76th Berlin Film Festival Reveals First Films in Panorama, Generation and Retrospective Programs

The 76th Berlin International Film Festival taking place from February 12 to 22, 2026 revealed the first films in the Berlinale Panorama, Berlinale Generation and Berlinale Retrospective programs.

The first twelve titles in Berlinale Panorama include new works by Danielle Arbid, Patric Chiha, Kelly O’Sullivan & Alex Thompson, Anna Roller, Faraz Shariat, Ian de la Rosa and Sebastian Brameshuber.

The first titles in the Generation Kplus and Generation 14plus competitions of Berlinale Generation include new films from Sandulela Asanda, Eliza Capai, Seemab Gul, Priscilla Kellen and Frederike Migom..

Under the theme “Lost in the 90s” the Berlinale Retrospective 2026 celebrates the decade that saw the fall of the Berlin Wall, political chaos, MTV, and the digital revolution birthed a host of unconventional and inquisitive films. The line-up includes 22 film program, plus discussions and events.

In cooperation with the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Stiftung, Berlinale Classics will present a new 4K digital restoration of Georg Wilhelm Pabst’s Geheimnisse einer Seele (Secrets of a Soul), considered one of the earliest examples of a film tackling Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytical theories.

It is the story of a traumatized chemist who develops a phobia of knives and turns to a psychoanalyst for help. The 1926 silent film combines expressionist dream sequences with the prosaic realism of the New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit) and is a groundbreaking attempt to visualize the unconscious on film.

The festival also debuted the official poster designed by Berlin-based graphic designer Claudia Schramke.

Berlinale Panorama & Berlinale Generation

A Fabulosa Máquina do Tempo (The Fabulous Time Machine)
by Eliza Capai | with Manuellinha, Manu, Sophia
Brazil 2026
Generation Kplus | World premiere | Documentary form
In the arid Brazilian hinterland, girls play poised between their mothers’ difficult pasts and fantastic dreams for the future. In a place
where men are still seen as giants compared to women, the girls cross the threshold from childhood into adolescence.

Allegro Pastell
by Anna Roller | with Sylvaine Faligant, Jannis Niewöhner, Haley Louise Jones, Luna Wedler, Martina Gedeck
Germany 2026
Panorama | World premiere
Novelist Tanja and web designer Jerome, both in their thirties, have perfected a balance of intimacy and separation in their longdistance relationship. When Tanja catches a glimpse of a settled future together, she wonders if it is really what she wants.

Bats & Bugs (Nachtschwärmer)
by Lena von Döhren
Switzerland 2026
Generation Kplus | World premiere | Animation | Short film
When a lantern lights up on a country road in the jungle, a group of insects goes crazy – which proves to be handy for the hungry bats
in a nearby cave.

Black Burns Fast
by Sanduela Asanda | with Esihle Ndleleni, Mila Smith, Khensani Khoza, Nstimedi Gwangwa, Basetsana Motloung
South Africa 2025
Generation 14plus | International premiere | Debut film
Adorkable Luthando is on track for an ordinary year at the prestigious boarding school she attends on scholarship – until the arrival of a
new girl in her class ignites Luthando’s suppressed desires and threatens her self-image and relationships.

Bucks Harbor
by Pete Muller
USA 2026
Panorama Dokumente | World premiere | Debut film | Documentary form
Boys in Downeast Maine are shaped by the brutal winters, their harvesting of the ocean’s bounty and the rigid codes of their fathers.
Bucks Harbor explores growing up in a community where a man’s worth is often defined by the strength of his back.

Ghost School
by Seemab Gul | with Nazualiya Arsalan, Samina Seher, Adnan Shah Tipu, Vajdaan Shah, Muhammad Zaman
Pakistan / Germany / Saudi Arabia 2025
Generation Kplus | European premiere | Debut film
Ten-year-old Rabia wants to know why her school has suddenly closed. Rumours are rife in the village and the authorities are no help.
Courageously setting out to find the truth, Rabia navigates rural superstitions, local corruption and a wall of silence.

Iván & Hadoum
by Ian de la Rosa | with Silver Chicón, Herminia Loh
Spain / Germany / Belgium 2026
Panorama | World premiere | Debut film
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.

Jaripeo
by Efraín Mojica, Rebecca Zweig
Mexico / USA / France 2026
Panorama Dokumente | International premiere | Debut film | Documentary form
A journey to the hypermasculine rodeos of Michoacán state in Mexico delves into the subconscious of memory, queer desire and
longing, leading to a reckoning with the wounds and beauty of a home left behind.

