13/03/2025 - With 154 films, 88 of which world premieres, the Swiss festival offers a selection of bold and singular works that represent the diversity of non-fiction cinema

Having proudly reached its 56th edition (4-13 April), Visions du Réel confirms its position as the second most important festival in Switzerland when it comes to launching new films. This year, the programme will indeed be marked by the strong presence of debut films – 58, 28 of which are features. The Nyon festival also aims to be an unmissable international festival for non-fiction cinema, a prestigious showcase for directors known to the festival, but also for new faces. Its artistic director Emilie Bujès is “pleased to note that Visions du Réel confirms at once its role as a trailblazer and catalyst for talent”, before adding that “we are very happy that our selection testifies once again of our openness to the world.” The films of the 2025 edition once again play with conventions of what we call the real by investigating the world with a plurality of styles and registers. As its opening film, the festival has chosen Blame by Christian Frei, which will be presented as a world premiere.

This year, the festival will welcome three prestigious guests: Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck (guest of honour), an invitation shared with the Cinémathèque suisse and the ECAL, Romanian filmmaker Corneliu Porumboiu, and Portuguese director Cláudia Varejāo who will give two highly anticipated masterclasses. Amongst the other guests of this edition are British director and producer Asif Kapadia who, during the VdR Industry days (read the news), will give a masterclass open to accredited visitors.

Amongst the 14 films selected in the International Feature Competition, 11 are European productions and co-productions. Amongst those, we find Obscure Night – Ain’t I a Child? by Sylvain George, the last chapter of a powerful trilogy on migration policies (following Obscure Night - Wild Leaves (The Burning Ones, the Obstinate) [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Obscure Night - Goodbye Here, Anywhere [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sylvain George
film profile]); the new film by Jem Cohen (Museum Hours [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) Little, Big and Far, which follows the existential quest of an Austrian astronomer; the Macedonian film The Mountain Won’t Move by Petra Seliškar, about a brotherhood living on a mountain; German feature Soldiers of Light by Julian Vogel and Johannes Büttner; Belgian-French production La Montagne d’or by Roland Edzard; Anamocot (France/Cameroon) by Marie Voignier (Tinselwood [+see also:
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film profile]); The Prince of Nanawa (Argentina/Paraguay/Colombia/Germany) by Argentinian filmmaker Clarisa Navas (One in a Thousand [+see also:
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film profile]) which follows the life of a boy over 10 years in a no-man’s-land between Argentina and Paraguay; Aurora (Brazil/Portugal/France) by João Vieira Torres, a powerful reflection on the violence done to women through the story of her grand-mother, a midwife; Niñxs (Mexico/Germany) by Kani Lapuerta which talks about a trans teenager in a rural milieu; The Attachment (Senegal/Belgium/South Africa) by Lulu Scott; Iron Winter (Australia/Mongolia) by Kasimir Burgess; To Use a Mountain (United States) by Casey Carter and Shifting Baselines (Canada) by Julien Elie complete the section.

The audacious Burning Lights competition will welcome 15 titles this year, all world premieres, with 12 European productions or co-productions. Amongst those, we find The Big Chief (Poland/Netherlands/France) by Tomasz Wolski (In Ukraine [+see also:
film review
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interview: Piotr Pawlus, Tomasz Wolski
film profile]), about a former Red Army officer and hero of the resistance against Nazism, a character at once fascinating and enigmatic; the very personal and powerful Je n’embrasse pas les images (France) by Pascal Hamant; La Muraille (Switzerland/France) by Calisto Mc Nulty, about the troubling history of the Fontilles sanatorium in south-east Spain; Les Recommencements (Belgium/France) by Vivianne Perelmuter and Isabelle Ingold which follows the journey of a character to face a haunting past; the Belgian production Fierté nationale : de Jérico vers Gaza by Sven Augustijnen; the poetic and mysterious Yrupe (Spain) by Candela Sotos; the French production Chasing the Sun by Ruosong Huang, about a young man who, after studying in London, returns to his family in China; Croma (Argentina/Germany/Austria) by Argentinian filmmaker Manuel Abramovich (Pornomelancolía [+see also:
film review
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interview: Manuel Abramovich
film profile]) which allows us to dream of a deconstructed world freed from all normativity; The Vanishing Point (Iran/USA/France) by Bani Khoshnoudi which intertwines his personal history and that of his country of Iran; The World Upside Down (Switzerland/Argentina) by Agostina Di Luciano and Leon Schwitter; And the Fish Fly Above our Heads (Lebanon/France/Saudi Arabia) by Dima El-Horr; and To the West, in Zapata (Cuba/Spain) by David Bim. J’ai perdu de vue le paysage (Canada) by Sophie Bédard Marcotte, Say Goodbye (Mexico) by Paloma López Carrillo and A Brief History of Chasing Storms (USA) by Curtis Miller complete the selection.

Other sections, such as the National Competition, the International Mid-Length Competition as well as Opening Scenes, Grand Angle, Highlights and Special Screenings complete the rich programme of this edition.

(Translated from French)