Berlinale 2026 Unveils Shorts and Forum Special Programs Lineup

21 short films will celebrate their world premiere in the Berlinale Shorts program of the Berlin International Film Festival, including new films by Radu Jude and Yolande Zauberman.

The films range from documentary observations and quirky animations to queer-infused genre films, and the settings range from the vastness of outer space to the depths of a glacial cave, from a family home to the border region.

Berlinale alumni featured in the Berlinale Shorts program are Evgenia Arbugaeva, Christian Avilés, Zuza Banasińska, Siegfried A. Fruhauf, Radu Jude and Adrian Cioflâncă, Pavel Mozhar, Marthe Peters, Sasha Svirsky and Yolande Zauberman.

This year’s edition of the Forum Special themed “Be Human Only, Dish Out the Truth” continues to give a platform to cinema’s most daring voices. One example Barbara Forever, the feature-length debut by Brydie O’Connor on avant-garde filmmaker and “dyke” icon Barbara Hammer (1939-2019), who screened numerous works at the Forum, Forum Expanded and Panorama.

The Forum Special also presents the restored version of My Brother’s Wedding by Charles Burnett (born 1944), another Forum legend. What is now a classic of Black cinema was first released in 1983 before receiving a director’s cut in 2008, both screened at the Forum.

Alongside Barbara Forever, the Forum Special shows a selection of current documentaries, including a read-aloud film about imaginary meetings between Lola Lafon and Anne Frank (Quand tu écouteras cette chanson), Kristina Mikhailova’s River Dreams about women’s fates in Kazakhstan and Beaucoup parler by French film critic Pascale Bodet, who accompanies her Egyptian friend Amr on his path (and off-track) to obtaining a residency permit – in refreshingly honest fashion, full of solidarity.

AI Realism – Qantar 2022
by Almagul Menlibayeva
Kazakhstan 2025
Forum Special | Short film
Menlibayeva explores fake news, propaganda and the power and powerlessness of AI through a disturbing animated film on political violence in post-Soviet Kazakhstan that culminates in January 2022. From fragments towards a countermemory.

A Woman’s Place is Everywhere
by Fanny Texier
USA 2026
Berlinale Shorts | World premiere | Documentary form | Short film
After the death of their mother, twin sisters face eviction from the loft that has been their home for more than three decades – a place like a living time capsule, filled with layers of memory, art, motherhood, sisterhood and New York history.

Barbara Forever
by Brydie O’Connor | with Barbara Hammer
USA 2026
Forum Special | International premiere | Debut film | Documentary form
Lesbian experimental filmmaker Barbara Hammer (1939–2019) was an icon and a pioneer. Infused with dyke poetry, this archive film shows how she lived, loved, worked, fought and inspired, also showing that the private is uncompromisingly political.

Beaucoup parler (A Lot Talk)
by Pascale Bodet | with Amr Hanafy
France 2026
Forum Special | World premiere | Documentary form
Pascale accompanies her Egyptian friend Amr on his rocky path to a residency permit. The system, authorities, lawyer, papers, paperwork, a language course. A refreshingly honest film full of solidarity about “the state of migration” and “se comprendre”.

Chuuraa
by Evgenia Arbugaeva
United Kingdom 2026
Berlinale Shorts | World premiere | Documentary form | Short film
In the remote Siberian Arctic, an Indigenous Sakha scientist descends into the depths of the melting permafrost. Searching for an ancient creature, he makes his way through the dangerous, claustrophobic caves to the mythical realm of the Underworld.

Cosmonauts
by Leo Černic | with Leo Černic
Slovenia / Italy 2026
Berlinale Shorts | World premiere | Animation | Short film
On an intergalactic cruise for singles, lonely souls chase a kiss, a caress or just a glimpse of love among the stars. A colourful collision of desire, longing, humour and absurdity.

Di san xian (Kleptomania)
by Jingkai Qu | with Zhiye Wang
People’s Republic of China 2026
Berlinale Shorts | World premiere | Short film
A rough wind is blowing between the dreary apartment blocks. In this world of adults, a rebellious boy struggles to find his way and encounters violence everywhere he turns. A portrait of a society in fragmented images.

Ein Unfall (An Accident)
by Angelika Spangel | with Franz Spangel, Daniel Haidegger, Markus Rechberger, Tobias Schuh, Fabian Schuh
Austria 2026
Berlinale Shorts | World premiere | Short film
In the microcosm of a small village, paths and fates cross. A car is burning at the roadside, pigs are dying in their sties and a man is lying on a park bench. Is he dead? Who is to blame, who is responsible and when did the playful mood turn sour?