Berlinale Retrospective

Allemagne année 90 neuf zéro (Deutschland Neu(n) Null)
by Jean-Luc Godard | with Eddie Constantine, Hanns Zischler, Claudia Michelsen
France / Germany 1991
Retrospective
Lemmy Caution, a western intelligence agent in East Germany, travels through the unravelling country, visited by the ghosts of Germany past. A multi-layered collage of sound and image that uses numerous classic German films.

Bamboozled (It’s Showtime)
by Spike Lee | with Damon Wayans, Savion Glover, Jada Pinkett Smith
USA 2000
Retrospective
A Black television writer tries to get fired by creating the “New Millennium Minstrel Show” showcasing racist stereotypes – but it then becomes a huge hit. With his satire of the media, Spike Lee indicted the racism inherent in America’s popular culture.

Berlin, Bahnhof Friedrichstraße 1990
by Konstanze Binder, Lilly Grote, Ulrike Herdin, Julia Kunert | with Ula Stöckl, Jon Rose, Jörg Foth
Germany 1991
Retrospective | Documentary form
A changing of track. Observations and interviews with border guards and commuters at Berlin’s Friedrichstrasse station in 1990, as the border between East and West Germany was becoming ever more porous and this crossing was already being dismantled.

Boyz n the Hood
by John Singleton | with Laurence Fishburne, Ice Cube, Cuba Gooding Jr.
USA 1991
Retrospective
A classic of New Black Cinema. Growing up in disadvantaged circumstances in a neighbourhood riddled with drugs, robberies and shoot-outs, a young man develops a strong personality that saves him from sliding into a life of crime.

Der Kontrolleur (The Border Guard)
by Stefan Trampe | with Hermann Beyer, Ulrike Krumbiegel, Eugen Krößner
Germany 1995
Retrospective
A psychological study of a “borderline” regime fanatic. A former East German border guard is unable to come to terms with the fall of the Wall. The widowed loner continues to show up for “duty” at the abandoned border crossing where his behaviour ends in tragedy.

D’Est (From the East | Von Osten)
by Chantal Akerman
Belgium / France / Portugal 1993
Retrospective | Documentary form
A documentary following a journey from West to East, from summery Germany to wintry, snowy Moscow. In this road movie of still lifes, which eschews voiceover narration, the camera explores the landscapes and the faces of the people who live in them.

Glocken aus der Tiefe. Glaube und Aberglaube in Rußland (Bells from the Deep. Faith and Superstition in Russia)
by Werner Herzog
Germany / USA 1993
Retrospective | Documentary form
A visual study of believers and religious charlatans in Siberia after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. A fascinated Werner Herzog encounters real spirituality and genuine ecstatics, but also dubious faith healers and shamans.

Gorilla Bathes at Noon
by Dušan Makavejev | with Svetozar Cvetković, Anita Manćić, Alexandra Rohmig
Yugoslavia (until 1992) / Germany 1993
Retrospective
After the Red Army withdraws from the former East Germany, a Russian major is left wandering aimlessly around Berlin, which he experiences as a theatre of the absurd. A post-socialist satire incorporating documentary fragments and archival footage.

Im Glanze dieses Glückes (In the Splendour of Happiness)
by Johann Feindt, Jeanine Meerapfel, Helga Reidemeister, Dieter Schumann, Tamara Trampe
Germany 1990
Retrospective | Documentary form
Citizens of East Germany talk about their experiences and feelings in the face of upcoming elections that will lead to reunification with the West. The past is tinged with regret, frustration and anger, while the future is uncertain.

Johanna d’Arc of Mongolia
by Ulrike Ottinger | with Delphine Seyrig, Irm Hermann, Gillian Scalici
Federal Republic of Germany 1989
Retrospective
Beguilingly staged, yet with a documentary feel, the film follows four women travelling alone from western Europe and the USA who are taken hostage by a Mongolian princess and establish close contact with the culture of “the most hospitable people on Earth”.

Juice
by Ernest R. Dickerson | with Omar Epps, Jermaine Hopkins, Khalil Kain
USA 1992
Retrospective
Spike Lee’s cinematographer Ernest R. Dickerson’s directorial debut. A story of four young Black men in Harlem featuring hip-hop stars Tupac Shakur and Queen Latifah. Quincy dreams of becoming a star DJ, while his pal Bishop wants to be a rich gangster.

La double vie de Véronique (The Double Life of Veronique | Die zwei Leben der Veronika)
by Krzysztof Kieślowski | with Irène Jacob, Philippe Volter, Sandrine Dumas
France / Poland / Norway 1991
Retrospective
A drama as sensual as it is transcendent. Weronika, a young singer in Poland, feels a close connection to her doppelganger in France. After Weronika dies, the Frenchwoman Véronique also develops an inexplicable sense of their mystical relationship.

