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Berlin International Film Festival · 2026

Berlin International Film Festival 2026

Panorama

Programme

38 films · 12 reviews

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Allegro Pastell

Novelist Tanja and web designer Jerome, both in their thirties, have perfected a balance of intimacy and separation in their long-distance relationship. When Tanja catches a glimpse of a settled future together, she wonders if it is really what she wants.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2026; Director: Anna Roller; Stars: Sylvaine Faligant, Jannis Niewöhner, Vera Flück, Luna Wedler, Wolfram Koch, Haley Louise Jones, Martina Gedeck, Nico Ehrenteit, Steven Preisner, Riccardo Campione, Fabian Baumgarten, Jakob Schreier, Manuel Zschunke, Claudia Kozma, Davide Jakubowski)

World premiere

Around Paradise

Review preview for Around Paradise

The observational style means the film stops short of being truly illuminating.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
In Caazapá, the “city of magic and legends”, two Paraguayan students are searching for happiness, gold and a magic bird. Their European dropout neighbours are hoping for freedom, healing and salvation from Armageddon. Everything has its price.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2026; Director: Yulia Lokshina)

Full review

World premiere

Bucks Harbor

Review preview for Bucks Harbor

The sense is not of romantic hardship, but of endurance shaped into a local language.

Edin Custo · 4.5 out of 5
The inner lives of fishermen, young and old, who work the waters in Maine.

(Country: US; Year: 2026; Director: Peter Muller)

Full review

World premiere

The Day She Returns

She has just finished the shoot of an independent film and now has to give three interviews about it. Afterwards, in her acting class, her teacher asks her to reenact the interviews. But for some reason, she is unable to remember them.

(Country: South Korea; Year: 2026; Director: Hong Sang-soo; Writer: Hong Sang-soo; Stars: Song Sun-mi, Cho Yun-hee, Park Mi-so, Kim Seon-jin, Oh Yun-su, Kang So-yi, Ha Seong-guk, Shin Seok-ho)

World premiere

Douglas Gordon By Douglas Gordon

Intimate portrait of the Turner prizewinner.

(Country: UK, France; Year: 2026; Director: Finlay Pretsell; Stars: Douglas Gordon)

World premiere

The Education Of Jane Cumming

Review preview for The Education Of Jane Cumming

Heldman’s sharpest instinct is to show how a society polices intimacy by pretending it cannot see it.

Edin Custo · 3.5 out of 5
Edinburgh, 1810. Two female teachers find themselves at the centre of a scandal.

(Country: Germany, Switzerland, UK; Year: 2026; Director: Sophie Heldman; Writer: Flora Nicholson, Sophie Heldman; Stars: Flora Nicholson, Clare Dunne, Mia Tharia, Fiona Shaw, Sadie Shimmin, Stephen McCole)

Full review

Enjoy Your Stay

To avoid losing custody of her six-year-old daughter in Manila, Luz, an undocumented Filipina cleaner working in a luxury Swiss ski resort, must earn money at any cost – even if it means transgressing her own moral limits.

(Country: Switzerland, France, Philippines; Year: 2026; Director: Dominik Locher, Honeylyn Joy Alipio; Stars: Mercedes Cabral, Alexis Manenti, Anna Luna, Hasmine Killip)

World premiere

Enough Is Enough (Trop c'est Trop)

Thirty years of war, seven million displaced, ten million dead. A plunge into the chaos of the city of Goma, capital of North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

(Country: France, Congo; Director: Elisé Sawasawa)

World premiere

Four Minus Three (Vier Minus Drei)

Review preview for Four Minus Three

Goiginger once again proves that he is a keen student of human nature, behaviour, interactions with society and the eternal pursuit of living one’s life in one's own way.

Marko Stojiljkovic · 3.5 out of 5
A family of professional clowns is hit by tragedy.

(Country: Austria, Germany; Year: 2026; Director: Adrian Goiginger; Writer: Senad Halilbasic; Stars: Valerie Pachner, Robert Stadlober, Stefanie Reinsperger, Hanno Koffler, Ronald Zehrfeld)

Full review

The Garden We Dreamed (El jardín que soñamos)

A family settles in a remote forest and tries to carve out a life.

