{"id":409033,"date":"2026-01-14T16:48:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T16:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/409033\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T16:48:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T16:48:07","slug":"berlin-film-festival-unveils-new-2026-titles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/409033\/","title":{"rendered":"Berlin Film Festival Unveils New 2026 Titles"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tVampires, sci-fi creatures, and Charli XCX are descending on Berlin<\/a> this year.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Berlin Film Festival<\/a> on Wednesday unveiled more titles for its Berlinale lineup, including its high-profile, out-of-competition section of red carpet premieres that will screen at the 76th Berlinale, which runs Feb. 12-22.<\/p>\n

\n\tAmong additions in the Berlinale Specials program are the international<\/a> premiere of Noah Segan\u2019s\u00a0The Only Living Pickpocket in New York\u00a0with John Turturro and Steve Buscemi, and the European premieres of Padraic McKinley\u2019s\u00a0The Weight, starring Ethan Hawke and Russell Crowe, and Gore Verbinski\u2019s sci-fi comedy\u00a0Good Luck, Have Fun, Don\u2019t Die\u00a0with Sam Rockwell, Juno Temple and Zazie Beetz.<\/p>\n

\n\tAmong the titles bowing in Panorama, Berlin\u2019s main sidebar section, is Aidan Zamiri\u2019s\u00a0The Moment featuring music superstar Charli XCX in what is described as \u201ca mockumentary, a feminist act of self-empowerment and an ironic meta-commentary on the music business.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tFeminist perspectives will also be showcased elsewhere in the Panorama lineup, which includes\u00a0\u00c1rru, the directorial debut of S\u00e1mi choreographer Elle Sofe Sara; Iranian activist and filmmaker Mahnaz Mohammadi\u2019s new drama\u00a0Roya; and Olive Nwosu\u2019s feature debut\u00a0Lady. And it wouldn\u2019t be Berlin withou a new film from Hong Sangsoo. The prolific South Korean auteur returns to Potsdamer Platz with\u00a0Geunyeoga doraon nal, a drama described as \u201ca subtle reflection on the acting profession itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAmong the Berlinale Special highlights is the world premiere of The Blood Countess, the hotly-anticipated horror mystery thriller starring Isabelle Huppert<\/a> as a 16th-century vampire and featuring an all-star European cast, including Birgit Minichmayr (Everyone Else), Lars Eidinger<\/a> (Jay Kelly), Thomas Schubert (Afire) and Andr\u00e9 Jung (The Forger).<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film, directed by renowned German New Wave artist and filmmaker Ulrike Ottinger, is the latest retelling of the story of Hungarian Countess Elizabeth B\u00e1thory, a real-life aristocrat accused of bathing in the blood of virgins to retain her youth. Julie Delpy played a version of B\u00e1thory in 2009 feature The Countess; Anna Friel in the 2008 historical drama Bathory, and Maria Kalinina in the 2006 slasher horror Stay Alive, in which the spirit of the blood countess haunts a survival video game.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis iteration of the story promises to be more high-brow, with a script from Ottinger and Elfriede Jelinek, the acclaimed Nobel Prize-winning author of The Piano Teacher (which also starred Huppert). The Blood Countess was a hot pre-sales title<\/a> at Berlin last year. Magnify is handling sales worldwide.<\/p>\n

\n\tOther Berlinale Special Galas include the world premiere of Teodora Ana Mihai\u2019s Heysel 85, which tells the story of the Heysel Stadium disaster, in which, before the start of a European Cup Final between Liverpool and Juventus a crowd crush resulted in 39 deaths. And Berlin audiences will be able to beat their chests and call out to god in unison with Amanda Seyfried, with the German premiere of Mona Fastvold\u2019s award-season contender The Testament of Ann Lee, which stars Seyfried as the 18th century religious leader and founder of the Shakers movement. <\/p>\n

\n\tOn the gory side, Berlin will hold the world premiere of Sleep No More, a body horror feature from Indonesia\u2019s genre master Edwin (Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash), and Saccharine, from Australia\u2019s Natalie Erika James, in which a lovelorn medical student become possessed after taking part in an obscure weight-loss craze: Eating human ashes.<\/p>\n

\n\tDocumentary highlights include Jason Osder and William Lafi Youmans\u2019 Who Killed Alex Odeh?, a true-crime investigation into the killing of a Palestinian activist, which will head to Berlin after its Sundance premiere; and the world premiere of The Ballad of Judas Priest, directors Sam Dunn and Tom Morello\u2019s joyous tribute to the heavy metal pioneers. <\/p>\n

\n\tSeries getting their world premiere in Berlin this year include eagerly awaited new adaptation of Lord of the Flies, directed by Marc Munden and written by Adolescence co-creator Jack Thorne; the darkly comic crime drama Mint directed by Charlotte Regan (Scrapper); and Chilean adaptation La casa de los esp\u00edritus, based on Isabel Allende\u2019s landmark novel (which was adapted in English by Billy August as The House of the Spirits in 1993, starring Jeremy Irons, Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, Winona Ryder, Antonio Banderas and Vanessa Redgrave). <\/p>\n

\n\tOther small screen delights include new chapters of Mark Cousins\u2019 The Story of Documentary Film; the Spanish series Ravalear: Not For Sale, from the producers of Oscar-nominated animated film Robot Dreams; and the six-part German horror mystery series House of Yang.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Berlinale will announce its full lineup on Jan. 20. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vampires, sci-fi creatures, and Charli XCX are descending on Berlin this year. The Berlin Film Festival on Wednesday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[12268,172273,49,48,75,77,172274,337],"class_list":{"0":"post-409033","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-berlin","9":"tag-berlinale-2026","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-international","14":"tag-isabelle-huppert","15":"tag-movies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}