15/01/2026 - The section is focusing on socially engaged and formally adventurous cinema, with a total of 32 films from around the world set to be showcased from 15–25 February

The 76th Berlinale (12-22 February) unveiled the full programme for its Forum section. The 32 films making up the main programme of the 56th Forum, curated by the section director Barbara Wurm, explore the interplay between social relevance and aesthetic experimentation, reflecting on coexistence, history, ecological and political realities, as well as personal and collective memory.

The programme highlights cinema’s capacity to navigate urgent societal issues while probing innovative forms and hybrid approaches. This edition, continuing at Kino Arsenal in Potsdamer Platz, features a Forum Special addressing critical filmmaking in the age of artificial intelligence, while the main selection ranges from intimate coming-of-age stories to monumental historical reckonings.

The 2026 Forum line-up features a variety of debuts, documentaries, hybrid works, and essayistic approaches. Acclaimed Cambodian filmmaker Rithy Panh (Cannes’ Un Certain Regard winner The Missing Picture [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Berlinale Best Documentary winner Irradiated [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rithy Panh
film profile]) examines Indigenous Bunong communities confronting global economic pressures in Cambodia in We Are the Fruits of the Forest. Also in the line-up, Indian writer-filmmaker Madhusree Dutta’s Flying Tigers combines historical research and found material into a collective meditation on memory and war.

The Forum continues to foreground political engagement in fiction and non-fiction alike; Volker Koepp returns to Forum after Leaving and Staying [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] with Chronos – Flow of Time which documents Eastern European life under the shadow of war, while Black Lions – Roman Wolves by Haile Gerima’s (Teza [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) delivers a decade-spanning reckoning with colonial legacies in Ethiopia.

Forum’s dedication to hybrid, collective, and experimental cinema is reflected in works such as Doggerland by Kim Ekberg (XXL), that paints an intimate portrait of drifting through everyday life, while Foreign Travel by Ted Fendt (Outside Noise) documents Berlin in 16mm through literary and personal threads. Meanwhile, personal and social reflections are prominent in Nurith Aviv’s Given Names, and Daniela Magnani Hüller’s debut documentary Sometimes, I Imagine Them All at a Party.

The Forum also confronts historical injustices, structural violence, and contemporary crises. Anat Even’s Collapse follows mourning in Gaza, while Marie Wilke’s Scenario examines Germany’s military simulations in Europe’s largest model city. Meanwhile, If Pigeons Turned to Gold by debutant Pepa Lubojacki, combines long-term observation, text, and AI-animated images to chart familial alcohol addiction.

In On Our Own, Tudor Cristian Jurgiu (The Japanese Dog [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) explores childhood amid absent adults, and Lust by Ralitza Petrova (Locarno Golden Leopard winner Godless [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ralitza Petrova
film profile]) presents a formally rigorous exploration of desire and self-liberation. Also in Forum, Koxi’s Women as Lovers, delivers a darkly comic, incisive adaptation of Elfriede Jelinek that interrogates female satisfaction and late-capitalist disquiet.

Section director Barbara Wurm commented, “The exciting thing about this year’s edition–probably the most political in a long time–is the diverse range of different cinematic forms used to set out concrete themes that hurt, such as enduring colonialism and the structural repression of Indigenous populations, violence against women, systems of corruption, social injustices. These are contrasted by self-explorations, and, like last year already, conscious elective affinities.”

Here is the complete list of announced titles:

Forum

Ghost in the Cell – Joko Anwar (Indonesia)
Given Names – Nurith Aviv (France)
EIGHT BRIDGES – James Benning (USA)
Forest up in the Mountain – Sofia Bordenave (Argentina)
The Moths & the Flame – Kevin Contento (USA)
Crocodile – The Critics, Pietra Brettkelly (New Zealand/Nigeria)
Flying Tigers – Madhusree Dutta (Germany/India)
Doggerland – Kim Ekberg (Sweden)
Collapse – Anat Even (France)
Foreign Travel – Ted Fendt (Germany)
Black Lions – Roman Wolves – Haile Gerima (Ethiopia/USA)
Members of the Problematic Family – R Gowtham (India)
Sometimes, I Imagine Them All at a Party – Daniela Magnani Hüller (Germany)
AnyMart – Yusuke Iwasaki (Japan)
My Name – Chung Ji-young (South Korea)
On Our Own – Tudor Cristian Jurgiu (Romania/Italy)
Chronos – Flow of Time – Volker Koepp (Germany)
Women as Lovers – Koxi (Germany/Luxembourg)
If Pigeons Turned to Gold – Pepa Lubojacki (Czech Republic/Slovakia)
I Built a Rocket Imagining Your Arrival – Janaína Marques (Brazil)
We Are the Fruits of the Forest – Rithy Panh (Cambodia/France)
Everything Else Is Noise – Nicolás Pereda (Mexico/Germany/Canada)
Lust – Ralitza Petrova (Bulgaria/Denmark/Sweden)
Einar Schleef – No Germany Did I Find – Sandra Prechtel (Germany)
The Day of Wrath: Tales from Tripoli – Rania Rafei (Lebanon/Saudi Arabia/Qatar)
Cesarean Weekend – Mohammad Schirvani (Iran)
Hear the Yellow – Banu Sıvacı (Turkey)
Gemstones – Simón Vélez (Colombia/Portugal)
Scenario – Marie Wilke (Germany)
Joy Boy: A Tribute to Julius Eastman – Mawena Yehouessi, Fallon Mayanja, Rob Jacobs, Victoire Karera Kampire, Paul Shemisi, Anne Reijniers (Belgium)
Masayume – Nao Yoshigai (Japan)
Panda – Xinyang Zhang (Singapore/Hong Kong)