The Berlin International Film Festival unveiled its 2026 lineup on Tuesday, revealing a program sure to delight the festival’s many hardcore arthouse fans, but with little in the way of big Hollywood titles to draw in the undecided.
Bar a last-minute addition, the 76th Berlinale (Feb. 12-22), will not feature any studio productions this year, something that could put a damper on the glam factor in the German capital.
But Berlinale festival director Trica Tuttle and her team, have pulled together an impressively diverse competition lineup, with 22 features across virtually every genre.
“Satirical and formalist comedy, genre, a psychological thriller, a love story, a self-love story, anime, a western… these 22 films show off just how diverse great cinema is in 2026,” said Tuttle. “We are so confident in the charms of these 22 films that we say defiantly: If you don’t find something here to love, you don’t love cinema!!”
Among the higher-profile titles in competition for Golden Bear at the 76th edition of the Berlinale this year are At the Sea, from Piece of Woman director Kornél Mundruczo, featuring Amy Adams, and Dan Levy, about a freshly-sober woman who to her family’s home to confront her buried trauma; Beth de Araújo’s drama thriller Josephine, starring Channing Tatum and Gemma Chan; the dementia drama Queen at Sea starring Juliette Binoche and Tom Courtenay from Ballast director Lance Hammer; Rosebush Pruning, an English-language thriller from Brazilian director Karim Aïnouz, starring Callum Turner, Riley Keough, Jamie Bell, Elle Fanning, and Pamela Anderson; and Rose, from Austrian filmmaker Markus Schleinzer (Michael), a 17th century transgender drama featuring Oscar nominee Sandra Hüller (Anatomy of a Fall). All, except Josephine, which will head to Berlin straight from Sundance, are world premieres.
Yoshitoshi Shinomiya, an assistant director on Makoto Shinkai’s anime blockbuster Your Name, will premiere A New Dawn, his first feature as a director, in competition in Berlin.
Award-watchers will have an eye on Yellow Letters, the new feature from German director İlker Çatak, whose previous film, The Teacher’s Lounge, premiered in Berlin’s Panorama sidebar in 2023 and went on to score an Oscar nomination for best international feature. And fans of Rupert Grint’s serious, post-Harry Potter career will get to see the British star in the thriller Nightborn, from director Hanna Bergholm, playing a young father who moves with his partner back to her childhood home in the Finnish forest, only to see their dreams of a perfect family turn into a nightmare after their baby is born.
Other competition stand-outs include Wolfram, a 1930s outback drama from Australian director Warwick Thornton (Samson & Delilah); Dao from Alain Gomis, winner of Berlin’s 2017 Grand Jury Prize for Félicité; Flies, the latest from acclaimed Brazilian helmer Fernando Eimbcke, a 2008 Berlinale competition contender with Lake Tahoe; We Are All Strangers, by Cannes regular Anthony Chen (Ilo Ilo); and Grant Gee’s Everybody Digs Bill Evans, featuring Norwegian star Anders Danielsen Lie (Sentimental Value, The Worst Person in the World) as legendary jazz pianist Bill Evans.
Tuttle also named the 13 features that will screen in Berlin’s Perspectives sidebar for first features, noting that a 14th title may be announced later. The Perspectives lineup including several promising debuts, including A Prayer for the Dying, from U.S. director Dara Van Dusen, a Western featuring Johnny Flynn, John C. Reilly, and Kristine Kujath Thorp; Animol from Brit actor and rapper Ashley Walters (aka Asher D), a prison drama starring Tut Nyuot, Vladyslav Baliuk, Sekou Diaby, and Adolescent star Stephen Graham; and Take Me Home from Korean-American filmmaker Liz Sargent, which will premiere in Sundance. The latter stars Sargent’s sister Anna Sargent as a 38-year-old Korean adoptee with a cognitive disability who is struggling to care for her aging adoptive parents.
“Festivals have a hugely important role to play in enabling the discovery of the next generation of major talents, and we’ve been excited by the future when viewing the debuts in Perspectives,” said Tuttle.
Iconic German director Wim Wenders (Perfect Days, Paris Texas) heads up this year’s Berlinale jury, which will pick the winners of the festival’s Gold and Silver Bears.
The full program for the 78th Berlinale, across all sections is below.
