Berlin Film Festival 2025 Opens
Tilda Swinton Gets an Honorary Golden Bear Hug
By: Sussan Hall - Feb 13, 2025
2025 is the year of Tilda Swinton and Pedro Almodovar.
Swinton and Almodovar’s first roles at big cine events are described by Swinton: “We were often the two standing on the periphery near each other, looking out at the glittering throng, not saying anything, but occasionally catching each other’s eye and giggling.”
Now Almodovar is the 2025 recipient of the Chaplin Award at Film at Lincoln Center in April. Swinton is being honored at the Berlin Film Festival with a Golden Bear for lifetime achievement. She has always undertaken adventuresome roles and worked with daring film innovators on the rise.
Orlando called America’s attention to the actress. Two short films made in Berlin looked at a central event in the history of the city: the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961. In 1988, director Cynthia Beatt filmed Swinton circling the wall on the west side, playfully pointing out West Berlin’s freedom in contrast with repression hidden behind the twelve foot concrete mass of wall that no one knew was soon to be dismantled.
In 2009 the film’s team returned for Swinton to again bike around the wall, now invisible. She wove between the two sides it once divided, drawing an imaginary line, and later dangled her legs in the Sspree.
This year, in a cold February, she probably will not dangle her legs in the icy river. Yet it is her creative and fanciful contributions to film for a lifetime that will be honored in the city the Spree weaves through. The two short films she starred in, about the Wall's construction and later absence, illustrate her ability to explore memory, history, and the human experience in ways that resonate beyond the screen.
The Berlin Festival opens with her award and a new film by Tom Tykwer, The Light. Tykwer is responsible for the popular TV series, Babylon Berlin. Central figures of global cinema are honored.