Berlinale’s Forum Expanded 2025 Highlights Translucence Across 24 Works
The 20th edition of Forum Expanded, a key segment of the Berlin International Film Festival, brings together 24 works from 21 countries under the theme "Methods of Translucence." This year’s program features installations, films, video art, and sculptures that reframe pressing global realities such as social inequality, environmental crises, and the impacts of war.
Through inventive uses of light, sound, and virtual mediums, the selected artists and filmmakers challenge traditional perceptions, highlighting what often remains unseen. The concept of translucence serves not only as an aesthetic choice but also as a metaphor for interventionist storytelling, making the invisible visible and altering perspectives.
Key Highlights
Among the installations, Neda Saeedi’s Sinking Suns transforms Betonhalle into an evocative display of tinted glass projections, reflecting both the beauty and fragility of polluted sunsets. Similarly, Lisa Jackson’s immersive dome projection, Wilfred Buck’s Star Stories, presents Cree cosmological narratives, offering a unique blend of Indigenous knowledge and astronomy.
Other notable works include Alisa Berger’s dual-channel video and VR installation, RAPTURE, which explores virtual nostalgia, and Oleksiy Radynski’s Spetsialna Operatsiia (Special Operation), a chilling depiction of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant's occupation during the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Film Contributions
The film program complements these installations with provocative works such as Riar Rizaldi’s Mirage: Eigenstate, which critiques the dominance of Western scientific narratives by blending tropical Sufi mysticism with Carl Sagan’s Cosmos. Kevin Jerome Everson’s When the Sun is Eaten captures a solar eclipse across three North American time zones on 16mm film, while Caroline Monnet’s Pidikwe (Rumble) reimagines Indigenous artistic contributions through dance as a healing and communal knowledge system.
Stéphanie Lagarde’s Extra Life (and Decay) connects themes of generational and ecological solidarity, positing communal hospitality as an antidote to isolationist politics.
Anniversary Retrospective and Panels
Marking its two-decade milestone, Forum Expanded 2025 includes retrospective screenings and panel discussions, funded by the Capital Cultural Fund. These events will reflect on the program’s evolution and its commitment to reshaping cultural dialogues through innovative art.
Berlin’s Forum Expanded continues to push the boundaries of artistic expression, offering a platform for global voices to engage with contemporary crises in transformative ways. Additional details about the anniversary program will be released as the festival approaches.