Category: BEST FEATURE FILM – 2025 ARFF BERLIN

(Honorable Mention)

Original Film Title: Fathers

Director’s Name: Harley Wallen

Writer’s Name: Harley Wallen

Producer: Kaiti Wallen

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United States

Language: English

Runtime: 1 hour 34 minutes 45 seconds

Film Description:

After 15 years missing, Natalie suddenly reappears—fragile, confused, and caught between two men claiming to be her father. One is lying…. Two detectives dig into her tangled past—one detached and methodical, the other deeply invested—forcing Natalie to question who she can truly trust. Haunted by fragmented memories and violent echoes of her past, Natalie embarks on a tense, emotional journey to uncover her identity before the shadows of her history consume them all. This psychological mystery thriller explores family bonds, memory’s fragility, and the haunting grip of trauma, delivering an intense, suspenseful, and heart-wrenching cinematic experience.

(Finalist)

Original Film Title: KIM CHEOL

Director’s Name: Chengfeng Jin

Writer’s Name: Chengfeng Jin

Producer: Jie Ni

Country of Origin: China

Country of Filming: China

Language: Mandarin Chinese

Runtime: 1 hour 50 minutes

Film Description:

During summer vacation, city boy Sang-min is sent to his grandmother’s village, where he meets Kim Cheol, a boy called a “fool” by the villagers but who is in fact kind and resilient. When Sang-min discovers that Kim Cheol is bullied, and that his father, Chang-jun, pretends to be mentally disabled to escape responsibility—while Kim Cheol himself has never met his mother—the two boys embark on a quest to find her. Their journey leads only to a cold ten-yuan note from a disabled woman. Along the way, they share a clam soup by the reservoir and compete in a folk sports meet where Kim Cheol, despite being injured, earns dignity through perseverance. On the eve of their parting, Sang-min leaves behind his beloved toy airplane for the friend who taught him the meaning of motherly love—yet Kim Cheol never shows up to say goodbye.

Set in a Korean ethnic village during the 1980s, the film looks back on a beautiful childhood from an innocent perspective.

(Winner)

Original Film Title: Searching Home

Director’s Name: Laura-Alina Blüming

Writer’s Name: Laura-Alina Blüming

Producer: Laura-Alina Blüming

Country of Origin: Germany

Country of Filming: Germany

Language: Germany

Runtime: 1 hour 5 minutes 44 seconds

Film Description:

Anna and Ben run away from home because they are being abused by their parents. On their journey through a magical forest, they must learn to look after each other and rise above themselves in order to find their new home.

(Finalist)

Original Film Title: APOT a presage of tiewlarun

Director’s Name: Raphael Warjri

Writer’s Name: Raphael Warjri

Producer: Raphael Warjri

Country of Origin: India

Country of Filming: India

Language: English

Runtime: 1 hour 21 minutes 40 seconds

Film Description:

Tiewlarun, the “forbidden flower,” carries a tale of love, loss, and an ominous curse. A young woman, ignoring her brother’s warnings, plucks the mysterious bloom, unleashing a venomous serpent that fatally wounds her. Her brother kills and buries the creature beneath the flower, condemning it as a plant never to be touched again.
The siblings had already endured immense sorrow: a plague had wiped out their village, leaving them the only survivors. Alone in the wilderness, they clung to each other for strength and survival. Just as hope begins to flicker, tragedy strikes again.
Near the forest’s edge, a prince discovers the abandoned girl, fragile yet radiant. Moved by her beauty and innocence, he rescues her, granting protection and affection. As she recovers, he offers her marriage and the promise of royal comfort. Yet, torn between the shadows of her past and the memory of her lost brother, she struggles to choose between regal luxury and the untamed freedom of her earlier life.

(Honorable Mention)

Original Film Title: Welcome to Vegas

Director’s Name: Hae Sun Hong

Writer’s Name: Hae Sun Hong

Producer: Peter Jin Bae

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United States

Language: English, Korean

Runtime: 1 hour 21 minutes 40 seconds

Film Description:

Raised behind the steam of her mother’s humble soondae-guk restaurant in Korea, Sunny is a daughter of a single mother who dreams of escaping generational poverty.
She sees a wealthy boyfriend as her way out—but when she becomes pregnant, he disappears.
Refusing to abort, Sunny carries the child and the shame alone.
And so, the cycle continues: a single mother raises another.

Rejected by Korean society, she migrates to Las Vegas, hoping for reinvention.
Instead, she finds herself dealing cards at a casino while her son Jonah, caught in the margins of American life, falls into gang violence and is imprisoned for ten years.
When he returns, burdened by guilt, Jonah sets his sights on a high-stakes poker tournament—hoping to rebuild not just their finances, but their fractured bond.

Welcome To Vegas is the debut feature of Korean-American diaspora female director Hae Sun Hong.
It is a meditation on identity, survival, and intergenerational trauma—set between the pressure cookers of Korean tradition and the neon illusions of the American West.
Through poetic realism and raw emotion, the film reclaims the meaning of family, home, and heritage—on both sides of the Pacific.

(Finalist)

Original Film Title: The Silicant – dir. Billy Jack

Director’s Name: Billy Jack

Writer’s Name: Justin Cole

Producer: Toni D’Antonio, Billy Jack, Justin Cole, Kara Lane

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United States

Language: English

Runtime: 1 hour 20 minutes

Film Description:

In the wake of a domestic assault charge, Tristan’s self isolation is interrupted by an otherworldly force that tries to invade his mind… and his house.