The 76th edition of the Berlinale will bring talent from around the world to Berlin this February, with a diverse and vibrant programme of film, TV, and events in its Special, Panorama, Generation and Classics strands.
Across the Berlinale Special, Panorama and Generation programmes announced you will find renowned filmmakers and international stars, among them Alexander Skarsgård, Amanda Seyfried, Bella Ramsey, Charli xcx, Ethan Hawke, Giancarlo Esposito, Fiona Shaw, Hiam Abbass, Isabelle Huppert, Neil Patrick Harris, John Turturro, Juno Temple, Kylie Jenner, Luna Wedler, Marina Person, Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, Rob Halford, Rosanna Arquette, Russell Crowe, Sam Riley, and Sam Rockwell to name just a few.
Berlinale Special – A Meeting Place for Audiences
From glamorous Red Carpet galas to vital documentaries, genre films, and new global series, the Berlinale Special is one of the most exciting and diverse sections of the Berlinale.
This year’s Berlinale Special comprises 19 works from 15 countries to date, including six documentary projects and a six-title series programme.
Berlinale Special Galas include world premieres of Teodora Ana Mihai’s striking new drama about the devastating tragedy at Heysel Stadium Heysel 85 and Ulrike Ottinger’s witty and original horror-tinged Die Blutgräfin (The Blood Countess), co-written with Elfriede Jelinek and starring Isabelle Huppert, as well as the international premiere of Noah Segan’s The Only Living Pickpocket in New York with John Turturro and Steve Buscemi. European premieres include Padraic McKinley’s The Weight, starring Ethan Hawke and Russell Crowe, and Gore Verbinski’s sci-fi comedy Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, starring Sam Rockwell, Juno Temple, and Zazie Beetz.
Series include the world premiere of new chapters of Mark Cousins’ The Story of Documentary Film, the eagerly awaited new adaptation of Lord of the Flies, directed by Marc Munden and written by Jack Thorne (Adolescence), darkly comic crime drama Mint directed by Charlotte Regan (Scrapper), Chilean adaptation La casa de los espíritus (The House of the Spirits) based on Isabel Allende’s landmark novel, Spanish series Ravalear (Ravalear: Not For Sale) from the producers of Robot Dreams, as well as a bold new German six-part horror mystery, House of Yang.
“Desire Lines” – The Panorama Programme is Complete
Only Rebels Win by Danielle Arbid, starring Hiam Abbass, will open the 2026 Berlinale Panorama, which will screen a total of 37 films from 36 countries. They include new works by Hong Sangsoo, Joaquín del Paso, André Novais Oliveira, Elle Sofe Sara, Sarmad Sultan Khoosat, Tobias Nölle, Alisa Kovalenko, Marcelo Martinessi, Mahnaz Mohammadi and Aidan Zamiri. Among the other stars appearing on screen are Charli xcx, Alexander Skarsgård, Jannis Niewöhner, Sophie Okonedo, Mercedes Cabral, Valerie Pachner, Fiona Shaw, Siri Hustvedt and Douglas Gordon.
“This year’s programme is full of contrast. It is not only visually diverse but also comprises films that, with their emotional depth, texture and strong sense of composition, can shape our perception of the world beyond the cinema,” observes section head Michael Stütz. “The medium of film becomes a mediator of transgression, of storytelling, and an expression of desire and self-determination.”
Several films centre on great love and serve as key indicators of our immediate social environment and societal norms. From Sarmad Sultan Khoosat’s Lali and Ian de la Rosa’s Iván & Hadoum to Anna Roller’s adaptation of Leif Randt’s Allegro Pastell, love stories act as a diagnosis of our present times. Meanwhile, André Novais Oliveira’s Se eu fosse vivo… vivia tells the story of what is perhaps the ultimate, undying love between two people.
Migration, struggle for survival, and corrupt antagonists are at the heart of both Dominik Locher and Honeylyn Joy Alipio’s Enjoy Your Stay and Joaquín del Paso’s El jardín que soñamos. These are gripping, urgent, and formally innovative works that impress, not least through their performances. Whereas, in his latest Berlinale entry, Geunyeoga doraon nal, master director Hong Sangsoo offers a subtle reflection on the acting profession itself.
