76th Berlinale: Awards

The 76th Berlinale has announced its awards, bringing to a close an edition marked more by controversy than by the quality of its official selection. Wim Wenders’s statements advocating the separation of art and politics, and the ensuing reactions from Kaouther Ben Hania—who refused to accept the Cinema for Peace award—and Arundhati Roy, who left the festival, compelled festival director Tricia Tuttle to issue a statement reaffirming the event’s commitment to freedom of expression in a rather unconvincing manner. This was followed by an open letter signed by 80 filmmakers and artists condemning the festival’s silence on the genocide in Gaza.

As expected, at today’s closing ceremony several award winners took advantage of the stage to exercise that prerogative. Director Abdallah Alkhatib, winner of the Best First Feature Award in the Perspectives section for Chronicles of the Siege, did so while his producer held up a Palestinian flag. Turkish director İlker Çatak, who won the Golden Bear with Yellow Letters, stated upon receiving his prize that he would not deliver the political speech he had prepared, as he wished instead to dedicate the award to the film’s crew, “the real heroes.” However, the speech by Marie-Rose Osta, awarded the Golden Bear for Best Short Film for Someday, a Child, brought the audience to its feet when she declared that Lebanese and Palestinian children are not negotiable.

Yellow Letters (İlker Çatak, 2026).

As for the awards of this festival, which screened 276 films from 80 countries, Turkish cinema emerged as a double winner. The Official Competition jury awarded the Golden Bear to Yellow Letters, as previously noted. Wim Wenders justified the decision by referring to the examination of “the political language of totalitarianism versus the empathetic language of cinema,” calling it a terrifying premonition of something that could happen in any country. In İlker Çatak’s film, the marriage of Derya and Aziz deteriorates after they lose their jobs due to an arbitrary state decision and move to Istanbul to live with Aziz’s parents, forced to redefine their lives and that of their teenage daughter. The tensions among colleagues who once shared the same ideals, depicted in the film, have, according to Çatak, found a parallel in the controversies that have surrounded the festival itself.

The Silver Bear – Grand Jury Prize went to Salvation by Emin Alper, who had previously competed with A Tale of Three Sisters (2019). In his new film, the director of Burning Days (2022) portrays a territorial dispute between a sheikh and a rival tribe claiming their ancestral lands. He and his brother disagree on how to handle the conflict in the aftermath of regional violence. Salvation is a co-production between Turkey, France, the Netherlands, Greece, Sweden, and Saudi Arabia.

Queen at Sea received the Silver Bear – Jury Prize for its probing examination of difficult issues such as privacy, dignity, and human rights. The acting duo Tom Courtenay and Anna Calder-Marshall won a well-deserved Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance in the Official Competition, while the award for Best Leading Performance went to the outstanding Sandra Hüller for her portrayal of Rose.

Tom Courtenay and Anna Calder-Marshall in Queen at Sea (Lance Hammer, 2026) © Seafaring LLC.

The award for Best Director went to Grant Lee for Everybody Digs Bill Evans, a biopic about the jazz musician portrayed by Anders Danielsen Lie—an elegant and cold film in which musical talent and passion appear entirely frozen. Lee’s debut in fiction was, according to the director himself, easier than he had expected. For the jury, the Best Screenplay was that of the splendid Nina Roza, written and directed by Geneviève Dulude-de Celles.

The Silver Bear for Best Artistic Contribution was awarded to the American film Yo (Love Is a Rebellious Bird), directed by Anna Fitch and Banker White, for which the filmmaker spent ten years building a miniature house and a puppet that co-stars in the documentary alongside its real-life model, Yolanda Shea.

Awards

Competition

Golden Bear for Best Film
Yellow Letters (İlker Çatak)

Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize
Salvation  (Emin Alper)

Silver Bear Jury Prize
Queen at Sea (Lance Hammer)

Silver Bear for Best Director
Grant Gee – Everybody Digs Bill Evans 

Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance
Sandra Hüller – Rose

Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance
Tom Courtenay & Anna Calder-Marshall – Queen at Sea

Silver Bear for Best Screenplay
Nina Roza by Geneviève Dulude-De Celles

Silver Bear for an Outstanding Artistic Contribution
Yo (Love is a Rebellious Bird) – Anna Fitch, Banker White

Perspectives

GWFF Best First Feature Award
Chronicles from the Siege (Abdallah Alkhatib)

Special Mention
Forest High (Manon Coubia)

Berlinale Documentary Award
If Pigeons Turned to Gold (Pepa Lubojacki)
Special Mention
TUTU (Sam Pollard)
Sometimes, I Imagine Them All at a Party (Daniela Magnani Hüller)

Berlinale Shorts

Golden Bear for Best Short Film
Someday a Child (Marie-Rose Osta)

Silver Bear Jury Prize
A Woman’s Place is Everywhere (Fanny Texier)

Cupra Filmmaker Award
Kleptomania (Jingkai Qu)