The worlds of professional football and global film festivals are closer bedfellows than you might initially imagine. Lately, the idea of a film festival employing an artistic director for enough time for them to really grow into and evolve the role seems like a relic from a bygone era, hence the comparison to the cutthroat and precarious occupation of football manager.

Carlo Chatrian is known for his work cultivating and expanding the Locarno Film Festival, bringing to it a sense of cachet and discovery that had perhaps been missing in the preceding years. And he brought his methods and his mentality with him – along with his ace programming team – to his stewardship of the Berlinale, but for whatever reason, things just didn’t work out, and the 2024 festival is set to be his last. The great Tricia Tuttle, of London Film Festival fame, is set to pick up the baton for 2025.

From the vantage of an objective observer, it seemed that Chatrian’s focus on artistry, expression and the role of the film festival as a locus for discovery rubbed a fair few people the wrong way, mainly journalists looking to burnish their outlets with Hollywood stardust. I mention all this as context for the news of the 2024 competition line-up, which, on paper, comes across as a Rio Bravo-style, guns-blazing fight to the bitter end. Exciting auteurs, whose films sometimes don’t land at the more glitzy Cannes Film Festival, are given pride of place. And named brand filmmakers aren’t given preference over those who have made works that aim to expand our view of cinema’s potential.

We’re very excited to see new films from Bruno Dumont, Mati Diop, Olivier Assayas and Hong Sangsoo, but equally excited to make some new discoveries of the lesser-known names who have been elevated to the heights of an international competition. Elsewhere there’s Viktor Kossakovsky, who arrives with Architecton, his follow-up to the immersive piglet documentary, Gunda.

Aaron Schimberg made waves in Sundance with his Sebastian Stan-starring A Different Man, and we’re always interested to see what young Mexican filmmaker Alonso Ruizpalacios comes up with (a new film starring Rooney Mara in the case of La Cocina). There are films from Nepal (Min Bahadur Bham’s Shambhala) and Dominican Republic (Nelson Carlos De Los Santos Arias’s Pepe). In general, it’s a model line-up that favours quality and diversity over hyperbole and hype. And as is always the case with Berlin under Chatrian, this competition is just the tip of the iceberg.

Small Things Like These by Tim Mielants (opening film)
Another End by Piero Messina
Architecton by Viktor Kossakovsky
Black Tea by Abderrahmane Sissako
La Cocina by Alonso Ruizpalacios
Dahomey by Mati Diop
A Different Man by Aaron Schimberg
The Empire by Bruno Dumont
Gloria! by Margherita Vicario
Suspended Time by Olivier Assayas
From Hilde, With Love by Andreas Dresen
My Favourite Cake by Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha
Langue Étrangère by Claire Burger
Who Do I Belong To by Meryam Joobeur
Pepe by Nelson Carlo De Los Santos Arias
Shambhala by Min Bahadur Bham
Sterben by Matthias Glasner
The Devil’s Bath by Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala
Sons by Gustav Möller
A Traveller’s Needs by Hong Sangsoo

The 2024 Berlinale 2024 runs from 15 to 25 Feb. Head here to explore the full line-up.