COMPETITION
A New Dawn director: Yoshitoshi Shinomiya
At the Sea director: Kornél Mundruczó
In a Whisper director: Leyla Bouzid
Dao director: Alain Gomis
Dust director: Anke Blondé
Home Stories director: Eva Trobisch
Everybody Digs Bill Evans director: Grant Gee
Yellow Letters director: İlker Çatak
Josephine director: Beth de Araújo
Salvation director: Emin Alper
My Wife Cries director: Angela Schanelec
Flies director: Fernando Eimbcke
Nina Roza director: Genevieve Dulude-de Celles
Queen at Sea director: Lance Hammer
Rose director: Markus Schleinzer
Rosebush Pruning director: Karim Aïnouz
Soumsoum, the Night of the Stars director: Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
The Loneliest Man in Town director: Tizza Covi, Rainer Frimmel
Wolfram director: Warwick Thornton
We Are All Strangers director: Anthony Chen
YO Love is a Rebellious Bird director: Anna Fitch, Banker White
Nightborn director: Hanna Bergholm
BERLINALE SPECIAL GALA
The Blood Countess director: Ulrike Ottinger
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die director: Gore Verbinski
Heysel 85 director: Teodora Ana Mihai
No Good Men director: Shahrbanoo Sadat
The Only Living Pickpocket in New York director: Noah Segan
The Testament of Ann Lee director: Mona Fastvold
The Weight director: Padraic McKinley
BERLINALE SPECIAL SERIES
House of Yang director: Mia Spengler
The House of the Spirits director: Francisca Alegría
Lord of the Flies director: Marc Munden
Mint director: Charlotte Regan
Ravalear: Not For Sale director: Pol Rodríguez, Isaki Lacuesta
The Story of Documentary Film director: Mark Cousins
BERLINALE SPECIAL MIDNIGHT
Sleep No More director: Edwin
Saccharine director: Natalie Erika James
The Ballad of Judas Priest director: Sam Dunn, Tom Morello
BERLINALE SPECIAL PRESENTATION
TUTU director: Sam Pollard
A Child of My Own director: Maite Alberdi
WAX & GOLD director: Ruth Beckermann
Who Killed Alex Odeh? director: Jason Osder, William Lafi Youmans
PERSPECTIVES
17 director: Kosara Mitic
Animol director: Ashley Walters
A Prayer for the Dying director: Dara Van Dusen
Chronicles From the Siege director: Abdallah Alkhatib
Trial of Hein director: Kai Stänicke
The River Train director: Lorenzo Ferro, Lucas A. Vignale
Filipiñana director: Rafael Manuel
Forest High director: Manon Coubia
The Red Hangar director: Juan Pablo Sallato
Our Secret director: Grace Passô
Take Me Home director: Liz Sargent
Truly Naked director: Muriel d’Ansembourg
Where To? director: Assaf Machnes
PANORAMA
Allegro Pastell director: Anna Roller
Árru director: Elle Sofe Sara
The Garden We Dreamed director: Joaquín del Paso
Enjoy Your Stay director: Dominik Locher, Honeylyn Joy Alipio
The Day She Returns director: Hong Sangsoo
I Understand Your Displeasure director: Kilian Armando Friedrich
Isabel director: Gabe Klinger
Iván & Hadoum director: Ian de la Rosa
Lady director: Olive Nwosu
Lali director: Sarmad Sultan Khoosat
London director: Sebastian Brameshuber
Mouse director: Kelly O’Sullivan, Alex Thompson
Narciso director: Marcelo Martinessi
Only Rebels Win director: Danielle Arbid
Paradise director: Jérémy Comte
Roya director: Mahnaz Mohammadi
Raging director: Ryan Machado
Safe Exit director: Mohammed Hammad
If I Were Alive director: André Novais Oliveira
Shanghai Daughter director: Agnis Shen Zhongmin
Numb director: Takuya Uchiyama
Prosecution director: Faraz Shariat
The Education of Jane Cumming director: Sophie Heldman
The Moment director: Aidan Zamiri
Four Minus Three director: Adrian Goiginger
PANORAMA DOKUMENTE
Bucks Harbor director: Pete Muller
Douglas Gordon by Douglas Gordon director: Finlay Pretsell
Around Paradise director: Yulia Lokshina
Jaripeo director: Efraín Mojica, Rebecca Zweig
The Hidden Face of the Earth director: Alain Arnaud
Siri Hustvedt – Dance Around the Self director: Sabine Lidl
The Other Side of the Sun director: Tawfik Sabouni
Traces director: Alisa Kovalenko, Marysia Nikitiuk
Tristan Forever director: Tobias Nölle, Loran Bonnardot