Lola rennt (Run Lola Run)
by Tom Tykwer | with Franka Potente, Moritz Bleibtreu, Herbert Knaup
Germany 1998
Retrospective
Lola has 20 minutes to come up with 100,000 marks or a gangster will kill her boyfriend. The film is split into three segments, each depicting a possible way to get the money. A flash-forward photo story – a post-modern bricolage as cinematic loop.

Lola und Bilidikid
by Kutluğ Ataman | with Baki Davrak, Gandi Mukli, Erdal Yıldız
Germany 1999
Retrospective
Lola is part of “The Migrant Workers”, a Turkish drag queen troupe who perform to great acclaim. Lola’s gay little brother Murat, on the other hand, is just beginning his search for an identity. An intense family drama set in “Anatolian” Berlin-Kreuzberg.

Oranzhevye zhilety (Orange Vests | Orange Westen)
by Yury Khashevatsky
Belarus / Germany 1993
Retrospective | Documentary form
A radical cinematic letter about the hardships facing women in the collapsing Soviet Union. Shot in Belarus, Tajikistan, Ukraine and Siberia, these interviews and observations document the exploitation and repression of an unwavering patriarchal doctrine.

Party Girl
by Daisy von Scherler Mayer | with Parker Posey, Anthony DeSando, Guillermo Díaz
USA 1995
Retrospective
After she is arrested for organising an illegal dance party, a madcap New Yorker works in a public library to pay off her bail money. Parker Posey is brilliant as the “Gen X Holly Golightly” in this indie version of a screwball comedy.

Prinz in Hölleland (Prince in Hell)
by Michael Stock | with Wolfram Haack, Stefan Laarmann, Michael Stock
Germany 1993
Retrospective
A maverick living in a trailer in Kreuzberg has a heroin habit that wrecks his relationship and, in the end, his entire precarious existence. The film is a graphic, sometimes extreme portrayal of the queer, off-the-grid milieu in gritty West Berlin.

Raspad (Decay | Der Zerfall)
by Mykhailo Belikov | with Sergey Shakurov, Tatyana Kochemasova, Stanislav Stankevich
USSR / Ukrainian SSR / USA 1990
Retrospective
After the nuclear meltdown in Chernobyl, a journalist attempts to report from the site of the catastrophe. Raspad is an unusual disaster film, with decay raging on many levels, interspersed with astonishing breaks from reality.

Slacker
by Richard Linklater | with Richard Linklater, Rudy Basquez, Mark James
USA 1990
Retrospective
An improvised circle dance of some 100 players on the streets of Austin, Texas. The fanciful experiences and absurd dialogue of these young “slackers” turn Richard Linklater’s first theatrical outing into a manifesto for Generation X.

So schnell es geht nach Istanbul (Shortcut to Istanbul)
by Andreas Dresen | with Yüksel Yolcu, Jana Mattukat, Susann Thiede
Germany 1991
Retrospective | Short film
A young Turkish man working in West Berlin looks for a girlfriend in East Berlin, so he can move there and save up money faster for a return to Istanbul. This culture-clash comedy was Andreas Dresen’s graduation film at the Konrad Wolf film school.

Sunny Point
by Wolf Vogel | with André M. Hennicke, Jenny Schily, Christian Kuchenbuch
Germany 1995
Retrospective
A satire about a West Berlin commercial producer with an East German background. To stave off his company’s bankruptcy and collect a second round of Western aid money, he “repeats” his flight from East Berlin – on, of all days, November 9, 1989.

Tito pro drugi put među Srbima (Tito Among the Serbs for the Second Time)
by Zelimir Zilnik | with Dragoljub Ljubičić, Milan Pavlović
Yugoslavia (until 1992) 1994
Retrospective | Documentary form | Short film
An actor dresses up as the former Yugoslavian ruler, Tito. Walking around Belgrade, he talks to passers-by, evoking a variety of reactions. This “happening” triggers heated discussions, documented on film.

Videogramme einer Revolution
by Harun Farocki, Andrei Ujica
Germany 1992
Retrospective
A minute-by-minute chronology of the Romanian revolution in December 1989 in Bucharest. This cinematic montage of live footage from the state television company TVR and video taken by numerous amateurs becomes a new media-based form of historiography.

Wildwood, NJ
by Ruth Leitman, Carol Weaks Cassidy
USA 1994
Retrospective | Documentary form
Shot with an all-female crew on Super 8, Wildwood, NJ catapults the audience into the lives and stories of young American women in the 1990s. Yet under the blazing sun of the Jersey Shore, it also sometimes reveals the underbelly of the boardwalk carnival.