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The first major international film festival of the year, Berlin broadens the conversation about the year in movies that kicks off with Sundance in January. While big studio releases often launch outside the festival circuit (like Sinners and One Battle After Another last year), international festivals tend to be platforms for widening the spectrum of movies that make the year in film so memorable. 

At this year’s Berlinale (as diehards know it) I was largely making the rounds in producer mode, speaking to fellow industry folks at the European Film Market, which coincides with the festival. However, I couldn’t resist the lure to keep tabs on some of the highlights from this year’s lineup, and managed to see enough good ones to go home happy. Here are the best movies of this year’s Berlinale, many of which are likely to make more noise in the year ahead.

Flies

Veteran Mexican director Fernando Eimbcke (whose crowdpleaser Duck Season just celebrated its 20th anniversary last year) delivers again with this charming character study about a nine-year-old boy (Bastian Escobar) who forms an unusual bond with a reclusive older woman (Teresita Sanchez) after moving into her apartment with his father. Unable to visit his ailing mother in the hospital, the child finds some measure of respite by playing an arcade game, which provides an unexpected form of catharsis for the imminent tragedy his family faces. While we’ve plenty of movies about young people dealing with grief in unusual ways, Flies stands out for the way it finds a bittersweet connection between two generations in a most unlikely place as they come to the realization that they aren’t so alone after all.

Mouse

This touching slice of queer Arkansas life is the latest from filmmaking duo Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson (Ghostlight), and it’s the kind of intriguing coming-of-age drama that sneaks up on you. Oscar nominee Sophie Okonedo delivers an astonishing turn as the mother of a teen girl whose sudden death leads her to obsess over her the well-being of her daughter’s best friend. Subtle and engaging throughout, the movie explores the nature of loss and its transformative effect across generations. Like several movies at this year’s Berlinale, it packs an emotional wallop when you least expect it, with rich themes about the nature of community overcoming the darkness of an unpredictable world.

We Are All Strangers

Singaporean filmmaker Anthony Chen has followed actor Koh Jia Ler through three perceptive coming-of-age stories, from the childhood drama Ilo Ilo, through Wet Season, and now the entrancing We Are All Strangers, in which his character enters young adulthood while navigating a number of working-class struggles. Like The 400 Blows star Antoine Doinel, who grew up across several Francois Truffaut films, Koh’s character Junyang is a mirror to his times.

Now 21, Junyang contends with the unexpected loss of his father and a newborn of his own while uncertain about how to advance his professional ambition. Shot against the lively bustle of modern-day Singapore, the movie explores the plight of the modern family through an authentic and deeply affecting prism. When Junyang’s mother-in-law attempts to support the family by becoming a social media star and shares their struggles online, her naive ambition leads to further disarray, as the movie builds toward a powerful look at a modern-day family at odds with the demands that society places on them. This is rich, layered filmmaking with an emotional weight that gradually creeps into the picture.

Queen at Sea

The first feature from U.S. director Lance Hammer since 2008’s Ballast turns on an emotional powderkeg of performances from actors at the top of their game. Tom Courtenay and Anna Calder-Marshall (who won a joint acting prize at the festival) play aging couple Martin and Leslie, whose future is uncertain due to Leslie’s dementia. Complicating matters, Leslie’s grown daughter Amanda (the ever-reliable Juliette Binoche) takes issue with Martin’s insistence on remaining intimate with his wife despite her declining awareness, while Amanda’s teen daughter and her newfound partner reflect the idealism of young love.

Despite its bleak subject matter, Queen at Sea is a gripping and powerful look at the opposing philosophies on old age. The suspense turns on the intensity of a family acting out of care for each other, with conflicting ideas of the form it should take. Hammer mines some measure of warmth from the sadness that surrounds so much of his characters’ existence. “I’m not going to let hopelessness ruin our lives together,” Martin says, and the movie tracks just how much he commits to that goal with stirring results right down to the very last frame. 

Wolfram

Australian director Warwick Thornton’s violent Western Wolfram explores the ghosts of colonialism that haunt his country’s indigenous population, a theme found throughout his work. Technically a sequel to 2017’s similarly intense Sweet Country, the new movie follows a pair of indigenous children who escape their white overlords in the 1930s as they navigate the merciless wasteland of an unforgiving desert. Loaded with tense confrontations and a relentless commitment to survival at all costs, Wolfram continues Thornton’s impressive ability to reinvent the Western through the lens of Australian history while doing the genre proud with gripping filmmaking at every turn, and a painterly aesthetic that practically time-travels from the past to fill the frame.

Yellow Letters

The winner of this year’s Golden Bear at Berlinale is a provocative and timely look at art amidst governmental censorship. German director İlker Çatak (whose The Teacher’s Lounge was a Berlinale breakout that scored an Oscar nomination two years ago) follows a successful artist couple in Istanbul who are fired for their political views. As their lives fall apart and they’re forced to move in with relatives, they’re both forced to confront whether their values are worth the struggle it has created for them. Carried by engaging performances and a thoughtful screenplay, Yellow Letters transcends the geographical boundaries of its setting to serve as a unique cautionary tale about the travails of making art in repressive societies.