Enough is Enough director: Elisé Sawasawa
Two Mountains Weighing Down My Chest director: Viv Li
A Russian Winter director: Patric Chiha
GENERATION
Abracadabra director: Amay Mehrishi
A Fabulosa Máquina do Tempo director: Eliza Capai
A Family director: Mees Peijnenburg
Allá en el cielo director: Roddy Dextre
Atlasul universului director: Paul Negoescu
Bats & Bugs director: Lena von Döhren
Black Burns Fast director: Sanduela Asanda
C’est ma soeur director: Zoé Pelchat
Chicas Tristes director: Fernanda Tovar
Cuando llegue a casa director: Edgar Adrián
En Route To director: Yoo Jaein
En, ten, týky! director: Andrea Szelesová
Entotsumachi no Poupelle – Yakusoku no Tokeidai director: Hirota Yusuke
Feito Pipa director: Allan Deberton
Ghost School director: Seemab Gul
Hotel Oblique director: Merlin Flügel
Imaginarni brojevi director: Jelica Jerinić
Jülapüin Yonna director: Luzbeidy Monterrosa Atencio
Lángbogár a zsebemben director: Janka Feiner
Mambo Kids director: Emanuele Tresca
Matapanki director: Diego “Mapache” Fuentes
Memories of a Window director: Mehraneh Salimian, Amin Pakparvar
Ni chui do wo chui si director: Zhuang Rong Zuo
Ni’er director: Yucheng Tan
No Salgas director: Victoria Linares Villegas
Not a Hero director: Rima Das
Öömõtted director: Jonas Taul
Papaya director: Priscilla Kellen
Quatro Meninas director: Karen Suzane
Riding Time director: Roopa Gogineni, Farhaan Mumtaz
Scorching director: Wang Beidi
Speedy! director: Oh Jiin
Spî director: Navroz Shaban
Sunny Dancer director: George Jaques
Tegenwoordig heet iedereen Sorry director: Frederike Migom
The lights, they fall director: Saša Vajda
The Thread director: Fenn O’Meally
Under The Wave off Little Dragon director: Jian Luo
Whale 52 – Suite for Man, Boy, and Whale director: Daniel Neiden
What Will I Become? director: Lexie Bean, Logan Rozos
Yercekimi director: Dalya Keleş
BERLINALE SHORTS
A Woman’s Place is Everywhere director: Fanny Texier
Chuuraa director: Evgenia Arbugaeva
Cosmonauts director: Leo Černic
Di san xian director: Jingkai Qu
Ein Unfall director: Angelika Spangel
Flim Flam director: Siegfried A. Fruhauf
Graft Versus Host director: Giorgi Gago Gagoshidze
Henry is a Girl Who Likes to Sleep director: Marthe Peters
Kontrewers director: Zuza Banasińska
La hora de irse director: Renzo Cozza
Les âmes du Fouta director: Alpha Diallo
Les juifs riches director: Yolande Zauberman
Miriam director: Karla Condado
Mit einem freundlichen Gruss director: Pavel Mozhar
Oupatevak het tam phnom director: Savunthara Seng
Plan contraplan director: Radu Jude, Adrian Cioflâncă
Stallion y la bola de cristal director: Christian Avilés
TAXI MOTO director: Gaël Kamilindi
Unidentifizierte Unflugobjekte (UUO) director: Sasha Svirsky
Yawman ma walad director: Marie-Rose Osta
Yuragim director: Varia Garib, Kirill Komar
FORUM / FORUM SPECIAL
AI Realism – Qantar 2022 director: Almagul Menlibayeva
AnyMart director: Yusuke Iwasaki
Auslandsreise director: Ted Fendt
Barbara Forever director: Brydie O’Connor
Beaucoup parler director: Pascale Bodet
Black Lions – Roman Wolves director: Haile Gerima
Cesarean Weekend director: Mohammad Shirvani
Chronos – Fluss der Zeit director: Volker Koepp
Crocodile director: The Critics, Pietra Brettkelly
De capul nostru director: Tudor Cristian Jurgiu
Doggerland director: Kim Ekberg
Effondrement director: Anat Even
EIGHT BRIDGES director: James Benning
Einar Schleef – Ich habe kein Deutschland gefunden director: Sandra Prechtel
Everything Else Is Noise director: Nicolás Pereda
Flying Tigers director: Madhusree Dutta
Forest up in the Mountain director: Sofia Bordenave
Frauen in Berlin director: Chetna Vora
Ghost in the Cell director: Joko Anwar
Hear the Yellow director: Banu Sıvacı
I Built a Rocket Imagining Your Arrival director: Janaína Marques
If Pigeons Turned to Gold director: Pepa Lubojacki
Istenmezején 1972–73-ban director: Judit Elek
Joy Boy: A Tribute to Julius Eastman director: Mawena Yehouessi et al.
