DIRECTOR'S AWARD FOR "I ONLY REST IN THE STORM" - FESTIVAL RECORD WITH 6200 VISITORS

At the close of the 20th edition of the independent Berlin film festival AROUND THE WORLD IN 14 FILMS, the jury presented the BASIS BERLIN Postproduction Award for Best Director to Pedro Pinho for his feature film "I Only Rest in the Storm" (original title: "O Riso ea Faca") on December 6, 2025, at the Kino in der Kulturbrauerei. The jury members were actress Melika Foroutan, film director and screenwriter Angelina Maccarone, and film director and screenwriter Sophie Linnenbaum. They reviewed the entries in the "14 Films" section of the cinematic world tour. The prize is a voucher worth 5,000 euros. This year marked the fifth time it has been sponsored by the post-production company BASIS BERLIN. The three-and-a-half-hour work by the director, screenwriter, producer, and cinematographer had already won the Best Actress award (Cleo Diára) in the "Un Certain Regard" section at this year's Cannes Film Festival.

Record with 6,200 visitors in 45 performances

With 6,200 visitors at 45 screenings, the festival achieved its highest attendance since its founding in its anniversary year (2024: 5,700 visitors, 48 screenings). AROUND THE WORLD IN 14 FILMS presented cinematic highlights of contemporary world cinema from November 28 to December 6, 2025, at the Kino in der KulturBrauerei as well as the delphi LUX and Neues Off 24 cinemas. The films were presented by prominent patrons Bibiana Beglau, Sarah Blaßkiewitz, Mathias Bothor, Vincenzo Bugno, Pegah Ferydoni, Nora Fingscheidt, Luisa-Céline Gaffron, Louis Hofmann, Frédéric Jaeger, Dani Levy, Christiane Peitz, Louise Peter, Ayse Polat, Maria Schrader, Katharina Stark, Fabian Stumm, and Nicolas Wackerbarth. For the seventh time, the festival, together with the Berlinale, presented the “Berlinale Spotlight: World Cinema Fund” – featuring outstanding films that were created with the help of the Berlinale initiative.

“I Only Rest in the Storm” – The jury on their decision

“An environmental engineer from Portugal travels to Guinea-Bissau on behalf of an NGO to conduct an environmental impact assessment for a road construction project. His name is Sergio, and what he does most of all in this epic film by director Pedro Pinho is listen. And in doing so, he opens our eyes to the full complexity and multifaceted nature of a modern African metropolis in one of the world's poorest countries, which gained its independence from the colonial power of Portugal in 1974. What we see are the consequences of colonialism: the exploitation by the imported capitalist system, the structural racism, the intricate power structures. We see the daily struggle for survival of people from different social classes, their search for identity, their yearning for a place in a country suffering from chronic political instability. And we see the guilt that the privileged, well-meaning, and thoughtful Sergio, a descendant of the colonial power, has manifested within himself—his longing for absolution, his desire to be a part of the country, a part of its people.” to succeed, and to repeatedly fail. The deeper Sergio delves into this web of discourses and perspectives, the less he finds simple answers and clear-cut judgments.

Pedro Pinho worked with a screenplay that allowed ample room for improvisation. After two years of editing, a film over five hours long emerged, which was ultimately condensed to three and a half hours in collaboration with the production team – three and a half hours brimming with surprises, encounters, and intricate digressions. The film tackles weighty themes. Pedro Pinho finds a remarkably natural flow for this, carrying us through this world with an almost dreamlike ease – to construction sites, across rivers, into small villages, to family celebrations, or right into the heart of the dazzling party nights of the queer urban scene. The warm, naturalistic direction brings us so close to the people and the issues, touching us on the deepest human level and thus confronting us all the more urgently with questions of our responsibility and our guilt. Pedro Pinho observes with such precision that it hurts, yet simultaneously makes you laugh – at those ever-so-well-meaning NGOs who patronizingly bring latrines to African villages, while one villager has to ask Sergio five times if the Europeans really do flush their excrement away with drinking water, because she considers this enormous decadence a fabricated story and therefore refuses to believe it. The people Sergio encounters are caught in complex webs: European construction workers, trapped between exploitation and a longing for home; sex workers who find nothing more disgusting than the savior complex of some clients; local capitalists who reflect on their profit strategies in relation to European mechanisms of exploitation. And at the center of this structure is a love triangle that defies any clear definition: Sergio, Diara – portrayed by Cleo Diára, who deservedly won Best Actress at Cannes – and Guilherme. Are they friends, confidants, lovers, enemies? Perhaps all of these at once; nothing is clear. It is precisely in this ambivalence that we realize there is no easy way out when dealing with questions of responsibility and guilt. But we are being offered an invitation; a dazzling, challenging invitation that we should accept, one brimming with humanity and possibilities if we are willing to listen. This year's 14 Films Festival prize goes to "I Only Rest in the Storm" by Pedro Pinho. More about the film ...

A Big Thank-You to Our Sponsors

Premium partners of the 2025 festival included audio specialist beyerdynamic, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, ARTE, and CineStar. The prize was sponsored by post-production house BASIS BERLIN. Partners included the law firm Dentons, the Berlinale's World Cinema Fund, the creative agency Chest of Wonders, the Yorck cinema group, the restaurant Bonvivant, the agency Fitz + Skoglund, and the PR agency Jelly Press. Supporters included AG Filmfestival, the European Film Academy, Casting Network, Woloho, and the members of the supporting association.

The journey continues: from Berlin to Munich, Cologne and Nuremberg

Following the Berlin edition, AROUND THE WORLD IN 14 FILMS will be showing a large part of its program in Munich (December 8–13, 2025, City Kinos), Cologne (December 11–17, 2025, Odeon Kino) and Nuremberg (January 2–7, 2026, Filmhaus Nürnberg).

Photo: The BASIS BERLIN Postproduction Award, presented on December 6, 2025 to “I Only Rest in the Storm”

Image (from left): Angelina Maccarone (jury), Frieda Oberlin (BASIS BERLIN), Sophie Linnenbaum (jury) and Melika Foroutan (jury) © AtWi14F 2025, Sergio Durán