HYSTERIA, Europa Cinemas Label
Panorama Berlinale 2025
German director Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay’s HYSTERIA has won the Europa Cinemas Label as Best European film in the Panorama section, it was announced today by a jury of four professionals from the network, the twentieth time the Label has been awarded in Berlin.
HYSTERIA will now benefit from promotional support from Europa Cinemas and better exhibition thanks to a financial incentive for network cinemas to include it in their programme schedule.
The Label Jury consisted of Klaudia Elsässer (Art+ Cinema, Budapest, Hungary), David Kelly (Light House Cinema, Dublin, Ireland), Constanze Oedl (Stadtkino im Künstlerhaus, Vienna, Austria) and Cenk Sezgin (Cinemarine Cinemas, Bodrum, Turkey).
The jury issued the following statement – “Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay’s HYSTERIA is a really well-crafted conspiracy thriller. There are plenty of twists and turns, and the film builds towards a very exciting climatic final ten minutes. The audience here in Berlin were clearly relishing the ride. But beyond the enjoyment to be had with the film, we feel that its incendiary subject matter can really promote dialogue and a greater insight into the tensions in our society today.”
© Richard Hübner / Berlinale 2025
The Europa Cinemas Label jury is captued here with the HYSTERIA film team, director Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay, accompanied by producer Claus Herzog-Reichel and lead actress Devrim Lingnau.
HYSTERIA is a filmfaust production, with international sales handled by Pluto Films.
The cast includes Devrim Lingnau, Mehdi Meskar, Serkan Kaya, Nicolette Krebitz, and Aziz Çapkurt.
Director Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay also wrote the screenplay. Producers are Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay and Claus Herzog-Reichel. Cinematography is by Christian Kochmann, Editing by Denys Darahan and Andreas Menn, Music by Marvin Miller, Sound Design by Steffen Pfauth, Production Design by Mayte Hellenthal and Casting by Kerstin Neuwirth.
Synopsis: When a burned Quran is found on a film set, the shoot takes a dark turn and the crew are thrown into turmoil. Caught in the crossfire, an intern, Elif, is drawn into a dangerous game of secrets, accusations and lies. Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay’s ambiguous, provocative conspiracy thriller plays with the film-within-a-film motif and is rich in unexpected twists. A piercing reflection on the power of images and the dynamics of perception, projection and societal hysteria.
Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay was born in Bad Hersfeld, Germany in 1987. He studied at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne. In 2019, his film ORAY screened in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section of the Berlinale where it received the GWFF Best First Feature Award before going on to win a number of international prizes. With his filmfaust production company, co-founded with Claus Herzog-Reichel, he has written and produced international and award-winning feature and documentary films including AŞK, MARK VE ÖLÜM (Love, Deutschmarks and Death), which screened in the 2022 Panorama.
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Photo credits "Hysteria": © Filmfaust
Press: Charles McDonald
charles@charlesmcdonald.co.uk
+44 7785 246 377
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