Liebhaberinnen director: Koxi
Love Your Nails! director: Narges Kalhor
L’uomo più bello del mondo director: Paolo Baiguera
Lust director: Ralitza Petrova
Masayume director: Nao Yoshigai
MegatrashwannabebigstarXD director: Ava Leandra Kleber, Elisa Deutloff
Members of the Problematic Family director: R Gowtham
My Brother’s Wedding director: Charles Burnett
My Name director: Chung Ji-young
Nous sommes les fruits de la forêt director: Rithy Panh
Panda director: Xinyang Zhang
Piedras preciosas director: Simón Vélez
Prénoms director: Nurith Aviv
Quand tu écouteras cette chanson director: Mona Achache
River Dreams director: Kristina Mikhailova
Szenario director: Marie Wilke
Találkozás director: Judit Elek
The Day of Wrath: Tales from Tripoli director: Rania Rafei
The Moths & the Flame director: Kevin Contento
The Valley where LOAB Lives director: Georg Tiller
Was an Empfindsamkeit bleibt director: Daniela Magnani Hüller
FORUM EXPANDED
A Circle as the Center of the Whole director: Utkarsh
Born of the Yam director: Mark Chua, Lam Li Shuen
Butterfly Stories: Malaise II director: Laurence Favre
Casting for a Film, Ihsan’s Diary director: Lamia Joreige
El León director: Diana Bustamante
Exprmntl 4 Knokke director: Claudia von Alemann, Reinold E. Thiel
Fanfictie: Volcanology director: Riar Rizaldi
Filme Pin director: María Rojas Arias, Andrés Jurado
Film No. 4 (Bottoms) director: Yoko Ono
Floresta do fim do mundo (Forest of the End of the World) director: Felipe M. Bragança, Denilson Baniwa
Forever…Forever director: Johann Lurf
Fruits of Despair director: Nima Nassaj
İki Laborantın Yorgun Saatleri (The Weary Hours of Two Lab Assistants) director: Burak Çevik
Industries of Denial, Stage 10: From Musa Dagh to Port Saïd director: Angela Melitopoulos, Kerstin Schroedinger
Katabasis director: Martin Moolhuijsen
Land Invaders director: Cassandra Gardiner, Juan Mateo Menendez
Let There Be Whistleblowers director: Ken Jacobs, Flo Jacobs
Metanoia director: Bigum, Björge
MUSCLE director: Karimah Ashadu
Narrative director: Anocha Suwichakornpong
Nursery Rhymes. (Holy) Water director: Belinda Kazeem-Kamiński
Oghneyet Touha Al Hazina (Sad Song of Touha) director: Atteyat Al Abnoudy
Phi Pattana (In Sum) director: Komtouch Napattaloong
Pink Schlemmer director: Oliver Husain
The Dislocation of Amber director: Hussein Shariffe
The Recce director: Daniel Mann
The sun that fell into the water director: Lena Kocutar
This Desirable Device director: Mina Simendić
This Suffocating Now director: Vika Kirchenbauer
Uchronia director: Fil Ieropoulos
Warnungen an die ferne Zukunft (Warnings to the Distant Future) director: Juliane Jaschnow, Stefanie Schroeder
We Deh Here director: Maybelle Peters
Yurugu – Invisible Lines director: Petna Ndaliko Katondolo, Laurent Van Lancker
RETROSPECTIVE
Allemagne année 90 neuf zéro (Germany Year 90 Nine Zero | Deutschland Neu(n) Null) director: Jean-Luc Godard
Bamboozled (It’s Showtime) director: Spike Lee
Berlin, Bahnhof Friedrichstraße 1990 director: Konstanze Binder, Lilly Grote, Ulrike Herdin, Julia Kunert
Boyz n the Hood director: John Singleton
Der Kontrolleur (The Border Guard) director: Stefan Trampe
