In the Berlinale 2026 Competition, 22 films will compete for the Golden and Silver Bears, among them one first feature, one animation and one documentary. Productions from 28 countries are represented. 20 films are world premieres. Nine films were directed or co-directed by women. 14 filmmakers have been at the festival before, six even in Competition.

“We’ve found so much to fall in love with in this year’s bumper Competition line up. And 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!!’ 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. Each one is beautifully crafted and delivers on its own artistic promise. We can’t wait to discover the films that will receive the Golden Bear and the Silver Bears from Wim Wenders’ jury on February 21st,” says Festival Director Tricia Tuttle.

Berlinale 2026 Competition Films

• A New Dawn by Yoshitoshi Shinomiya (Japan / France 2025)

Keitaro lives in a fireworks factory that is about to be shut down. He is determined to unravel the mystery of the Shuhari, a mythical firework created by his father before he disappeared without a trace – and launch it before the factory closes.

• At the Sea by Kornél Mundruczó | with Amy Adams, Murray Bartlett, Chloe East, Brett Goldstein, Dan Levy (USA / Hungary 2026)

After a stint in rehab, a woman returns to her family’s Cape Cod home where sobriety forces her to confront buried trauma and the terrifying question of who she is without her career as a dancer.

• À voix basse (In a Whisper) by Leyla Bouzid | with Eya Bouteraa, Hiam Abbass, Marion Barbeau (France / Tunisia 2026)

Lilia returns to Tunisia for her uncle’s funeral and reunites with a family that knows nothing about her life in Paris, especially her love life. Determined to confront her family’s secrets, Lilia sets out to unravel the mystery of her uncle’s sudden death.

• Dao by Alain Gomis | with Katy Correa, D’Johé Kouadio, Samir Guesmi (France / Senegal / Guinea-Bissau 2026)

A film in which two celebrations of life, a wedding in France and a commemoration in Guinea Bissau, are organically intertwined with the threads of a family and heritage that live and travel between these two worlds. Perpetual circular movement framing reality.

• Dust by Anke Blondé | with Arieh Worthalter, Jan Hammenecker (Belgium / Poland / Greece / United Kingdom 2026)

At the end of the 1990s, during the height of the Belgian tech boom, visionary entrepreneurs Luc and Geert watch their empire collapse as news of their fraud breaks. With just one day of freedom left, they part ways in search of redemption.

• Etwas ganz Besonderes (Home Stories) by Eva Trobisch | with Frida Hornemann, Max Riemelt, Eva Löbau, Gina Henkel, Rahel Ohm (Germany 2026)

“Who are you and what defines you?”, Lea is asked by the production crew of a reality talent show. She does not know. And with this question, her search for an identity within and beyond her family’s hotel in the forests of the former East Germany begins.

• Everybody Digs Bill Evans by Grant Gee | with Anders Danielsen Lie, Bill Pullman, Laurie Metcalf (Ireland / United Kingdom 2026)

At the height of his career, legendary jazz pianist Bill Evans loses his bassist and musical soulmate in a tragic car crash. The film portrays the inner life of a musical genius as he struggles to learn that sometimes an intermission is part of the music.

• Gelbe Briefe (Yellow Letters) by İlker Çatak | with Özgü Namal, Tansu Biçer, Leyla Smyrna Cabas (Germany / France / Turkey 2026)

Life is good for Derya and Aziz, a celebrated artist couple from Turkey, until an incident at their play’s premiere. Suddenly targeted by the state and struggling to balance their ideals with life’s necessities, their marriage is pushed to a breaking point.

• Josephine by Beth de Araújo | with Channing Tatum, Gemma Chan, Mason Reeves, Phillip Ettinger, Syra McCarthy (USA 2025)

After eight-year-old Josephine accidentally witnesses a crime in Golden Gate Park, she begins to act out violently to protect herself. This emotional trauma leads to conflicts between her parents as they search for justice, and a way to feel safe again.

• Kurtuluş (Salvation) by Emin Alper | with Caner Cindoruk, Berkay Ateş, Feyyaz Duman, Naz Göktan, Özlem Taş (Turkey / France / Netherlands / Greece / Sweden / Saudi Arabia 2026)

In a remote village, an exiled clan returns, reviving a decades-old land feud. Seized by divine visions, Mesut challenges his brother’s leadership to save his people. Will this new path bring salvation or tragedy?

