the festival. I don’t want the festival itself to become the story. We want the filmmakers to get the attention they deserve when they launch their films with us. They might bring stories that emerge out of their films or out of the impulses behind their films, but we really want to create more air time for them.

Last year, I know that everyone who worked on the festival felt like all the issues around the festival were taking that air time away from the filmmakers. It was also really emotionally difficult for the team as well. So we want everyone to have a good time again. That doesn’t mean we want to gloss over things. I want to be clear, because we live in a very difficult world, and many of the films in the festival confront the difficulties of this world. But we want people to come together and enjoy talking to each other about cinema. We want the films to really pop and to have a long life after the festival. If one or two events become so inflamed, that can become very difficult, it can take up all the air, all the oxygen, from the films.

Last year the festival disinvited members of the far-right AfD party from the opening and closing ceremonies. Will that be your policy as well?

We have made a decision on that, but our decision every year on opening and closing night lists is a fluid one and we’re not going to make any pronouncements about who we’re going to invite or not going to invite. I will say though that it’s it’s really important to us that we create an inclusive environment at the festival. We don’t want to extend our hospitality to people who are outspokenly anti-Muslim, for example, someone who would make our guests, our local and international guests, feel unwelcome.

Let’s talk about the program. I think a lot of people are happy to see some big studio films back in Berlin after a few years’ absence. What was your pitch to the studios to entice them back?

Well, I’ve got good relationships [with the studios] because of London, which is in a unique place at the start of awards season. And I think everyone in the industry knows having a strong Berlinale is really important. It’s just about trying to sell your vision for the festival, the way you want to engage audiences and the kind of energy you want to create at the festival.

A film like A Complete Unknown adds a tremendous amount to the program. I really love James Mangold’s films and we’re screening the German premiere. So it’s about finding the right way to show films even if they’re not in competition. I’m also really pleased to have Richard Linklater in competition. [Blue Moon] is a studio film too, at Sony Pictures Classics. It’s great to have him back at the festival. And I’m over the moon to have director Bong [Joon-Ho’s] first film since Parasite. I’m slightly pinching myself about that. But it was always about adding these while keeping the kind of cinematic breadth that the Berlinale has always had. We are really committed to that as well.

When it comes to the bigger, talent-driven films, has the talent also committed to come? Will we have Mr. Chalemet, Mr. Pattinson, et al on the red carpet?

We’ll be announcing most of [the attending talent] on Feb. 4, but I think with all the films we’ve invited, we expect the director and key talent to attend. That’s part of the plan as well, to create the buzz around these films. It’s important for the studios as well to launch the films here, or for Disney [on A Complete Unknown] to do the German launch here. So we’re helping create a buzz around them.

You’ve also rejigged the European Film Market, with Tanja Meissner coming in to run things on the industry side. How do you want the festival and market to work together?

It’s a bit hard to articulate because obviously we have to have something of a paper wall between the Industry program and the public program, because [the market] isn’t curating in the same way we do in a program. But we want to be talking to each other, like two sides the same brain. Tanja is passionate about all of the things I am too, including how can we engage new audiences in cinema? How can we use a film festival and a film market to help the film industry thrive? We both think about those same things from different points of view. It’s all about how do we cut through the noisy noisy world to make sure these films don’t get lost. We have a role to play in making sure that they get a little less lost.

What are you most dreading about the start of the festival?

I don’t think I’m dreading anything. I’ll be nervous on opening night but I know once we start, it’ll be a big whosh and I’ll really enjoy the whole festival. That’s the way it is every year. That first moment walking out onto the stage at the Berlinale Palast is going to be breathtaking, but also really exciting, because that’s the moment we start watching films, and we start talking about films, and I can hear how audiences react, and how the press reacts.

That’s what I’m looking forward to, the moment when these film move outside of the bubble of the seven of us who’ve been programming the festival together, for other people to see them and respond to them. For those filmmakers to see their film playing for the first time with an audience and with the industry here. That’s new for me, because we have many more world premieres here than I had in London. That will be really exciting.

Any hidden gem in the program you’d like to point me to?

Festival directors can’t have a favorite competition film, so obviously I won’t mention anything from out two competition line-ups, but I will say that Anna Muylaert’s The Best Mother in the World [a Berlinale Special screening] is a really, really beautiful film. It’s a exciting Brazilian social realist film about a woman who escapes with her kids from an abusive relationship with her kids, and it’s full of life.