From oddball animation to Asian coming-of-age stories to big tech’s uncanny valley, we look at ten shorts from the Berlinale Shorts programme.
Berlinale Shorts 2025 Part One: Dreams and Nightmares

Exploring the Outer Edge of Film
From oddball animation to Asian coming-of-age stories to big tech’s uncanny valley, we look at ten shorts from the Berlinale Shorts programme.
Cloud, the latest from Kiyoshi Kurosawa, shows how fears about the internet have drastically evolved since Pulse (2001). Live from Venice.
A personal tale of atomic devastation set in the stunning town of Nagasaki, Laurence Lévesque’s Okurimono is a slow-burn inquiry into the ever-present past.
Sidonie In Japan is a classic example of a fine actress phoning it in, wasting Huppert’s talents in a generic, unconvincing cross-cultural examination of grief.