76th Berlin International Film Festival: Testament to Talent, Amanda Seyfried's Power and Provocation

On the red carpet before the premiere of her new film, Amanda Seyfried wears a gauzy, bejewelled gown. Photograph (above) and cover picture by Jay Zoo for DAM 

Amanda Seyfried presented her latest feature, The Testament of Ann Lee, at the 76th Berlin International Film Festival. The historical narrative examines the life and leadership of the Shaker founder, tracing the rise of a religious movement built on communal living and gender equality. Blending rigorous period detail with reinterpreted Shaker hymns, the film puts the American actor at the centre of an ambitious portrait of belief, power and social reform. Story by Jeanne-Marie Cilento. Photography by Jay Zoo

Film director Mona Fastvold with Amanda 

Seyfried at their photocall in Berlin. 

THE new film, The Testament of Ann Lee, directed by Mona Fastvold and co-written with Brady Corbet, is an ambitious drama examining radical 18th-century religious ideas. 

The American and British co-production does not approach its subject as distant heritage. Instead, Fastvold frames Ann Lee as a destabilising force, a leader whose spiritual authority challenged entrenched hierarchies and whose vision of collective living demanded sacrifice. 

Music is central to the storytelling, with traditional Shaker hymns reinterpreted and staged with striking physicality. The result is immersive rather than reverential, driven by rhythm and bodies in motion. Seyfried’s performance anchors the film with a focused commitment. She sheds any trace of romanticism, portraying Lee as fervent, exacting and often isolated by the magnitude of her belief. 

Amanda Seyfried's performance is built on control: vocal, physical and emotional, and marks a decisive step further into complex dramatic territory

Producer Andrew Morrison with Amanda Seyfried,

Mona Fastvold & David Blumberg at the Berlinale. 

Opposite Lewis Pullman, Thomasin McKenzie, Matthew Beard and Christopher Abbott, she commands the frame with a stillness that can fracture into intensity without warning. It is a performance built on control, vocal, physical and emotional, and marks a decisive step further into complex dramatic territory.

That dialogue between restraint and assertion even carried into her festival appearances. For the evening premiere, Seyfried pivoted toward high glamour. 

A sheer, sequined gown shimmered under flashbulbs, styled with Tiffany gold and diamond jewellery that underscored the scale of the occasion. Longtime stylist Elizabeth Stewart crafted a look that felt celebratory without excess, allowing texture and light to carry the statement rather than volume.

For the Grand Hyatt photocall, Seyfried chose head-to-toe Miu Miu, demonstrating a sharp understanding of narrative dressing, a black Spring 2026 dress. Sleeveless and cut to a knee-length A-line, it balanced delicacy with edge through intricate lacework and deliberate cutouts that revealed flashes of pale blue beneath. 

Music is central to the storytelling, with traditional Shaker hymns reinterpreted and staged with striking physicality

Amanda Seyfried wore head-to-toe Miu Miu 

in a crocheted black A-line dress plus the 

Italian label's signature slingbacks. 

Ruffled shoulders softened the line, but the transparency ensured the look never tipped into nostalgia. It was modern and slightly provocative, a contemporary counterpoint to the disciplined world depicted on screen. On her feet: the house’s patent leather buckle slingbacks, a pointed silhouette sharpened by triple straps and polished metal hardware.  

During the Berlin press conference, Seyfried spoke candidly about seeking projects that challenge her craft and justify time away from family life. She described The Testament of Ann Lee as demanding but creatively expansive, a production driven by clear vision and collaborative trust. 

Released within days of her commercial thriller The Housemaid, the film highlights her range, one a box-office hit, the other a formally ambitious meditation on belief and leadership. In Berlin, Seyfried said she wanted to explore conviction, authority and the cost of ideological purity. 

Scroll down to see highlights from the red-carpet premiere of the film at the Berlinale

76th Berlin Film Festival: Queen at Sea ~ Juliette Binoche Steers Through a Storm of Memory as Lance Hammer Drops Anchor in the German Captital

French actor Juliette Binoche braves the cold on the red carpet in Berlin. Photograph (above) and cover picture of Dua Lipa by Jay Zoo for DAM

Day six of the 76th Berlin International Film Festival delivered one of the Competition’s most arresting arrivals as Queen at Sea premiered at the Berlinale Palast. Fronted by Juliette Binoche alongside Tom Courtenay and directed by Lance Hammer, the film cuts through festival glamour with bracing emotional clarity. In a week of global premieres, this London-set drama stands out for its unsentimental examination of family, care and the limits of love. Photography by Jay Zoo 

Film director Lance Hammer with actors 

Tom Courtenay, Anna Calder-Marshall

and Juliette Binoche at the official 

photocall at the Berlin Film Festival. 

