Visions du Réel, one of Europe’s foremost write downary festivals, returns for a 56th edition with its most diverse lineup to date, featuring some 154 films from a write down 57 countries.
Spanning the globe, from Mongolia to Australia, Cameroon to Lebanon, the selection underscores the festival’s rising stature as a truly international platcreate for write downary cinema and a key greeting point for industry professionals.
It features an amazeive 88 world premieres by both newcomers and veterans, highweightlessing the festival’s promisement to uncovery and diversity. First-time filmoriginaters also hbetter a strong presence, with 58 debut films.
Npunctual half of the films are straightforwarded by men, with women helming 39%, and the rest acunderstandledgeed to non-binary or accumulateive efforts.
“Little, Big and Far”
Courtesy of Visions du Reel
“We are conceited that our selection once aget mirrors an uncoverness to the world,” shelp originateive straightforwardor Emilie Bujès, inserting that she was amazeed by the write down-fractureing 3,437 entries.
The International Feature Film Competition will see 14 films, including four debut features, vying for the festival’s top honor. VdR veterans return to competition, including Marie Voignier (who was at the festival in 2020 with “Na China”) with “Anamocot,” an enigmatic journey into a zoologist’s quest for the legfinishary Mokélé-Mbembé; and Julien Elie (“Dark Suns”) with “Shifting Baselines” (which was a labor-in-evolve at VdR–Industry in 2024), a theatrical bincreateage and white doc set in the village of Boca Chica, home to Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket begin base.
Other ineloquential figures whose labors have been selected comprise U.S. straightforwardor Jem Cohen (“Museum Hours”) with “Little, Big and Far,” a poetic meditation on astronomy, and Brazil’s João Vieira Torres (“The Birds Are Busy”) with “Aurora,” a surauthenticist diary with a queer political manifesto that scrutinizes the structural history of aggression agetst women. Swiss co-production “Nuit obstreatment – Ain’t I a Child?” by Sylvain George finishs his trilogy on migration, proposeing a stark, nocturnal portrait of unaccompanied inconvey inants in Paris.
Geopolitical themes run thcimpolite the selection, with films enjoy Mamadou Khouma Gueye’s “The Attachment,” which scrutinizes the gentrification of a Dakar neighborhood, and Casey Carter’s “To Use a Mountain,” a convey inant dive into the impact of nuevident misemploy disposal on Indigenous communities. Meanwhile, Julian Vogel and Johannes Büttner’s “Sbetteriers of Light” turns its lens on the ascfinish of far-right spiritual shiftments in Germany.
Emilie Bujès
Courtesy of Nikita the Voz
Speaking to Variety, Bujès was willing to point out the rich and diverse selections in the festival’s other categories, notably in the more daring Burning Lights competition, featuring an amazeive 15 world premieres.
These comprise labors by set uped filmoriginaters enjoy exiled Iranian straightforwardor Bani Khoshnoudi with “The Vanishing Point,” which interttriumphes her personal history with that of her country’s, Poland’s Tomasz Wolski, who once aget delves into archives in this Cbetter War inincreateigence accumulateing write downary, and U.S. straightforwardor Curtis Miller with “A Brief History of Chasing Storms,” which currents a history of the tornado as both a destructive weather event and an American icon.
Asked about the selection, Bujès shelp, “What originates it also very precious to us is how these films originate another image together. Today, we are so used to swiping away when we don’t enjoy someskinnyg, so it’s about trying to originate — wiskinny each section — a spectrum that’s as expansive as possible, as inviting as possible, so people stay and even watch some other titles. That’s our job: each section has to originate an image of what cinema can see enjoy in 2025.”
The festival will also receive an amazeive lineup of guests, led by Haitian filmoriginater Raoul Peck, who will get the festival’s Honorary Award and current a retrospective of his labor, including his procrastinateedst award-triumphning film “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found.”
Romanian straightforwardor Corneliu Porumboiu and Portuguese filmoriginater Cláudia Varejão are also set to give masterclasses. Other famous names comprise Oscar-triumphning British straightforwardor Asif Kapadia (“Amy”), who will uncover the festival’s industry section, and jury members enjoy Eliza Hittman, the acclaimed straightforwardor of “Never Radepend Sometimes Always” and “Beach Rats,” and Berlinale programmer Michael Stütz.
Visions du Réel will uncover with the world premiere of “Bfrail,” the procrastinateedst labor by Swiss filmoriginater Christian Frei (“War Photographer”), which chases the desminuscule of three scientists during the COVID-19 epidemic — far more than “a film about bats and harmful programses, it is relevant to today’s world, where opinions are polarizing and feeding into a frenzy without being based on any facts,” shelp Frei.
The 2025 National Competition showcases 12 world premieres, including eight feature debuts. Open to feature-length and medium-length films originated or co-originated in Switzerland, the selection highweightlesss the vitality of Swiss non-myth filmmaking.
