Berlinale 2025: Golden Bear goes to Norwegian Film ‘Dreams (Sex Love)’

Some celebration before the general elections in Germany tomorrow...

The 75th Berlin International Film Festival has come to a close, and the jury of this year’s edition, led by US filmmaker Todd Haynes, has elected its winner out of the 19 films in Competition.

The coveted Golden Bear for Best Film went to Drømmer (Dreams (Sex Love)) by Norwegian director Dag Johan Haugerud. It is a film about love, specifically a 17-year-old teenager’s crush on her teacher, which leads her to write a confessional book about her experience. It is a smart, tender and sensitive queer coming-of-age story which caps off in his Sex / Love / Dreams trilogy – the first chapter having premiered at the Berlinale last year.

“The film is called ‘Drømmer’ — it’s Norwegian for ‘dreams’ — and this was beyond my wildest dreams,” said the filmmaker, in accepting the prize from jury president Todd Haynes. “And I will just say: Write more and read more. It expands your mind. It’s very good for you.”

The trilogy is about emotional and physical intimacy. Sex focused on two straight married men discovering the elasticity of their sexuality; Love, which premiered at last year’s Venice Film Festival, followed two colleagues – a heterosexual woman and a gay man – seeking a romantic connection in the new world of dating apps. Dreams is the third captivating and very talky chapter, and while it may not be one of the most singular films in Competition this year (that prize goes to Reflection in a Dead Diamond - which criminally went home empty-handed), the way it depicts the intensity of romantic awakening is palpably accurate. And funny. It features one of the greatest feminist takedowns of the film Flashdance you’ll ever hear.

Our favourite for the Golden Bear, O