ON another snowy February afternoon at the Berlinale, the competition slate was headed by the premiere of Queen at Sea. Day six of the film festival unfolded in flashes of winter light and camera bulbs as the cast gathered first for the photocall, then ascended the red carpet at the Berlinale Palast, where Europe’s first major festival of the year continues to test the emotional temperature of cinema.

At the photocall, Juliette Binoche stood composed yet quietly radiant, flanked by Tom Courtenay, Anna Calder-Marshall and rising star Florence Hunt. Their presence signalled the film’s generational sweep: three women bound by love, conflict and the slow erosion of memory. Directed by Lance Hammer, the drama marks his long-awaited return to feature filmmaking and arrives in Berlin as one of the Competition’s most emotionally rigorous entries.

The film’s generational sweep encompasses three women bound by love, conflict and the slow erosion of memory.

Florence Hunt plays Juliette 

Binoche's daughter in the film.

As evening fell, Binoche re-emerged in a sweeping silhouette with a faux-fur jacket, white shirt and pleated black trousers for the premiere, pausing for photographers against a curtain of wintry darkness. 

The mood was elegant but restrained, a fitting prelude to a film that refuses sentimentality in its portrait of dementia and familial fracture. Courtenay, ever the understated national treasure, greeted the crowd with gentle warmth, while Hunt embodied the new generation stepping into a complicated inheritance.

Inside the Palast, the audience encountered a work of bracing honesty: a story set in an atmospheric suburban London, where the director examines care, consent and the uncomfortable truths that surface when love is no longer enough. In a festival week that has stretched from the Australian outback to Depression-era America, Queen at Sea proved that the most turbulent waters are often found within the home, and that Berlin remains a harbour for cinema unafraid to confront them. ~ Jeanne-Marie Cilento

Scroll down to see the red-carpet arrivals of the cast of the Queen at Sea at the Berlin Film Festival

76th Berlin International Film Festival: Ethan Hawke Carries The Weight, a Tale of Gold, Grit and the Gravity of Fatherhood

American actor Ethan Hawke, wearing a Tom Ford by Haider Ackermann sequined suit, at the photocall for his new film in Berlin. Photograph (above) and cover picture of Dua Lipa by Jay Zoo for DAM

Ethan Hawke discussed The Weight, a lean, Depression-era drama charged with emotional urgency at the Berlin Film Festival. Playing a father coerced into smuggling gold through unforgiving wilderness to secure his freedom and reunite with his daughter, the actor delivers a gritty performance. Opposite Russell Crowe and directed by Padraic McKinley, the film blends stark action with an exploration of sacrifice, solidarity and the cost of defying institutional power. Story by Jeanne-Marie Cilento. Photography by Jay Zoo

Sam Hazeldine, Austin Amelio, Ethan Hawke,

Padraic McKinley, Avi Nash, Julia Jones and

Lucas Lynggaard Tonnesen at the Berlinale.  

UNDER the winter glare of Berlin’s February light, Ethan Hawke arrived at the Grand Hyatt to present his new film at the city's film festival. The survival drama, set during the Depression in America, strips heroism down to its rawest impulse: love.

Hawke’s presence at the photocall was characteristically unforced. Dressed in a black sequined bouclé suit from Tom Ford by Haider Ackermann, offset with a narrow leather tie, he managed to look both formal and subtly subversive. The texture of the fabric caught the camera flashes without veering into ostentation; a visual metaphor, perhaps, for an actor whose career has balanced arthouse introspection with muscular mainstream roles. 

In The Weight, Hawke plays Samuel Murphy, a father living in 1933 Oregon whose life collapses when he is separated from his daughter and sent to a punishing labour camp. The premise is stark: offered a chance at early release, Murphy must transport smuggled gold through hostile wilderness under the watch of a ruthless warden, played with simmering authority by Russell Crowe. The journey becomes both a physical ordeal and a moral reckoning.

