Broadcast content across border

Berlinale 2025: Honorary Golden Bear For Tilda Swinton
The 75th Berlin International Film Festival will award Scottish actor, Tilda Swinton, the Honorary Golden Bear for her lifetime achievement. The award will be presented at the opening ceremony at the Berlinale Palast on February 13, 2025. “The range of Swinton’s work is breathtaking. To cinema she brings so much humanity, compassion, intelligence, humour and style, and she expands our ideas of the world through her work. Tilda is one of our modern filmmaking idols, and has also long been part of the Berlinale family. We are delighted to be able to present her with this Honorary Golden Bear,” said Festival Director, Tricia Tuttle.

“The Berlinale is the first film festival I ever went to, in 1986 with Derek Jarman and the first film I made, his Caravaggio. It was my portal into the world in which I have made my life’s work – the world of international filmmaking – and I have never forgotten the debt I owe it. To be honoured in this way by this particular festival is deeply touching for me: it will be my privilege and pleasure to celebrate, once more next February, the seedbed that is this wide-eyed and reliably wonderful gathering,” said Swinton. Academy Award-winning actor Swinton has been closely linked with the Berlin International Film Festival for many years, serving as the President of the International Jury in 2009 and starring in 26 films in the festival programme ranging from Caravaggio, which won the Silver Bear at the 1986 Berlinale. Tilda Swinton began her film career in 1985 with Derek Jarman and appeared in all of his films, including Edward II (1991), for which she was named Best Actress at the Venice International Film Festival. She gained wider international recognition in 1992 with her portrayal of Orlando, based on the novel by Virginia Woolf under the direction of Sally Potter.  Since then, she has developed ongoing relationships with many acclaimed directors, appearing in Tony Gilroy’s Michael Clayton (2007), which won her the BAFTA and Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

More recently, Swinton appeared in Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City (2023), with whom she has worked for the fifth time. She has just finished shooting The Ballad of a Small Player with Edward Berger for Netflix. Among her other achievements, Tilda Swinton was awarded a BFI Fellowship and the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival for her life’s work in 2020.

Entries For Merck Foundation Film Awards Open
ORGANISERS of the Merck Foundation Film Awards have opened entries for the 2025 edition of the Merck Foundation Film Awards, ‘More Than A Mother’ and ‘Diabetes & Hypertension’. The award is open to African filmmakers and students of film making institutions who are expected to showcase their talent and contribute towards making a difference in society with their unique films with strong and relevant messages about the critical and sensitive social and health issues faced in the continent of Africa. Applicants are invited to create and share long or short films, drama, documentary or docudrama to deliver strong and influential messages on the theme. Applicants for the Merck Foundation Film Awards 2025 on the theme, More Than a mother, are expected to address one or more of the following social issues: Breaking Infertility Stigma, Supporting Girl Education, Ending Child Marriage, Ending FGM, Stopping GBV and/ or Women Empowerment. Films are expected to be made in English, French, Portuguese and Local Languages. Submission deadline: September 30, 2025. Information on the award can be sourced at www.merck-foundation.com

Pan African Film And Arts Festival Set For February
THE organisers of the Pan African Film & Arts Festival (PAFF) have announced new programming, events, and a significant expansion in 2025 that includes extending its vibrant cultural presence to Culver City, Ca. The festival, which will take place between February 4 and 17, will continue to offer limited programming at the beloved Cinemark theaters in Baldwin Hills, with most of its screenings and festival activities taking place at the Culver Theater and Westfield Culver City. With the 2025 theme, Dream Beyond, PAFF promises to provide its signature programming from around the world with international stars gathering for a two-week celebration of Black cinema at the largest Black History Month celebration in the nation. When asked about the Pan African Film & Arts Festival, Danny Glover, one of the festival co-founders said: “PAFF centralises African films, but we are not the first, Sidney Poitier, Ossie Davis, Harry Belafonte these men were our predecessors. They’re the ones that set the stage. I think the fact that we’ve been nurtured on African Films and some other regions like the Caribbean and other places in the Diaspora it was inevitable we build a festival and now it is the most important Black film festival in the nation.”

The theme, Dream Beyond, encapsulates PAFF’s vision to empower creators and audiences alike, encouraging them to envision a future where Black excellence and creativity flourish without boundaries. PAFF consistently showcases the brilliance of Black creatives in Hollywood and has become a platform for some of today’s biggest stars to showcase their talents and projects, including cultural icons like Denzel Washington, John Singleton, Regina King, Mario Van Peebles, Ava DuVernay, and the festivals founder Danny Glover.