D’Est (From the East | Von Osten) director: Chantal Akerman
Glocken aus der Tiefe. Glaube und Aberglaube in Rußland (Bells from the Deep. Faith and Superstition in Russia) director: Werner Herzog
Gorilla Bathes at Noon director: Dušan Makavejev
Im Glanze dieses Glückes (In the Splendour of Happiness) director: Johann Feindt, Jeanine Meerapfel, Helga Reidemeister, Dieter Schumann, Tamara Trampe
Johanna d’Arc of Mongolia director: Ulrike Ottinger
Juice director: Ernest R. Dickerson
La double vie de Véronique (The Double Life of Véronique | Die zwei Leben der Veronika) director: Krzysztof Kieślowski
Lola rennt (Run Lola Run) director: Tom Tykwer
Lola und Bilidikid director: Kutluğ Ataman
Oranzhevye zhilety (Orange Vests | Orange Westen) director: Yury Khashevatsky
Party Girl director: Daisy von Scherler Mayer
Prinz in Hölleland (Prince in Hell) director: Michael Stock
Raspad (Decay | Der Zerfall) director: Mykhailo Belikov
Slacker director: Richard Linklater
So schnell es geht nach Istanbul (Shortcut to Istanbul) director: Andreas Dresen
Sunny Point director: Wolf Vogel
Tito pro drugi put među Srbima (Tito Among the Serbs for the Second Time) director: Želimir Žilnik
Videogramme einer Revolution director: Harun Farocki, Andrei Ujica
Wildwood, NJ director: Ruth Leitman, Carol Weaks Cassidy
BERLINALE CLASSICS
Assarab (Mirage) director: Ahmed Bouanani
Erogotoshi-tachi yori: Jinruigaku nyûmon (The Pornographers) director: Shōhei Imamura
Geheimnisse einer Seele (Secrets of a Soul) director: Georg Wilhelm Pabst
Hukkunud Alpinisti hotell (Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel) director: Grigori Kromanov
In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones director: Pradip Krishen
Jubei Ninpucho (Ninja Scroll) director: Yoshiaki Kawajiri
Kryshtalevyi Palats (Crystal Palace) director: Hryhori Hrycher
La kermesse héroïque (Carnival in Flanders) director: Jacques Feyder
Leaving Las Vegas director: Mike Figgis
Panelstory, aneb jak se rodí sídliště (PanelStory, or How a Housing Development Is Born | Geschichte der Wände oder Wie eine Siedlung entsteht) director: Věra Chytilová
TEDDY 40
575 Castro St. director: Jenni Olson
Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros (The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros) director: Kanakan-Balintagos
Entropia director: Flóra Anna Buda
Kokomo City director: D. Smith
Liebe, Eifersucht und Rache (Love, Jealousy and Revenge) director: Michael Brynntrup
Mil nubes de paz cercan el cielo, amor, jamás acabarás de ser amor (A Thousand Clouds of Peace Fence the Sky; Love, Your Being Love Will Never End) director: Julián Hernández
Mondial 2010 director: Roy Dib
Playback. Ensayo de una despedida (Playback) director: Agustina Comedi
The Watermelon Woman director: Cheryl Dunye
Tomboy director: Céline Sciamma
To Write From Memory director: Emory Chao Johnson
Tunten lügen nicht (Queens Don’t Cry) director: Rosa von Praunheim
Una mujer fantástica (A Fantastic Woman) director: Sebastián Lelio
Verführung: Die grausame Frau (Seduction: The Cruel Woman) director: Elfi Mikesch, Monika Treut
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