The film arrives at a moment when questions of institutional power and collective responsibility resonate sharply

Ethan Hawke joking around with film director

Padraic McKinley at their Berlin photocall. 

Directed by Padraic McKinley, the film draws on the stripped-back tension of 1970s American action cinema while grounding itself in the psychological realism that has long been Hawke’s forte. 

Wide shots of Oregon’s unforgiving terrain underscore the insignificance of the men crossing it, bent beneath the literal and symbolic weight of gold. Yet the film resists easy mythmaking. Murphy is not a conventional hero; he is exhausted, frightened and often unsure. What propels him forward is not bravado but the singular pull of fatherhood.

Speaking in Berlin, Hawke described the title as a reflection of emotional gravity, the burden of responsibility and the cost of devotion. For an actor who has built a career on exploring moral ambiguity, the role offers fertile ground. His performance is stripped of flourish, rooted instead in physicality: the slump of shoulders, the wary glance over a campfire, the quiet calculation behind the eyes. It is a study in endurance rather than spectacle.

The Berlinale has long championed films that fuse political undercurrents with intimate storytelling, and The Weight arrives at a moment when questions of institutional power and collective responsibility resonate sharply. Beneath its period setting lies a contemporary pulse: a group of disparate men discovering shared cause against systemic exploitation.

The film wastes little time on sentimentality. Instead, it delivers a taut, atmospheric examination of sacrifice and solidarity. For Hawke, now more than three decades into his career, it marks another chapter in a body of work defined by restless curiosity and moral inquiry.

76th Berlin International Film Festival: Dua Lipa on the Red Carpet in Black and White by Andrea Heinsohn

Is Social Media Addictive? How it Keeps You Clicking and the Harms it Can Cause

The consequences of social media overuse can be significiant. Recent studies have identified a wide range of pernicious effects. Cover picture of Dua Lipa in Berlin by Jay Zoo for DAM

By Quynh Hoang

For years, big tech companies have placed the burden of managing screen time squarely on individuals and parents, operating on the assumption that capturing human attention is fair game.

But the social media sands may slowly be shifting. A test-case jury trial in Los Angeles is accusing big tech companies of creating “addiction machines”. While TikTok and Snapchat have already settled with the 20-year-old plaintiff, Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, is due to give evidence in the courtroom this week.

The European Commission recently issued a preliminary ruling against TikTok, stating that the app’s design – with features such as infinite scroll and autoplay – breaches the EU Digital Services Act. One industry expert told the BBC that the problem is “no longer just about toxic content, it’s about toxic design”.

Meta and other defendants have historically argued that their platforms are communication tools, not traps, and that “addiction” is a mischaracterisation of high engagement.

“I think it’s important to differentiate between clinical addiction and problematic use,” Instagram chief Adam Mosseri testified in the LA court. He noted that the field of psychology does not classify social media addiction as an official diagnosis.

Tech giants maintain that users and parents have the agency and tools to manage screen time. However, a growing body of academic research suggests features like infinite scrolling, autoplay and push notifications are engineered to override human self-control.

Video: CBS News.

A state of ‘automated attachment’

My research with colleagues on digital consumption behaviour also challenges the idea that excessive social media use is a failure of personal willpower. Through interviews with 32 self-identified excessive users and an analysis of online discussions dedicated to heavy digital use, we found that consumers frequently enter a state of “automated attachment”.

This is when connection to the device becomes purely reflexive, as conscious decision-making is effectively suspended by the platform’s design.

We found that the impulse to use these platforms sometimes occurs before the user is even fully conscious. One participant admitted: “I’m waking up, I’m not even totally conscious, and I’m already doing things on the device.”

Another described this loss of agency vividly: “I found myself mindlessly opening the [TikTok] app every time I felt even the tiniest bit bored … My thumb was reaching to its old spot on reflex, without a conscious thought.”

Social media proponents argue that “screen addiction” isn’t the same as substance abuse. However, new neurophysiological evidence suggests that frequent engagement with these algorithms alters dopamine pathways, fostering a dependency that is “analogous to substance addiction”.

Strategies that keep users engaged

The argument that users should simply exercise willpower also needs to be understood in the context of the sophisticated strategies platforms employ to keep users engaged. These include:

1. Removing stopping cues

Features like infinite scroll, autoplay and push notifications create a continuous flow of content. By eliminating natural end-points, the design effectively shifts users into autopilot mode, making stopping a viewing session more difficult.