(Country: Mexico; Year: 2026; Director: Joaquín del Paso; Writer: Joaquín del Paso; Stars: Néhémie Bastien, Faustin Pierre, Kimaëlle Holly Preville, Ruth Aicha Pierre Nelson, Carlos Esquivel)

World premiere

The Hidden Face Of The Earth

Dimitri loves photographing friends, strangers, lovers. Over the years, images have slipped away from his sight. Behind his camera, he gathers light and bodies, inviting us to gaze toward the hidden face of the Earth.

(Country: France; Year: 2026; Director: Arnaud Alain; Stars: Dimitri Jean, Pierre Marragou)

If I Were Alive (Se eu fosse vivo... vivia)

Gilberto and Jacira promised to grow old together – for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health. Till death them do part.

(Country: Brazil; Year: 2026; Director: André Novais Oliveira; Writer: André Novais Oliveira; Stars: Norberto Novais Oliveira, Conceição Evaristo, Jean Paulo Campos, Tainá Evaristo)

Isabel

Isabel, a sommelière in São Paulo, dreams of escaping her boss and opening her own bar. When plans don’t go as expected, she must decide whether to halt everything or take bold steps to uncork her fate on her own terms.

(Country: Brazil, France; Year: 2026; Director: Gabe Klinger; Writer: Gabe Klinger; Stars: Marina Person, Caio Horowicz, John Ortiz, Michelle Ellyse)

World premiere

Iván & Hadoum

Review preview for Iván & Hadoum

Iván & Hadoum announces de la Rosa as a filmmaker with uncommon emotional precision.

Edin Custo · 3.5 out of 5
In a greenhouse in southern Spain, Iván falls in love with his newly hired co-worker, Hadoum. But his long-awaited promotion interferes with their relationship, forcing Iván to decide what kind of person he wants to be.

(Country: Spain, Belgium, Germany; Year: 2026; Director: Ian de la Rosa; Writer: Ian de la Rosa; Stars: Silver Chicón, Herminia Loh, Gregor Acuña-Pohl)

Full review

I Understand Your Displeasure

A cleaning company worker faces a difficult choice after a powerful subcontractor threatens to withdraw support if she doesn't give more work to his team.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2026; Director: Kilian Armando Friedrich; Writer: Kilian Armando Friedrich, Tünde Sautier, Daniel Kunz; Stars: Sabine Thalau, Nada Kosturin, Werner Posselt, Sadibou Diabang, Nigyar Velagich, Thomas Sprekelsen)

World premiere

Jaripeo

Review preview for Jaripeo

The documentary is attentive to contradiction without flattening its subjects into symbols.

Edin Custo · 3.5 out of 5
A journey to Michoacán’s hypermasculine rodeos descends into the subconscious of memory, queer desire, and longing, leading to a reckoning with the wounds and beauty of a home left behind.

(Country: Mexico, US, France; Year: 2026; Director: Rebecca Zweig, Efraín Mojica)

Full review

World premiere

Lady

Review preview for Lady

While the film has political and sociological themes, it ultimately succeeds because it’s about the true spirit of the people.

Jeremy Mathews · 4 out of 5
In the sprawling African metropolis of Lagos, a fiercely independent young cab driver meets a band of radiantly reckless sex workers whose sisterhood pulls her into danger and joy, setting her on a journey toward her own transformation.

(Country: United Kingdom, Nigeria; Year: 2026; Director: Olive Nwosu; Writer: Olive Nwosu; Stars: Jessica Gabriel's Ujah, Amanda Oruh, Tinuade Jemiseye, Binta Ayo Mogaji, Seun Kuti, Bucci Franklin)

Full review

Lali

Review preview for Lali

Lali brings a breath of fresh air by flipping the tired “monster-in-law” trope on its head

Edin Custo · 3 out of 5
Darkly comic tale of two people bound by an inherited union.

(Country: Pakistan; Year: 2026; Director: Sarmad Sultan Khoosat; Writer: Sarmad Sultan Khoosat, Sundus Hashmi; Stars: Rasti Farooq, Channan Hanif, Juggan Kazim, Mamya Shajaffar)

Full review

London

Bobby drives back and forth between Vienna and Salzburg, giving lifts to strangers on the way, sharing conversations that drift from the mundane to the deeply personal. In this tender portrait of today’s Europe, anonymity and warmth still go hand in hand.

