Steve Coogan, Kristin Scott Thomas and Laura Linney also in the star lineup, alongside directors Sally Potter, Agnieszka Holland and Aki Kaurismaki

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Richard Gere, Kristin Scott Thomas and Penélope Cruz will be heading for the Potsdamer Platz in February as the Berlin film festival announced its first tranche of screenings.

Among a clutch of films receiving their world premiere in the competition section of the festival are The Dinner, which features Gere alongside Steve Coogan, Laura Linney and Rebecca Hall in a thriller about two married couples who meet to discuss what to do about a crime apparently committed by their children; and political fable The Party, written and directed by Sally Potter, whose cast includes Scott Thomas, Patricia Clarkson, Emily Mortimer and Cillian Murphy. Other potential Golden Bear winners include films from European auteurs Agnieszka Holland and Aki Kaurismaki. The former has directed Pokot (AKA Spoor), adapted from Olga Tokarczuk’s 2009 “moral thriller” novel Drive Your Plough Over the Bones of the Dead, and the latter is bringing The Other Side of Hope, his first directorial effort since Le Havre (2011), which is about a Finnish salesman and Syrian refugee in Helsinki.

Cruz’s presence at the Berlinale will come by way of a special screening (ie, non-competitive) of The Queen of Spain, her and director Fernando Trueba’s follow-up to The Girl of Your Dreams, the 1998 film about a fictional Spanish screen star who attracts the attention of Josef Goebbels. Here the same character is shooting a Hollywood film in Spain after the second world war, playing the role of Isabella of Castile.

The work of the celebrated German performance artist Joseph Beuys (who died in 1986) will also be acknowledged in Berlin, with the selection of Andres Veiel’s documentary for the Golden Bear competition.

The Berlin film festival runs from 9-19 February 2017.

Full list of films announced

Competition

On Body and Soul (dir: Ildiko Enyedi)

Ana, mon amour (dir: Călin Peter Netzer)

Beuys (dir: Andres Veiel)

Colo (dir: Teresa Villaverde)

The Dinner (dir: Oren Moverman)

Félicité (dir: Alain Gomis)

The Party (dir: Sally Potter)

Pokot (dir: Agnieszka Holland)

The Other Side of Hope (dir: Aki Kaurismäki)

Una Mujer Fantástica (dir: Sebastián Lelio)

Special screenings

The Queen of Spain (dir: Fernando Trueba)

The Young Karl Marx (dir: Raoul Peck)

Last Days in Havana (dir: Fernando Pérez)

Eight Hours Don’t Make a Day (dir: Rainer Werner Fassbinder)