Flim Flam
by Siegfried A. Fruhauf
Austria 2026
Berlinale Shorts | World premiere | Animation | Short film
A visual and acoustic reflection about perception, deception, truth and the medium of film itself. Between visibility, irritation, structure and dissolution, a space arises for one’s own vision. An experimental film that wants to be experienced.

Frauen in Berlin
by Chetna Vora
German Democratic Republic 1981
Forum Special | World Premiere of the digitally restored version | Documentary form
A projection on a sheet, secretly filmed, now restored from VHS: for her second film, Indian Chetna Vora, who studied in the GDR, spoke with women from the ages of 11 to 83 in East Berlin. “It turned out longer than permitted.” What luck! Praise the privacy!

Graft Versus Host
by Giorgi Gago Gagoshidze
Germany / Georgia 2026
Berlinale Shorts | World premiere | Documentary form | Short film
In this speculative video essay, the filmmaker connects his medical history with the shifts in post-Cold War geopolitics and their impact on contemporary politics.

Henry is a Girl Who Likes to Sleep
by Marthe Peters
Belgium 2026
Berlinale Shorts | World premiere | Documentary form | Short film
The filmmaker writes a letter to her cat, Henry. She is looking for a soft and tender place to inhabit – a quiet refuge of warmth to retreat into when the world becomes too loud. An ode to our captive pets and the intimate worlds we build together.

Istenmezején 1972-73-ban (A Hungarian Village)
by Judit Elek
Hungary 1974
Forum Special | Documentary form
Young women in the country, a village disco – idyllic? Far from it. Life in 1970s Hungary already forces 14-year-olds to choose: marriage (for which everything is ready) or profession (for which a woman must fight). Judit Elek: “My most important film.”

Kontrewers
by Zuza Banasińska
Netherlands / Poland / France 2026
Berlinale Shorts | World premiere | Documentary form | Short film
The ghost of a possessed girl, trapped for centuries within a stone, encounters the director’s 102-year-old grandmother. What begins as a haunting becomes a tender dialogue, as archival, staged and documentary footage blur.

La hora de irse (Time to Go)
by Renzo Cozza | with Martín Shanly, Jerónimo Bosia, Paula Grinszpan, Pilar Viñes, Julián Larquier Tellarini
Argentina 2026
Berlinale Shorts | World premiere | Short film
Patricio works for his sisters and feels trapped in a life that no longer fits him. Searching for change, he agrees to go on a date with a mysterious man.

Les âmes du Fouta (Souls of Fouta)
by Alpha Diallo | with Hawa Sow, Mamadou Ly, Kalidou Ndiath
France / Senegal 2026
Berlinale Shorts | World premiere | Short film
Dembe died of an overdose in the distant metropolis of Dakar. His father refuses to bury him in the family graveyard in the village, believing that his soul has become “impure”. Dembe’s mother decides to take matters into her own hands.

Les juifs riches
by Yolande Zauberman
France 2026
Berlinale Shorts | World premiere | Documentary form | Short film
In English, we say “rich, richer, the richest”. In Yiddish, we say “Rach (which means rich), Miè Guizoukt (which means: may it happen to me), A Ganèf (what a thief!)”. According to the director, this film will almost make you Jewish.

Love Your Nails!
by Narges Kalhor
Germany 2026
Forum Special | World premiere | Short film
Cheekily inverted gender roles, history revisited, empowerment. The weapons here: long fingernails and AI counterimages that serve to expand the visual canon of imagined collectives. Things never archived become visible and culturally imaginable.

L’uomo più bello del mondo (The Most Beautiful Man in the World)
by Paolo Baiguera
Italy 2026
Forum Special | World premiere | Documentary form | Short film
One member of the family is not remembered – only 25 photos of the uncle who died of AIDS remain. His nephew asks both his mother, who looks back via the pictures, and AI tool Google Vision API, which reads the photo data statistically. Memory cultures.

MegatrashwannabebigstarXD
by Ava Leandra Kleber, Elisa Deutloff
Germany 2026
Forum Special | World premiere | Short film
What connects the clones of Paris Hilton and rapper Haftbefehl and why are people sick of performing on social media? We find out from Leandra’s questionnaire, which is answered by a chatbot fed by Elisa. How to appear online? Be a hottie! Frindz??!

Miriam
by Karla Condado
Mexico 2026
Berlinale Shorts | World premiere | Documentary form | Short film
A film letter from the director to her aunt, who was murdered by her partner. She talks about the aftermath of the femicide, her grief, the family’s persistent fear and how she has managed to break the silence to open a space for healing.

Mit einem freundlichen Gruss (With a Kind Regard)
by Pavel Mozhar
Germany 2026
Berlinale Shorts | World premiere | Documentary form | Short film
More than 400 dusty job application letters in an abandoned GDR factory tell of the personal circumstances and memories of a generation. Wishes and fears are laid bare in the effort to find a place in the free market economy.