• Meine Frau weint (My Wife Cries) by Angela Schanelec | Vladimir Vulević, Agathe Bonitzer, Birte Schnöink (Germany / France 2026)

An ordinary workday on a building site. Forty-year-old crane operator Thomas receives a call from his wife: he has to pick her up from the hospital. Once there, he finds her sitting alone on a park bench, crying.

• Moscas (Flies) by Fernando Eimbcke | with Teresita Sánchez, Bastian Escobar, Hugo Ramírez (Mexico 2026)

Olga rents out a room to a man whose wife has been admitted to a hospital nearby. However, the man has a nine-year-old son he has been sneaking into the room, which leads to Olga’s carefully controlled world shifting as their lives become intertwined.

• Nina Roza by Geneviève Dulude-de Celles | with Galin Stoev, Ekaterina Stanina, Sofia Stanina, Michelle Tzontchev (Canada / Italy / Bulgaria / Belgium 2026)

An art dealer travels from Quebec to the homeland he abandoned to see the paintings of an elusive pre-teen prodigy in the Bulgarian countryside. It is only by viewing her work firsthand that he will be able to determine if she is a fraud, or a genius.

• Queen at Sea by Lance Hammer | with Juliette Binoche, Tom Courtenay, Anna Calder-Marshall, Florence Hunt (United Kingdom / USA 2026)

As advanced dementia erodes an older woman’s ability to communicate her inner life, her husband and daughter struggle to act in her best interests, navigating love and the fragile boundaries between care, protection and autonomy.

• Rose by Markus Schleinzer | with Sandra Hüller, Caro Braun, Marisa Growaldt, Godehard Giese, Augustino Renken (Austria / Germany 2026)

In the early 17^th century, a soldier arrives at an isolated Protestant village in Germany claiming to be the heir to an abandoned farmstead. Even though he proves to be a good man, the villagers’ suspicions about his identity grow and they force a reckoning.

• Rosebush Pruning by Karim Aïnouz | with Callum Turner, Riley Keough, Jamie Bell, Elle Fanning, Pamela Anderson (Italy / Germany / Spain / United Kingdom 2026)

In a Spanish villa, American siblings Jack, Ed, Anna and Robert wallow in isolation and their inherited fortune. When Jack wants to move in with his girlfriend and Ed uncovers the truth about their mother’s death, the fabric of the family begins to unravel.

• Soumsoum, la nuit des astres (Soumsoum, the Night of the Stars) by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun | with Maïmouna Miawama, Ériq Ebouaney, Achouackh Abakar Souleymane (France / Chad 2026)

Seventeen-year-old Kellou has been gifted with supernatural powers she does not understand. Her disquiet and uncertainty only change when she meets Aya. It is an encounter with destiny that forges a mystical world where the visible and invisible converge.

• The Loneliest Man in Town by Tizza Covi, Rainer Frimmel | with Alois Koch, Brigitte Meduna, Alfred Blechinger, Flurina Schneider (Austria 2026)

Blues musician Al Cook lives in an apartment filled with memories. Outside, the world carries on without him. But when his home is slated for demolition, out of the ruins of his existence, a long-forgotten dream suddenly resurfaces.

• Wolfram by Warwick Thornton | with Deborah Mailman, Erroll Shand, Joe Bird, Thomas M Wright, Ferdinand Hoang (Australia 2025)

1930s Australia, the colonial frontier. Two swaggering outlaws roll into a mining town and unleash a wave of cruelty, leading three kids to break free from their white masters and set off across the “sweet country” of central Australia in search of a safe home.

• Wo Men Bu Shi Mo Sheng Ren (We Are All Strangers) by Anthony Chen | with Yeo Yann Yann, Koh Jia Ler, Andi Lim, Regene Lim (Singapore 2026)

A life-altering event forces 21-year-old Junyang and his girlfriend to face reality. At the same time, while Junyang’s father is struggling to hold their modest life together, a woman enters his life and both generations are forced to redefine their family.

• YO (Love is a Rebellious Bird) by Anna Fitch, Banker White | with Yolanda Shea (USA 2026)

After losing her friend Yo, Anna builds a detailed 1/3-scale version of her friend’s house. It is just big enough for Anna to squeeze into, and inside lives a puppet of Yo. When the pair first met, Yo was 73 and Anna 24.

• Yön Lapsi (Nightborn) by Hanna Bergholm | with Seidi Haarla, Rupert Grint (Finland / Lithuania / France / United Kingdom 2026)

Eager to start a family, Saga and Jon move to her childhood home in the Finnish forest. But after their baby is born, the couple’s dream of a perfect child turns into a nightmare – and only Saga senses the unsettling truth.