2. Variable rewards

Similar to a slot machine, algorithms deliver intermittent, unpredictable rewards such as likes and personalised videos. This unpredictability triggers the dopamine system, creating a compulsive cycle of seeking and anticipation.

3. Social pressure

Features such as notifications and time-limited story posts have been found to exploit psychological vulnerabilities, inducing anxiety that for many users can only be relieved by checking the app. Strategies employing “emotional steering” can take advantage of psychological vulnerabilities, such as people’s fear of missing out, to instil a sense of social obligation and guilt if they attempt to disconnect.

Vulnerability in children

The issue of social media addiction is of particular concern when it comes to children, whose impulse control mechanisms are still developing. The US trial’s plaintiff says she began using social media at the age of six, and that her early exposure to these platforms led to a spiral into addiction.

A growing body of research suggests that “variable reward schedules” are especially potent for developing minds, which exhibit a heightened sensitivity to rewards. Children lack the cognitive brakes to resist these dopamine loops because their emotional regulation and impulsivity controls are still developing.

Lawyers in the US trial have pointed to internal documents, known as “Project Myst”, which allegedly show that Meta knew parental controls were ineffective against these engagement loops. Meta’s attorney, Paul Schmidt, countered that the plaintiff’s struggles stemmed from pre-existing childhood trauma rather than platform design.

The company has long argued that it provides parents with “robust tools at their fingertips”, and that the primary issue is “behavioural” – because many parents fail to use them.

Our study heard from many adults (mainly in their 20s) who described the near-impossibility of controlling levels of use, despite their best efforts. If these adults cannot stop opening apps on reflex, expecting a child to exercise restraint with apps that affect human neurophysiology seems even more unrealistic.

Potential harms of overuse

The consequences of social media overuse can be significant. Our research and recent studies have identified a wide range of potential harms.

These include “psychological entrapment”. Participants in our study described a “feedback loop of doom and despair”. Users can turn to platforms to escape anxiety, only to find that the scrolling deepens their feelings of emptiness and isolation.

Excessive exposure to rapidly changing, highly stimulating content can fracture the user’s attention span, making it harder to focus on complex real-world tasks.

And many users describe feeling “defeated” by the technology. Social media’s erosion of autonomy can leave people unable to align their online actions, such as overlong sessions, with their intentions.

A ruling against social media companies in the LA court case, or enforced redesign of their apps in the EU, could have profound implications for the way these platforms are operated in future.

But while big tech companies have grown at dizzying rates over the past two decades, attempts to rein in their products on both sides of the Atlantic remain slow and painstaking. In this era of “use first, legislate later”, people all over the world, of all ages, are the laboratory mice.

Quynh Hoang, Lecturer in Marketing and Consumption, Department of Marketing and Strategy, University of Leicester

Licence to Thrill? Dua Lipa and Callum Turner Turn Up the Heat on a Wintry Valentine's Night at the Berlin Film Festival

Dua Lipa made a surprise appearance on the red carpet in Berlin with Callum Turner during the film festival. Photograph and cover picture by Jay Zoo for DAM

On a snowy Valentine’s night, the 76th Berlin International Film Festival delivered one of its most magnetic red carpet moments. As flakes fell outside the Berlinale Palast, Dua Lipa stepped out in support of her fiancé Callum Turner for the world premiere of Rosebush Pruning, transforming a major cinematic debut into a display of star power, romance and rising career momentum on one of Europe’s most influential film stages. Story by Jeanne-Marie Cilento. Photography by Jay Zoo

The couple openly showed their affection for 

each other on the red carpet on Valentine's night. 

THE world premiere of Rosebush Pruning was a study in contrasts: biting satire on screen and unabashed romance on the red carpet. At the Berlinale Palast, cameras flashed as Dua Lipa arrived in support of her fiancé, Callum Turner, turning the film debut into one of the festival’s most talked-about arrivals.

Dua Lipa, fresh from the global sweep of her Radical Optimism tour, cut a striking figure in a sheer black lace gown, its sculptural neckline and delicate crochet detailing offset by a sleek centre-parted bun and diamond choker. Turner opted for understated tailoring in a relaxed brown suit with a pale shirt and tie. Their ease with one another, clasped hands, whispered exchanges, a quick kiss before Turner faced the photographers solo provided a moment of warmth against Berlin’s winter chill.