My Brother’s Wedding
by Charles Burnett | with Everette Silas, Jessie Holmes, Gaye Shannon-Burnett, Ronald E. Bell, Dennis Kemper
USA / Germany 1983-2007
Forum Special | World Premiere of the digitally restored version
South Central L.A., the 1980s: family, friends, neighbours and class relations are all a source of worry for the young Pierce. Following Killer of Sheep, Burnett’s second film wrote Black cinema (and Forum) history thanks to its social profundity.

Oupatevak het tam phnom (Incident on the Mountain)
by Savunthara Seng | with Nareach Pich, Kosal Van Than, Vollak Kong
Cambodia 2026
Berlinale Shorts | World premiere | Short film
Years ago, a helicopter crashed under mysterious circumstances high in the mountains. Climbing the slopes to investigate the accident, a journalist and a soldier encounter a shaman deep in the forest who tells them about ancient rain rituals.

Plan contraplan (Shot Reverse Shot)
by Radu Jude, Adrian Cioflâncă
Romania 2026
Berlinale Shorts | World premiere | Documentary form | Short film
During the 1980s, the American journalist Edward Serotta documented the harsh realities and Jewish life in socialist Romania. The secret services clandestinely accompanied him on his journey. A photo essay from opposing perspectives.

Quand tu ecouteras cette chanson (When You Listen to This Song)
by Mona Achache
France 2025
Forum Special | Documentary form
Director Achache and writer Lafon engage with Anne Frank by way of smart mental jumps, hand-picked footage, refinement and breathtaking montage, liberating this symbolic Shoah figure from cliché. Cinema of remembrance, complex and empathetic.

River Dreams
by Kristina Mikhailova
Kazakhstan / Switzerland / United Kingdom 2026
Forum Special | World premiere | Debut film | Documentary form
Young women imagine themselves as a river: what starts off as a poetic metaphor is linked to images of landscape and becomes a many-voiced narration, radically morphing into a political statement. The Kazakh woman, she prefers life without man.

Stallion y la bola de cristal (Stallion and a Crystal Ball)
by Christian Avilés | with Gerard Ribera, Dudu Alves, Cristina Plazas
Spain 2026
Berlinale Shorts | World premiere | Short film
In his dark, silent room, a secluded teenager casts a spell. A poetic fever dream exploring queer longing and the magic and mysteries of adolescence.

Találkozás (Encounter)
by Judit Elek | with Iván Mándy
Hungary 1963
Forum Special | Short film
A shy encounter. A blind date on a park bench. Budapest, 1963. The focus is on a woman who works as a nurse, knows what life is and is looking for more. Elek underpins her fiction with documentary glances whose openness is unbelievable precision.

TAXI MOTO
by Gaël Kamilindi | with Gaël Kamilindi, Erwan Kepoa Falé
Switzerland / France 2026
Berlinale Shorts | World premiere | Short film
A director has to reimagine his film – a love story between two men – because he was not allowed to shoot it in his home country. In a different location, he finds a new leading actor and, together with him, a tender gesture of resistance.

The Valley where LOAB Lives
by Georg Tiller
Austria 2026
Forum Special | World premiere | Short film
A female character born from code, LOAB leads us through six iconic horror eras from Nosferatu to Get Out: a prompted being, cursed by design. Whoever knows her becomes part of the algorithm; whoever resists will be punished. An AI meta genre essay.

Unidentifizierte Unflugobjekte (UUO) (Unidentified Nonflying Objects (UNO))
by Sasha Svirsky | with Sasha Svirsky
Germany 2026
Berlinale Shorts | World premiere | Animation | Short film
However permanent and stable any order may seem, it may eventually crumble when reality outside of the system creeps in, growing like organic matter through the boundaries that the order has imposed. An animated odyssey.

Yawman ma walad (Someday a Child)
by Marie-Rose Osta | with Khaled Hassan, Antoine Daher
France / Romania / Lebanon 2026
Berlinale Shorts | World premiere | Short film
A boy with extraordinary powers lives with his uncle in a Lebanese village where the noise of warplanes is a daily occurrence. As his uncle tries to train him to appear “normal”, the boy’s gift becomes impossible to contain.

Yuragim
by Varia Garib, Kirill Komar | with Varia Garib, Hasan Azimov
Austria / Uzbekistan 2026
Berlinale Shorts | World premiere | Short film
Saida moves between the roles of teacher, daughter, translator and fixer like a train on its tracks. As her boss looms closer, she must decide whether to continue supporting the system or vanish into a world of her own making