The 74th Berlin Film Fest unveiled its full lineup Monday at its official press conference in the House of World Cultures in Berlin.

Managing director Mariëtte Rissenbeek and artistic director Carlo Chatrian presented the films that will compete for this year’s Golden and Silver Bears both in the competition and encounters sections.

Mexican director Alonso Ruizpalacios, a Berlinale regular and two-time Silver Bear winner — for A Cop Movie in 2022 and Museo in 2018 — returns to Berlin competition with his English-language feature debut La Cocina.

Rooney Mara and The Cop Movie alum Raúl Briones star in the drama set over the course of a single day in a bustling New York City restaurant. Briones plays an undocumented cook in a relationship with Julia (Mara), an American waitress who cannot commit to their relationship. Fifth Season is selling North American rights to La Cocina with Hanway handling international sales.

German director Andreas Dresen (Grill Point, Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush) another Berlinale stalwart, is back in competition with his latest, From Hilde With Love. Babylon Berlin star Liv Lisa Fries headlines in the period drama about a couple who fall in love in a blissful German summer before their lives are torn apart by the Gestapo. Beta Film is selling the movie worldwide.

Berlin regulars returning to competition this year include Olivier Assayas with Suspended Time, Russian documentarian Victor Kossakovsky, back with Architecton, and Mati Diop, whose new documentary Dahomey will compete for this year’s Golden Bear. And the ridiculously prolific Hong Sang-soo is back with his fifth Berlinale competition film in as many years, returning to the German capital with A Traveler’s Needs, his third contribution with French acting legend Isabelle Huppert.

Other acclaimed directors in competition this year include Abderrahmane Sissako, in the official lineup with Black Tea; Austrian auteur horror directors Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, whose The Devil’s Bath will premiere in Berlin; Bruno Dumont, whose Star Wars parody The Empire will screen in competition; and Piero Messina, whose feature Another End, starring Gael Garcia Bernal, gets its world premiere at the Berlinale. Newer Connect is handling international sales on Another End.

The Worst Person in the World breakout Renate Reinsve co-stars in Another End and also headlines Aaron Schimberg’s competition title A Different Man alongside Sebastian Stan.

Highlights of the Encounters lineup, a sidebar featuring more avant-garde and experimental films, include A Family, the directorial debut of acclaimed, and controversial, French writer Christine Angot, whose work as a screenwriter includes the script to 2022 Berlin competition entry Both Sides of the Blade from director Claire Denis; Matt and Mara by director Kazik Radwanski starring Blackberry director Matt Johnson and Deragh Campbell; and Some Rain Must Fall, the feature debut of acclaimed Chinese short film director Qiu Yang.

Last week Berlin unveiled its program for the festival’s Panorama, Generation, Forum and Forum Extended sidebars.

Rissenbeek and Chatrain began the presser with a statement on the political intentions and positioning of the festival, in particular about the ongoing war in Gaza. They said the Berlinale provides “a space for artistic expression and peaceful dialogue [as] places of encounter and exchange and contributing to international understanding…. We believe that through the power of films and open discussions, we can help foster empathy, awareness, understanding, even and especially in painful times like these. Our sympathy goes out to all the victims of the humanitarian crisis in the Middle East and elsewhere. We want everyone’s suffering to be recognized, and for our program to be open to discussing different perspectives on the complexity of the world. We are also concerned to see that anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim resentment and hate speech are spreading in Germany and around the world. As a cultural institution, we take a firm stand against all forms of discrimination and are committed to intercultural understanding.”

Pro-Palestinian demonstrations have disrupted the Sundance Film Festival and the fierce debate over the war in Gaza rocked the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) last year, with several directors withdrawing their movies in protest. Chatrian noted that two directors in sidebar sections pulled their films to protest the war in Gaza, joining the protest “Strike Germany,” which is boycotting German cultural institutions because of the German government’s unequivocal support of Israel during the current conflict.