Berlinale – Todd Haynes: The Experimenter

With Todd Haynes, you never know what’s coming next. Although the US director is less productive than some of his colleagues who deliver a new film every year – Haynes likes to take his time for a few years – at 63 he can boast a fairly diverse body of work. This applies to both the format and the themes of his films – including, in addition to several dramas, a documentary about the band Velvet Underground, a miniseries about a self-sacrificing mother during the Great Depression and a youth film about two deaf teenagers. Haynes most recently drew attention with “May December” (2023), a psychodrama that tells of the relationship between a middle-aged woman and a much younger man that began under problematic circumstances.

With his large artistic repertoire and his experience as a jury member at the Venice Film Festival, Haynes is likely to be well suited to his new task: In February 2025, he will chair the jury for the 75th edition of the Berlinale, it was announced on Thursday. Tricia Tuttle, the new director of the film festival, said she was “overjoyed” about the appointment of her compatriot.

It will be exciting to see whether Todd Haynes’ themes and interests will be reflected in the selection of award-winning films. Despite his versatility, the California native still has an artistic signature: he likes to dedicate himself to bands and musicians and, even though he is gay, is considered one of the pioneers of New Queer Cinema. How fragile and fragile identity is plays a role in most of his films in one way or another. In his biopic about Bob Dylan, for example, he had a woman, the actress Cate Blanchett, play the role of the musician. Haynes likes to experiment – and will hopefully be brave at the Berlinale.