List of winners of the Berlin Film Festival 2026. Awards at the Berlinale and for two Romanian films
“Yellow Letters,” a drama about what happens to a marriage under extreme political pressure, won the Golden Bear, the Berlin Film Festival's top prize, on Saturday night. The Romanian films “De capul nostru”, directed by Tudor Cristian Jurgiu, and “The Atlas of the Universe”, by Paul Negoescu, were awarded in the Forum and Generation Kplus sections, respectively, according to Agerpres.
Filmed in Germany and made in Turkish, “Yellow Letters” stars Ozgu Namal and Tansu Bicer as a married actor and playwright forced to leave behind their comfortable lives after the husband is targeted by Turkish authorities due to critical posts published online, Reuters notes.
“The real threat is not among us. It's out there. It's the autocracies. It's the far-right parties. It's the nihilists of our time, who are trying to come to power and destroy our way of life,” Turkish-German director Ilker Catak said as he accepted the award at the Berlin International Film Festival.
“Let's not fight among ourselves. Let's fight against them,” he added.
In total, 22 films competed for the grand prize.
Romania, in five sections of the festival
Romanian film productions were presented in five sections of the Berlin Film Festival – Berlinale Shorts, Forum, Generation Kplus, Berlinale Special (Berlinale Co-Pro Series 2026) and Retrospective, according to the specialized website curatorial.ro.
In the Forum section of the Berlinale, the feature film “De capul nosur” was selected, directed by Tudor Cristian Jurgiu, which has as its theme the emotional isolation of a teenage girl who tries to create a surrogate family for two runaway children.
Here, the FIPRESCI award went to the film “AnyMart”, by Yusuke Iwasaki, and the Ecumenical Jury Award to the film “River Dreams”, by Kristina Mikhailova. The Romanian film received the CICAE Art Cinema Award.
In the Generation Kplus section, the film “Atlas of the Universe” by Paul Negoescu was selected, a Romania-Bulgaria co-production that follows the journey of a 10-year-old boy in search of his lost left shoe, offering the young audience a story about courage, friendship and self-discovery.
The first prize at the Berlinale for a Romanian film for children went to the production “Atlas of the Universe”, directed by Paul Negoescu, produced by Radu Stancu and Ioana Lascăr (deFilm) and co-produced by Poli Angelova, Nikolay Todorov (Screening Emotions, Bulgaria) and Carmen Rizac (Avanpost Media, Romania). The film received the Special Mention of the international jury of the Berlinale Generation Kplus, the competitive section dedicated to children's films of the festival.
The Festival retrospective included “Videogramme unei revoluții/ Videogramme einer Revolution”, by Harun Farocki and Andrei Ujică, a historical documentary based on the archives of the Romanian Revolution of 1989, and the Berlinale Special Gala presented “Heysel 85”, by Teodora Ana Mihai, a film about the tragedy at the Heysel stadium and the complexity of human responsibilities in the face of catastrophe.
In addition, the European Film Market awarded the EFM Distributor Award 2026, a prize worth 7,500 euros, to Ștefan Bradea and Monica Felea, the founders of Bad Unicorn.
The main winners of the Berlin International Film Festival 2026
Golden Bear for the best film – “Yellow Letters”, by İlker Çatak
The Silver Bear – Grand Jury Prize – “Salvation”, by Emin Alper
Silver Bear – Jury Prize – “Queen at Sea” by Lance Hammer
Silver Bear for Best Director – Grant Gee, for “Everybody Digs Bill Evans” (starring Anders Danielsen Lie, Bill Pullman, Laurie Metcalf)
Silver Bear for Best Lead Actress – Sandra Hüller, for “Rose”, directed by Markus Schleinzer
Silver Bear for Best Supporting Actor – Anna Calder-Marshall and Tom Courtenay for their roles in Queen at Sea, directed by Lance Hammer
Silver Bear for best screenplay – Geneviève Dulude-de Celles, for “Nina Roza”, which she also directed
Silver Bear for outstanding artistic and technical contribution – Anna Fitch and Banker White, for the documentary “Yo (Love is a Rebellious Bird)”
The Golden Bear for the best short film – “Someday a Child”, by Marie-Rose Osta (production with Romanian participation)
The Silver Bear for the short film – “A Woman's Place is Everywhere”, by Fanny Texier
Berlinale Shorts Filmmaker Award – “Kleptomania” by Jingkai Qu
Berlinale Documentary Award – “If Pigeons Turned to Gold”, by Pepa Lubojacki
Berlinale Documentary Award Special Mention – “Tutu”, by Same Pollard; “Sometimes I Imagine Them at a Party”, by Daniela Magnani Hüller
Best Debut Feature Film – “Chronicles From the Siege” by Abdallah Alkhatib
