The Kdenlive team has just released the brand new version, 25.04, as part of the wider KDE Gear 25.04 application bundle. Chief among the headline features is a locally processed object-segmentation plug-in powered by the SAM2 model.
Editors can now generate precise object masks, making it straightforward to strip out a background or limit an effect to a moving subject—no round-trips to external services are required.
Moreover, audio thumbnails on the timeline have been rebuilt “under the hood.” The refactor doubles down on performance while tightening visual accuracy, so users can scrub crowded timelines without the usual lag or guesswork.
Inter-application project exchange also sees a boost. The team rewrote Kdenlive’s OpenTimelineIO (OTIO) logic against the native C++ library, enabling the import and export of OTIO project files.
Although effects and transitions remain application-specific, the new pathway is poised to smooth collaboration with editors like DaVinci Resolve or Shotcut, which already support OTIO.
Beyond those mentioned above, Kdenlive 25.04 folds in a raft of workflow refinements. Editors can now adjust the duration of adjacent clips in a single sweep, zoom audio waveforms vertically, and rely on “Shift + Click” to expand or collapse the entire effects stack.
A colored time-code widget is also in place, clarifying which monitor is active, plus the notes panel finally supports incremental search with standard shortcuts.
Lastly, this release bundles some last-minute stability improvements. A corruption bug when copying sequence clips, a freeze when extracting the last clip in a track, and an overly aggressive auto-save cadence that once slowed large projects to a crawl have all been addressed.
Refer to the release announcement for detailed information about all changes in Kdenlive 24.05. Source code and pre-built packages are available from the official Kdenlive site.