Strong feminist perspectives are showcased by Sámi choreographer Elle Sofe Sara in her extraordinary film debut, Árru; by Iranian activist and filmmaker Mahnaz Mohammadi in her stirring drama, Roya; and by Olive Nwosu in her ambitious debut, Lady. Pop superstar Charli xcx enthrals in Aidan Zamiri’s The Moment, which is simultaneously a mockumentary, a feminist act of self-empowerment and an ironic meta-commentary on the music business.
A particularly strong documentary presence in the Panorama this year finds poetic images for pressing issues. The films offer varying answers to questions about what stories are being told and how they are being presented on screen. Yulia Lokshina’s Im Umkreis des Paradieses and Tobias Nölle and Loran Bonnardot’s Tristan Forever examine utopias in self-imposed exile: Paraguay and the island of Tristan da Cunha serve as settings for these profoundly different realities, poised between a longing for isolation and total control.
In their films, Tawfik Sabouni (The Other Side of the Sun) and Alisa Kovalenko and Marysia Nikitiuk (Traces) create spaces for contemplation in which their protagonists can discuss their traumas and the architecture of war, violence, and abuse that is present around the globe.
The programme also includes two documentary portraits of influential contemporary artists: Siri Hustvedt – Dance Around the Self and Douglas Gordon by Douglas Gordon – two works that could not be more distinct.
Queer cinema is once again taking its rightful place in the programme. Two Mountains Weighing Down My Chest by Viv Li and La Face cachée de la Terre by Arnaud Alain delight with their documentary insights into queer conceptions of our time. The Education of Jane Cumming by Sophie Heldman and Narciso by Marcelo Martinessi both examine lived queer realities of the past and contribute to queer historiography.
The Berlinale is looking forward to a strong edition for queer films to mark the 40th anniversary of the TEDDY AWARD.
Berlinale Generation 2026 – Against the Times opening films and complete competition Line-up
George Jaques’ heart-opening, genre-savvy comedy Sunny Dancer will open the Generation 14plus competition in 2026. Rising star Bella Ramsey (Game of Thrones) leads a stellar cast including Daniel Quinn-Toye, Ruby Stokes, Earl Cave, Conrad Khan, Jasmine Elcock, and Neil Patrick Harris. Ramsey plays a young woman who, after surviving cancer, reluctantly spends her summer at a camp for teens with similar experiences – only to discover the profound difference between surviving and truly living.
The Generation Kplus competition will be opened by Eliza Capai’s A Fabulosa Máquina do Tempo (The Fabulous Time Machine), which centres on the girls of an economically disadvantaged Brazilian village. Between a difficult past and their own dreams for the future, this vibrant documentary explores the realities of its protagonists, who actively help shape the film’s imaginative vision. A beacon for cinema’s power to understand the present and make a better world imaginable.
This year’s Generation selection features 18 feature films and 23 shorts, including 30 world premieres and ten feature debuts from 31 countries. Across the programme, cinema becomes a time machine—uncovering the past within the present, spanning life stages, and rebelling against the status quo. In Yusuke Hirota’s anime Entotsumachi no Poupelle – Yakusoku no Tokeidai (Chimney Town: Frozen in Time), time itself bends and reshapes.
Stories unfold from multiple perspectives, such as Mees Peijnenburg’s sibling drama A Family, or dive into intimate worlds like Allan Deberton’s Feito Pipa (Gugu’s World), about flamboyant eleven-year-old Gugu, whose imagination fuels his confidence — unlike his strict father (Lazáro Ramos). The search for a shoe over the course of a day and night becomes an epic coming-of-age journey in Paul Negosecu’s Atlasul universului (The Atlas of the Universe).
The programme features directors long associated with Generation, such as Rima Das, who once again creates her own unique cinema of childhood in her latest film, Not A Hero. Alongside these are impressive debuts like Fernanda Tovar’s fearlessly tender Chicas Tristes (Sad Girlz) and Saša Vajda’s drifting, multi-layered The lights, they fall.
Other debut films turn genre cinema into a dazzling projection surface for personal truths and political metaphors: Sandulela Asanda’s Black Burns Fast transforms the boarding school comedy into an energetic, witty drama of queer Black self-discovery, while Victoria Linares’ idiosyncratic horror reinterpretation No Salgas (Don’t Come Out) haunts the life of a young lesbian woman in more than one way. Diego Funtes shapes Matapanki into a wild punk manifesto by using the framework of a superhero film.