(Country: Austria; Year: 2026; Director: Sebastian Brameshuber; Stars: Bobby Sommer)

The Moment

Review preview for The Moment

The Moment’s biggest misstep is making Charli’s defining feature indecisive flightiness.

Jeremy Mathews · 2.5 out of 5
A rising pop star navigates the complexities of fame and industry pressure while preparing for her arena tour debut.

(Country: US; Year: 2026; Director: Aidan Zamiri; Writer: Aidan Zamiri, Bertie Brandes; Stars: Charli XCX, Alexander Skarsgård, Rosanna Arquette, Hailey Benton Gates, Rachel Sennott, Jamie Demetriou, Kate Berlant, Rish Shah, Kylie Jenner, Isaac Powell, Arielle Dombasle, Trew Mullen, Mel Ottenberg, Richard Perez, Tish Weinstock)

Full review

Mouse

When two girls' friendship is upended one forms a complicated relationship with the other one's mother.

(Country: US; Year: 2026; Director: Kelly O'Sullivan, Alex Thompson; Writer: Kelly O’Sullivan; Stars: Sophie Okonedo, Katherine Mallen Kupferer, Chloe Coleman, Tara Mallen, Iman Vellani)

Narciso

Review preview for Narciso

What makes Narciso striking is the way it acquires a contemporary charge without insisting on it.

Edin Custo · 4 out of 5
Paraguay, 1958. The charismatic Narciso returns from Buenos Aires with rock ’n’ roll in his veins. Under the suffocating military regime, he becomes a music sensation and a symbol of freedom. But then, after his final show, he is found dead…

(Country: Paraguay, Germany, Brazil, Spain, France, Portugal, Uruguay; Year: 2026; Director: Marcelo Martinessi; Writer: Marcelo Martinessi; Stars: Diro Romero, Manuel Cuenca, Arturo Fleitas, Aníbal Ortíz, Natalia Cálcena, Margarita Irún, Belén Vierci, Alberto Sánchez, Liz Fernández Casabianca, Florencia Boccia, Macarena Candia, Cecilia Torres, Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, Mona Martínez)

Full review

Numb (Shibire)

A boy who no longer speaks, shaped by a tyrannical father and a mother he both resents and loves, grows up on Japan's northern coast. With nowhere to belong, he returns to seek his father and sets his fate in motion.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2025; Director: Takuya Uchiyama; Writer: Takuya Uchiyama; Stars: Takumi Kitamura, Rie Miyazawa, Tsukasa Enomoto, Anji Kato, Haruto Akimoto, Masatoshi Nagase, Mariko Akama)

Only Rebels Win

Suzanne and Osmane meet in crisis-ridden Beirut. Osmane is a young Sudanese man without papers, searching for a better future; Suzanne is a widow with Palestinian roots more than twice his age. Against all odds, they fall in love.

(Country: France, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia; Year: 2026; Director: Danielle Arbid; Writer: Danielle Arbid; Stars: Hiam Abbass, Mahamat Amine Benrachid, Sami Dekhissi)

World premiere

The Other Side Of The Sun

After the fall of Assad’s regime, five survivors return to the former torture prison of Saidnaya to reenact what they experienced there during their incarceration. They reclaim their voices and bear witness for those who can no longer speak for themselves.

(Country: Belgium, France, Saudi Arabia; Year: 2026; Director: Tawfik Sabouni; Writer: Tawfik Sabouni, Laurine Estrade)

Paradise

The enigmatic captain of a burning cargo ship binds together the fates of two families.

(Country: Canada, France, Ghana; Year: 2026; Director: Jérémy Comte; Writer: Jérémy Comte; Stars: Daniel Atsu Hukporti, Joey Boivin Desmeules, Evelyne de la Chenelière)

Prosecution (Staatsschutz)

After surviving a racist attack, state prosecutor Seyo Kim takes her own case to court – confronting both the perpetrators and a justice system that turns a blind eye to right-wing extremism.

(Country: Germany; Director: Faraz Shariat)

World premiere

Raging (Rumaragasa)

Review preview for Raging

Theo Lozada’s cinematography is crucial to the drama’s effect.