Inside, the focus shifted firmly to the film. Directed by Brazilian filmmaker Karim Aïnouz, Rosebush Pruning is a sharp-edged satire centred on four privileged American siblings unraveling under the weight of inheritance, denial and long-buried family secrets. Turner leads an ensemble that includes Riley Keough, Jamie Bell, Elle Fanning, Tracy Letts and Pamela Anderson, a cross-generational cast that underscores the film’s themes of legacy and disintegration.

At the Berlinale Palast, cameras flashed as Dua Lipa arrived in support of her fiancé, Callum Turner, turning the film debut into one of the festival’s most talked-about arrivals.

The press corps taking pictures of the pair

with rows of excited fans in the background/

Earlier in the day, Turner fielded inevitable questions about persistent speculation linking him to the next James Bond. With a measured smile, he declined to engage, allowing Letts to deflect the moment with humour. The exchange only heightened the sense that Turner’s career is entering a pivotal chapter, one defined less by rumour than by increasingly ambitious roles.

Yet on this particular evening, professional momentum shared the spotlight with personal devotion. Lipa’s presence was not billed in advance, and her decision to step back after their joint photographs ensured the premiere remained Turner’s night. In a festival known for political cinema and industry deal-making, Rosebush Pruning’s debut offered something simpler but no less potent: a reminder that, even amid satire about fractured families, romance can still command the frame. 

Berlin International Film Festival: Michelle Yeoh Awarded the Honorary Golden Bear

In Berlin at a special photocall the next day, Michelle Yeoh showed her Golden Bear award she had been presented with the evening before. Photograph (above) by Jay Zoo for DAM

Michelle Yeoh was honoured with the Golden Bear for lifetime achievement at the 76th Berlin International Film Festival, marking a historic first as the award’s first Asian female recipient. The accolade recognizes a four-decade career that has spanned Hong Kong action cinema, Hollywood blockbusters and Oscar-winning drama, cementing her status as one of the most influential and enduring figures in contemporary film, writes Jeanne-Marie Cilento. Photography by Jay Zoo 

On the red carpet at the Berlinale,

Michelle Yeoh wearing an elegantly

svelte Giorgio Armani gown 

RECIEVING the Berlinale’s highest lifetime achievement honour, Michelle Yeoh was awarded the Honorary Golden Bear during a glamourous presentation at the festival’s opening ceremony. Acclaimed American filmmaker Sean Baker introduced Yeoh to a packed auditorium. 

Baker, who recently collaborated with the actor on the short film Sandiwara, described her as a “once-in-a-generation screen presence” whose work has consistently elevated the medium. He praised her commitment to artistic integrity and her refusal to be confined by stereotype or expectation.

Visibly moved as she accepted the Golden Bear, Yeoh balanced humour with reflection. She joked about future collaborations with Baker before turning to a deeply personal note, speaking of her late father and the values of discipline and perseverance he instilled in her. “If something is worth doing, it is worth doing properly,” she said, crediting that philosophy for sustaining her four-decade career.

Yeoh emphasised that the award represented not a single performance but a body of work shaped by persistence. Born in Malaysia, she first gained prominence in Hong Kong action cinema before transitioning to international productions. 

American director Sean Baker described Michelle Yeoh as a “once-in-a-generation screen presence” whose work has consistently elevated the medium. 

Michelle Yeoh strikes a pose the day after

her award in Berlin in front of her fans. 

Her breakthrough into global mainstream audiences included roles in films such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and the James Bond instalment Tomorrow Never Dies. In 2023, she made history at the 95th Academy Awards, becoming the first Malaysian and first Asian woman to win Best Actress for her performance in Everything Everywhere All at Once.

Speaking to press in Berlin, Yeoh declined to comment on U.S. political matters, stating she preferred to focus on cinema. She defended the enduring relevance of the theatrical experience, describing it as a shared space where audiences “open their hearts and free their minds.”

She also addressed representation in Hollywood, acknowledging that progress for Asian actors has been hard won. Projects such as Crazy Rich Asians and Everything Everywhere All at Once, she noted, were initially viewed as commercial risks. Their success, she argued, demonstrated that global audiences are ready for broader storytelling.

As the audience rose in a sustained standing ovation, Yeoh held the Golden Bear close. The honour, she said, symbolised resilience and a reminder that artists who persist can reshape the industry itself.