Lexie Bean and Logan Rozos understand cinema as a community resource in their documentary What Will I Become?, which addresses the legacy of young trans men, confronting the topic of suicide without hesitation and fiercely defending life.
The short film competitions also ignite a dazzling display of cinematic creativity. These films address urgent contemporary issues through documentary approaches and tell sensitive, complex, and timeless stories about difficult transitions between childhood, youth, and adulthood, about breakthroughs and gentle rebellions. They dive into fantastical visual worlds and find in cinema a language for things words cannot express. This year also marks the return of the programme for the youngest moviegoers, which, through four short works, opens the gates of imagination even for those experiencing cinema for the first time.
Berlinale Generation Programme
Berlinale Classics 2026 presents 10 films from 9 countries, the most expansive programme since its launch.
Georg Wilhelm Pabst’s Geheimnisse einer Seele (Secrets of a Soul) was made in 1926, in the silent era. The restoration of the avant-garde film will premiere in Berlin’s Haus der Kulturen der Welt (House of World Cultures, HKW), with new music by Yongbom Lee. Via an innovative system, the neural activity of a member of the music ensemble will be rendered as light and sound in real time.
The Ukrainian entry is Kryshtalevyi Palats (Crystal Palace), influenced by both German expressionist filmmaking and the country’s own avant-garde. The 1934 political drama, directed by Hryhorii Hrycher, disappeared soon after its premiere. No print exists in Ukraine. Amherst College initiated the digital restoration project, which was carried out by Fixafilm in Warsaw.
Also made in the 1930s is La kermesse héroïque (Carnival in Flanders) by Jacques Feyder. The costume comedy about powerful women and weak men is set in 1616 in the Flemish town of Boom. In 1935, multiple language versions were produced simultaneously; the festival will show the French version. The restoration was completed by the French National Centre of Cinema (CNC).
The satirical Erogotoshi-tachi yori: Jinruigaku nyûmon (The Pornographers, Japan 1966) by Shōhei Imamura, who would have turned 100 years old in 2026, pinpoints greed and base instinct as the drivers of society after World War II. The 4K restoration was made from the original 35 mm negative, provided by Nikkatsu Corporation, in collaboration with Radiance Films.
With Assarab (Mirage, 1979), the only narrative feature made by director Ahmed Bouanani, the Berlinale Classics showcase a seminal work of post-colonial Moroccan cinema. The 4K restoration preserved the film’s unique visual and acoustic hallmarks. Morocco is the 2026 European Film Market’s “Country in Focus”.
That same year saw the production of Hukkunud Alpinisti hotell (Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel) by Estonian director Grigori Kromanov. A genre-busting film noir with elements of fantasy, it is based on a story by the legendary Soviet science-fiction writers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. The restoration was based on a new 4K scan of 35 mm interpositive material held by the Estonian National Archives.
Panelstory, aneb jak se rodí sídlište (Prefab Story) by Czech director Věra Chytilová was also first released in 1979. It is a social satire about life and community in a newly-built housing estate on the fringe of Prague. The film did not receive official approval until two years after it was finished. The digitisation was carried out from the original picture and sound negatives held by the Národní filmový archiv in Prague.
Exactly ten years later, Pradip Krishen made In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones, with a screenplay by renowned Indian author Arundhati Roy. In the whimsical campus comedy, which achieved cult status, she drew on her own memories of studying architecture and played a lead role. The 4K restoration by the Film Heritage Foundation at L’Immagine Ritrovata’s lab was a collaborative venture with India’s National Film Development Corporation (NFDC), the National Film Archive of India (NFAI), and the director, using the 16 mm camera negative and a 35 mm print.
For the first time, Berlinale Classics will be screening an anime film, Jubei Ninpucho (Ninja Scroll) by Yoshiaki Kawajiri. Made in 1993, the film about the heroic quest of a young ninja warrior became one of the most influential anime films worldwide. Done with the director’s participation, the 4K restoration faced challenges specific to cel animation.
The newest film in this year’s Berlinale Classics is Leaving Las Vegas (dir: Mike Figgis, 1995), which garnered its star Nicolas Cage an Oscar. Much of the film was shot with a hand-held camera on the streets and in the casinos of Las Vegas. The 4K restoration by Silver Salt Restoration in the UK was based on the Super 16 camera negative.
Berlinale Classics has already confirmed the writer and activist Arundhati Roy and director Mike Figgis as guests.
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