The 76th Berlin International Film Festival runs February 12-22, offering eleven days of cinema that refuses to apologize for its ambitions. Festival Director Tricia Tuttle, who took over from Carlo Chatrian in 2025, has assembled a programme that suggests she understands the precarious position of serious film culture in 2026.
Twenty-two films compete for the Golden and Silver Bears. The competition includes Kornél Mundruczó's At the Sea, starring Amy Adams as a former dancer returning from rehab to confront buried trauma. Karim Aïnouz brings Rosebush Pruning with Riley Keough and Callum Turner. Beth de Araújo's Josephine, starring Channing Tatum and Gemma Chan, examines a family whose daughter witnesses a crime. Sandra Hüller appears in Rose, while İlker Çatak returns after his successful The Teacher's Lounge with Yellow Letters, set in Turkey.
German cinema occupies significant territory. Eva Trobisch presents Home Stories, her third feature after the 2018 MeToo drama All Is Well. Angela Schanelec, a two-time Silver Bear winner, shows My Wife Cries. Nine of the competition films were directed or co-directed by women. Productions from 28 countries appear across the programme, with 20 world premieres.
The Perspectives section, which Tuttle inaugurated last year, presents 14 debut features. Ashley Walters, known for Adolescence, directs Animol about boys in a young offender institution. Dara Van Dusen contributes A Prayer for the Dying, a Western with Johnny Flynn and John C. Reilly as a Civil War veteran and sheriff fighting an epidemic.
Beyond competition, the festival spreads across multiple sections. Panorama presents challenging work with an audience award. Generation programs films for young audiences, opening with George Jaques's Sunny Dancer, starring Bella Ramsey as a cancer survivor at a summer camp. Forum continues its tradition of experimental and political cinema. The European Film Market runs concurrently, one of the industry's essential trade fairs.
Wim Wenders presides over the jury. The festival opens with Shahrbanoo Sadat's No Good Men and honors Michelle Yeoh with the Honorary Golden Bear, speech delivered by Sean Baker. Over 200 films screen across Berlin venues, maintaining the Berlinale's position as one of the world's largest public festivals.