The Berlin International Film Festival today announced the initial raft of films selected for its young audience-targeted Generation program (Kplus for children, 14plus for teens).This batch of eight feature films and seven shorts, including 10 world premieres, will be joined by the full program lineups to be announced in early January.
The 75th Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) will be held February 13-23, 2025.
The early selection announcement includes three animated projects, including the International Premiere of Michel Gondry’s paper cut-out feature Maya, Give Me a Title (France).
Described as the Oscar-winning Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind director’s “stop-motion love letter to his daughter,” the brightly colored film is inspired by their long distance relationship, which Gondry kept close by creating animated shorts inspired by Maya’s ideas. The film features the voices of Maya Gondry and César Award-winning actor Pierre Niney.
Attendees of the festival will additionally be treated to the World Premiere of the dialog-free Canadian feature film Space Cadet, directed by Eric San (a.k.a. Kid Koala), written by Mylène Chollet and executive produced by Ginette Petit, Nathalie Bissonnette and Michel Pradier. The pic is produced by Outsiders Films.
The 3D CG kids’ film follows brilliant young cosmonaut Celeste as she sets out on her first solo space mission — while her robot guardian faces the question of what to do without his lifelong charge to care for. Berlinale describes the piece as “A tomorrow-days lullaby about finding your place in the universe.”
Also making its world premiere is the animated short film Autokar (The Bus). The story is set in the 1990s, and follows as eight-year-old Agata sets out on a solo journey by bus from her home in Poland to Belgium. While writing a letter to her friend, the anxious girl drops her pencil, and gets lost in a fantastical alternate universe between the bus seats on her search for the missing implement.
The pastel-illustrated 2D short is a Belgian/French co-production written and directed by Sylwia Szkiladz, who previously participated in the Generation Kplus competition with her 2016 short The Teeny-Weeny Fox. Autokar is produced by OZÙ Productions and Vivi Film.
See the Berlinale 2025 program (so far) at berlnale.de.