Edin Custo · 3.5 out of 5
A young man who witnesses a mysterious plane crash begins to confront his own trauma.

(Country: Philippines; Year: 2025; Director: Ryan Machado; Writer: Ryan Machado; Stars: Elijah Canlas, Ron Angeles, Reynald Santos, Glenn Sevilla Mas, Nathan J. Sotto, Raf Rivera Rey, Nonong Reyes, Mely Merez, Piolo Arib, Keith Fejer, Robert Simon Rosas, Rodne Galicha)

Full review

Roya

Roya, an Iranian teacher imprisoned for her political beliefs, is faced with a choice: make a forced televised confession, or remain confined to her three-square-metre cell.

(Country: Germany, Luxembourg, Czech Republic, Iran; Year: 2026; Director: Mahnaz Mohammadi)

Árru

Review preview for Árru

Gaup Beaska is an accomplished yoiker, so perfectly cast as Maia, the primal pull of this often ululating music matched by lyrics that speak of her character's connection to her Sámi culture.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
Sámi reindeer herder Maia fights to protect her ancestral lands from a looming mining project.

(Country: Norway, Sweden, Finland; Year: 2026; Director: Elle Sofe Sara; Writer: Johan Fasting, Elle Sofe Sara; Stars: Sara Marielle Gaup Beaska, Ayla Gáren Audhild P. Nutti, Simon Issát Marainen)

Full review See: Elle Sofe Sara on yoik, secrets and reindeer in her debut Árru

World premiere

A Russian Winter (Un Hiver Russe)

After the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Margarita, Yuri and their friends are pushed into exile from Russia as they refuse to comply with the regime. Suspended between countries, they have nowhere to return, and nowhere they feel truly welcome.

(Country: France; Director: Patric Chiha; Writer: Patric Chiha)

World premiere

Safe Exit

Psychological thriller centring on a security guard with PTSD.

(Country: Egypt, Germany, Qatar, Tunisia, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya; Year: 2026; Director: Mohammed Hammad; Writer: Mohammed Hammad; Stars: Marwan Waleed, Noha Foad, Hazem Essam)

Shanghai Daughter

A Shanghai woman journeys alone to a rubber plantation in southwest China, where her late father was sent during the Cultural Revolution. As she searches for a mysterious woman, some strangers unexpectedly drift into her path.

(Country: China; Year: 2026; Director: Agnis Shen Zhongmin; Writer: Agnis Shen Zhongmin; Stars: Cuishan Liang)

Shibire

A boy who no longer speaks, shaped by a tyrannical father and a mother he both resents and loves, grows up on Japan’s northern coast. With nowhere to belong, he returns to seek his father and sets his fate in motion.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2025; Director: Takuya Uchiyama; Writer: Takuya Uchiyama; Stars: Takumi Kitamura, Rie Miyazawa, Tsukasa Enomoto, Anji Kato, Haruto Akimoto, Mariko Akama, Masatoshi Nagase)

International premiere

Siri Hustvedt - Dance Around the Self

Sabine Lidl presents Siri Hustvedt’s journey from her first novel to being a leading voice in contemporary literature – a film about feminist perspectives, Hustvedt’s soulmate Paul Auster, and the power of thought.

(Country: Germany, Switzerland; Year: 2026; Director: Sabine Lidl; Stars: Siri Hustvedt)

Traces

Documentary shines a light on Ukrainian women who, after surviving conflict-related sexual violence and torture during the Russian war of aggression, refuse to remain silent.

(Country: Ukraine, Poland; Year: 2026; Director: Alisa Kovalenko, Marysia Nikitiuk)

Tristan Forever

For 30 years, a doctor from Paris has maintained a friendship with a fisherman on Tristan da Cunha, the most isolated inhabited island in the world. Now he travels back one more time, with the plan to stay there for good.

(Country: Switzerland; Year: 2026; Director: Tobias Nölle)

Two Mountains Weighing Down My Chest

A Chinese wannabe artist drifts between Berlin’s overwhelming alternative scene and her traditional family in Beijing. With wit and insight, the film follows her search for identity and belonging in a globalised but polarised world.

(Country: Germany, Netherlands; Director: Viv Li; Writer: Viv Li)

World premiere