20/01/2026 - Among the titles vying for the Golden Bear are the latest works by Karim Aïnouz, Angela Schanelec, Kornél Mundruczó, İlker Çatak and Alain Gomis

UPDATE (29 January 2026): The Perspectives section is completed by Chinese title Light Pillar, an animated feature is set in the future directed by Xu Zao.

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The Berlin International Film Festival has announced the titles selected for the Competition and Perspectives sections of its 76th edition, running from 12-22 February. After the unveiling of the selections in Berlinale Special (read news), Panorama and Generation (read news) and Forum (read news), the festival unveils the twenty-two films which will be vying for the Golden and Silver Bears in the Competition, alongside the 13 debut features selected in Perspectives, the section dedicated to emerging filmmakers. This will be the festival’s second year under the artistic direction of Tricia Tuttle.

The Competition line-up includes one debut feature, one animated film and one documentary, with 20 world premieres on the cards. Nine of the movies are directed or co-directed by women, while 14 filmmakers are returning to the festival, six of them having previously competed for the Golden Bear.

Brazilian-born filmmaker Karim Aïnouz, winner of Cannes’ Un Certain Regard Prize for The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão, returns to Berlin with Rosebush Pruning, set in a secluded Spanish villa where four American siblings are forced to confront family secrets and emotional isolation; the feature stars Elle Fanning and Pamela Anderson. Austrian director Markus Schleinzer, whose debut, Michael, screened in Competition at Cannes, presents Rose, a 17th-century parable about suspicion and belonging in a Protestant village, led by Sandra Hüller.

Germany features prominently in the line-up, with Eva Trobisch’s Home Stories, a contemporary identity drama unfolding around a reality talent show, and Silver Bear winner Angela Schanelec’s My Wife Cries, where once again she distils emotional fracture into a rigorously pared-down narrative. İlker Çatak (The Teachers’ Lounge – Silver Bear for Best Screenplay) returns with Yellow Letters, examining political pressure and artistic compromise through a celebrated Turkish theatre couple.

France remains a key creative hub within the Competition. Alain Gomis, (Félicité – Silver Bear – Grand Jury Prize), presents Dao, a film structured around parallel ceremonies in France and Guinea-Bissau. Mahamat-Saleh Haroun (Cannes Jury Prize for A Screaming Man) returns with Soumsoum, The Night of the Stars, blending mysticism and coming-of-age elements. Leyla Bouzid’s In a Whisper follows a young woman returning from Paris to Tunisia, where mourning becomes a catalyst for uncovering long-buried family truths.

Belgian-based filmmaker Anke Blondé’s Dust revisits the late-1990s tech boom through the collapse of a fraudulent empire, while Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel’s The Loneliest Man in Town offers an intimate portrait of blues musician Al Cook. Music also takes centre stage in Everybody Digs Bill Evans by Grant Gee, which delves into the inner life of the titular legendary jazz pianist, starring Anders Danielsen Lie and Bill Pullman.

Kornél Mundruczó (White God – Un Certain Regard Prize at Cannes in 2014) presents At the Sea, starring Amy Adams as a woman returning from rehab and confronting a loss of identity tied to her dancing career. Geneviève Dulude-de Celles (Crystal Bear for A Colony) returns with Nina Roza, exploring artistic authenticity in rural Bulgaria. Lance Hammer (Best Director at Sundance for Ballast) presents Queen at Sea, a family drama centred on dementia and autonomy, toplined by Juliette Binoche and Tom Courtenay.

The Competition also includes Yoshitoshi Shinomiya’s animated debut, A New Dawn, unfolding around a fireworks factory facing closure and a mythical creation, and Nightborn by Finnish filmmaker Hanna Bergholm, whose debut, Hatching, won a Special Jury Award at Sundance. Emin Alper, winner of the Venice Special Jury Prize for Frenzy, returns with Salvation, revisiting faith, power and territorial conflict in a remote village.

Meanwhile, the Perspectives section returns for its second edition, boasting 13 feature debuts, 11 of them world premieres. Six films are directed by women, and European productions and co-productions again play a central role.

Among the European debuts are 17 by Kosara Mitic, a coming-of-age drama shaped by secrecy and solidarity; Trial of Hein by Kai Stänicke, which turns a homecoming into a collective act of suspicion; and Forest High by Manon Coubia, a seasonal meditation on solitude and nature in the Alps.

The selection also includes Dara Van Dusen’s A Prayer for the Dying, reimagining the American Civil War as a moral and spiritual reckoning; Animol, Ashley Walters’ prison drama unfolding inside a young-offender institution; and Truly Naked by Muriel d’Ansembourg, which explores intimacy, vulnerability and consent through the perspective of an adolescent forced to confront life beyond the lens.

Here is the complete line-up:

Competition

Rosebush Pruning – Karim Aïnouz (Italy/Germany/Spain/UK)
Salvation – Emin Alper (Turkey/France/Netherlands/Greece/Sweden/Saudi Arabia)
Nightborn – Hanna Bergholm (Finland/Lithuania/France/UK)
Dust – Anke Blondé (Belgium/Poland/Greece/UK)
In a Whisper – Leyla Bouzid (France/Tunisia)
Yellow Letters – İlker Çatak (Germany/France/Turkey)
We Are All Strangers – Anthony Chen (Singapore)
The Loneliest Man in Town – Tizza Covi, Rainer Frimmel (Austria)
Josephine – Beth de Araújo (USA)
Nina Roza – Genevieve Dulude-de Celles (Canada/Italy/Bulgaria/Belgium)
Flies – Fernando Eimbcke (Mexico/Spain)
Yo (Love Is a Rebellious Bird) – Anna Fitch, Banker White (USA)
Everybody Digs Bill Evans – Grant Gee (Ireland/UK)
Dao – Alain Gomis (France/Senegal/Guinea-Bissau)
Queen at Sea – Lance Hammer (UK/USA)
Soumsoum, The Night of the Stars – Mahamat-Saleh Haroun (France/Chad)
At the Sea – Kornél Mundruczó (USA/Hungary)
My Wife Cries – Angela Schanelec (Germany/France)
Rose – Markus Schleinzer (Austria/Germany)
A New Dawn – Yoshitoshi Shinomiya (Japan/France)
Wolfram – Warwick Thornton (Australia)
Home Stories – Eva Trobisch (Germany)

Perspectives

Chronicles from the Siege – Abdallah Alkhatib (Algeria/France/Palestine)
Forest High – Manon Coubia (Belgium/France)
Truly Naked – Muriel d’Ansembourg (Netherlands/Belgium/France)
The River Train – Lorenzo Ferro, Lucas A Vignale (Argentina)
Where To? – Assaf Machnes (Israel/Germany)
Filipiñana – Rafael Manuel (Singapore/UK/Philippines/France/Netherlands)
17 – Kosara Mitic (North Macedonia/Serbia/Slovenia)
Our Secret – Grace Passô (Brazil/Portugal)
The Red Hangar – Juan Pablo Sallato (Chile/Argentina/Italy)
Take Me Home – Liz Sargent (USA)
Trial of Hein – Kai Stänicke (Germany)
A Prayer for the Dying – Dara Van Dusen (Norway/Greece/UK/Sweden)
Animol – Ashley Walters (UK)
Light Pillar - Xu Zao (China)