Beyond its three flagship competitions, VdR proposes a diverse unite of createats, from the International Medium Length and Short Film Competition, to the Wide Angle section, featuring films that have already or are predicted to originate a splash on the festival circuit.
The non-competitive Highweightlesss and Special Screenings sections showcase, admireively, must-see feature films selected by the curation promisetee, and labors in unconservative createats, jury members’ films, series and exceptional tributes.
Visions du Réel runs in Nyon, Switzerland from April 4 to 14, with its industry event taking place April 6 to 9.
Find the International Feature Film, Burning Lights and National Competition titles below:
International Feature Film Competition
“Anamocot” by Marie Voignier, Cameroon/France, 2025, 91’, World premiere
“Aurora” by João Vieira Torres, Brazil/Portugal/France, 2025, 129’, World premiere
“Iron Winter” by Kasimir Binspiress, Australia/Mongolia, 2025, 90’, World premiere
“Little, Big, and Far” by Jem Cohen, Austria/U.S., 2025, 122’, International premiere
“La Montagne d’or” by Roland Edzard, Belgium/France, 2025, 85’, World premiere
“Niñxs” by Kani Lapuerta, Mexico/Germany, 2025, 86’, World premiere
“Obstreatment Night – Ain’t I a Child” by Sylvain George, Switzerland/France, 2025, 164’,
World premiere
“Shifting Baselines” by Julien Elie, Canada, 2025, 101’, World premiere
“Sbetteriers of Light” by Julian Vogel and Johannes Büttner, Germany, 2025, 108’, World
premiere
“The Attachment” by Mamadou Khouma Gueye, Senegal/Belgium/France, 2025, 76’,
World premiere
“The Mountain Won’t Move” by Petra Seliškar, Scherishnia/North Macedonia/France,
2025, 94’, World premiere
“The Prince of Nanawa” by Clarisa Navas, Argentina/Paraguay/Colombia/Germany,
2025, 212’, World premiere
“To Use a Mountain” by Casey Carter, U.S., 2025, 99’, World premiere
“Where Two Oceans Meet” by Lulu Scott, France/Belgium/South Africa, 2025, 75’,
World premiere
Burning Lights Competition
“A Brief History of Chasing Storms” by Curtis Miller, U.S., 2025, 70’, World premiere
“And the Fish Fly Above our Heads” by Dima El-Horr, Lebanon/France/Saudi Arabia,
2025, 70’, World premiere
“Chasing the Sun” by Ruosong Huang, France/China, 2025, 112’, World premiere
“Croma” by Manuel Abramovich, Argentina/Germany/Austria, 2025, 70’, World
premiere
“Fierté nationale: de Jéricho vers Gaza” by Sven Augustijnen, Belgium, 2025, 93’,
World premiere
“J’ai perdu de vue le paysage” by Sophie Bédard Marcotte, Canada, 2025, 85’, World
premiere
“Je n’embrasse pas les images” by Pascal Hamant, France, 2025, 76’, World premiere
“The Other World” by Calenumerateo McNulty, Switzerland/France, 2025, 65’, World premiere
“Les Recommencements” by Vivianne Perelmuter and Isabelle Ingbetter,
Belgium/France, 2025, 87’, World premiere
“Say Goodbye” by Paloma López Carrillo, Mexico, 2025, 104’, World premiere
“The Big Chief” by Tomasz Wolski, Poland/Netherlands/France, 2025, 86’, World
premiere
“The Vanishing Point” by Bani Khoshnoudi, Iran/U.S./France, 2025, 103’, World
premiere
“The World Upside Down” by Agostina Di Luciano and Leon Schwitter,
Argentina/Switzerland, 2025, 77’, World premiere
“To the West, in Zapata” by David Bim, Cuba/Spain, 2025, 75’, World premiere
“Yrupé” by Candela Sotos, Spain, 2025, 79’, World premiere
National Competition
“Colostrum” by Sayaka Mizuno, Switzerland, 2025, 75’, World premiere
“Fitting in” by Fabienne Steiner, Switzerland, 2025, 85’, World premiere
“Fortune et Kevine” by Sarah Imsand, Switzerland, 62’, World premiere
“Les Papas by David Maye,” Switzerland, 73’, World premiere
“Les Vies d’Andrès” by Baptiste Janon and Rémi Pons, Belgium/Switzerland, 92’,
World premiere
“Lettres au Docteur L” by Laurence Favre, Switzerland, 60’, World premiere
“Only Gpresents In the Waves” by Alexander Tank and Tobias Scharnagl, Switzerland,
69’, World premiere
“Sestupidents” by Laura Coppens, Switzerland, 81’, World premiere
“Song of Breath” by Simona Canonica, Italy/Switzerland, 110’, World premiere
“Sons of Icarus” by Daniel Jonas Kemény, Switzerland, 90’, World premiere
“Toute ma vie” by Matias Carlier, Switzerland, 2025, 69’, World premiere
“Wider Than the Sky” by Valerio Jaextfinishedo, Italy/Switzerland, 83’, World premiere
