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Berlin Film Festival 2015: Films to watch out for from Knight of Cups to Fifty Shades of Grey

Disney live-action remake Cinderella will also premiere at the festival

Kaleem Aftab
Thursday 05 February 2015 09:00 GMT
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Jamie Dornan as Christian Grey in Fifty Shades of Grey, which has its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival
Jamie Dornan as Christian Grey in Fifty Shades of Grey, which has its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival

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Today marks the grand opening of the Berlin Film Festival and this year's line-up looks particularly striking.

Terrence Malick is back with Knight of Cups, Nicole Kidman is the "female Lawrence of Arabia" and then there's that movie about BDSM that everyone's talking about.

Last year's event saw Oscar nominees The Grand Budapest Hotel and Boyhood premiere.

Here are some of the films hoping to win over critics in 2015:

45 Years

Having re-invented how gay relationships are viewed on screen, Weekend director Andrew Haigh turns his attention to a couple (Tom Courtenay and Charlotte Rampling) who are celebrating their Sapphire anniversary when a letter arrives out of the blue and threatens their marriage.

Tom Courtenay and Charlotte Rampling in 45 Years
Tom Courtenay and Charlotte Rampling in 45 Years

Knight of Cups

Terrence Malick films are always an event, especially one that sees Christian Bale wander around Hollywood encountering women and struggling to make sense of the bizarre goings-on around him. Cate Blanchett and Natalie Portman also star in this romantic fantasy drama.

Fifty Shades of Grey

It's the world premiere of the raunchiest 18-rated film to come out of mainstream Hollywood in a decade. Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson turn up the heat as playboy billionaire Christian Grey and naïve, infatuated student, Anastasia Steele. Cue the bondage ropes and pillows for cringing behind.

Love, Theft and Other Entanglements

This black and white Palestinian debut from Muayad Alayan about a car thief living in a refugee camp is being touted as a tribute to French New Wave. Comes complete with jazzy score.

Cinderella

Kenneth Branagh brings Disney's animated classic to live-action life with Lily James in the lead as the mistreated step-daughter whose lost shoe leads Prince Charming to her door. Expect plenty of glitzy dresses.

Lily James as Ella in Disney's live action remake of Cinderella
Lily James as Ella in Disney's live action remake of Cinderella (Disney)

Angelica

This adaptation of Arthur Phillips' thriller follows the life of a young lady in Victorian England who must practice sexual abstinence. This brings about psychological and supernatual demons, and lots of them.

Queen of the Desert

Nicole Kidman, James Franco, Damien Lewis and Robert Pattinson star in this Werner Herzog biopic about Gertrude Bell, "the female Lawrence of Arabia", and the birth of the modern Middle East.

Life

Director Anton Corbijn made his name taking pictures of Depeche Mode so he should know something of Hollywood photographer Dennis Stock, played here by Robert Pattinson and famed for his iconic pictures of James Dean.

Dane DeHaan and Robert Pattinson in Anton Corbijn's Life
Dane DeHaan and Robert Pattinson in Anton Corbijn's Life

The Club

Chilean director Pablo Larrain made the brilliant Tony Manero about a Saturday Night Fever fan who wants to join a reality show. His new film is about priests who train a greyhound.

Eisenstein in Guanajuato

Pete Greenaway brings his inimitable style to the set of Que Viva Mexico, a 1931 film directed by cinematic father Sergei Eisenstein in Guanajuato and financed by the novelist Upton Sinclair.

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