{"id":440130,"date":"2026-02-22T20:00:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T20:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/440130\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T20:00:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T20:00:14","slug":"berlin-film-festival-announces-2026-winners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/440130\/","title":{"rendered":"Berlin film festival announces 2026 Winners"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe awards ceremony for the 76th Berlinale<\/a> transformed into an overtly political stage, as filmmaker after filmmaker used the spotlight to denounce what they called Israeli aggression in the Middle East and to call to \u201cfree Palestine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe ceremony, held in Berlin, saw the 2026 competition jury, headed by German director Wim Wenders, hand out the festival\u2019s Golden and Silver Bears against a backdrop of sustained controversy that has dogged this year\u2019s Berlinale from its opening day.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile the competition lineup was widely regarded as one of the strongest in recent years \u2014 with multiple titles earning critical raves and few outright misfires \u2014 there were no clear frontrunners heading into the final night. Instead, politics once again took center stage.<\/p>\n

\n\tDespite efforts by festival leadership to keep the focus on cinema, the 2026 Berlinale has been defined as much by social media outrage and geopolitical debate as by the films themselves. Directors and talent repeatedly fielded questions about Gaza, U.S. President Donald Trump and the rise of far-right movements across Europe.<\/p>\n

\n\tWenders himself became the target of online backlash early in the festival after saying that filmmakers \u201chave to stay out of politics,\u201d a remark widely interpreted as a call for neutrality. Critics argued the comment was at odds with both the moment and Wenders\u2019 own politically engaged body of work.<\/p>\n

\n\tOpening the awards ceremony, Berlinale director Tricia Tuttle addressed the tensions directly. She described this year\u2019s festival as having \u201cfelt raw and fractured,\u201d with many attendees arriving in Berlin \u201cwith grief and anger and urgency about the world that takes place outside the cinema walls.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThat grief, that anger and that urgency is real and belongs in our community. We hear you,\u201d Tuttle said, acknowledging that the festival had been \u201cpublicly challenged\u201d over the past 10 days. \u201cIt didn\u2019t always feel good, but it is good because it means the Berlinale matters to people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShe added that the festival must recognize it is \u201cliving in a polarized moment,\u201d where \u201ccriticism and speaking up is part of democracy and so is disagreement,\u201d pledging that the Berlinale would continue to welcome debate. \u201cIf this year has been emotionally charged, that is not a failure of the Berlinale and cinema. That is the Berlinale doing its job and cinema doing its job,\u201d Tuttle said.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut as the prizes were handed out, the stage became a platform for pointed political statements. Lebanese director Marie-Rose Osta, accepting the Golden Bear for best short film for Someday a Child, denounced Israeli bombings in her home country and what she described as a \u201ccollapse of international<\/a> law\u201d in the region.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIn reality children in Gaza, in all of Palestine, and in my Lebanon do not have superpowers to protect them from Israeli bombs,\u201d she said. \u201cNo child should need superpowers to survive a genocide empowered by veto powers and the collapse of international law\u2026If this Golden Bear means anything, let it mean that Lebanese and Palestinian children are not negotiable,\u201d she said, drawing sustained applause from parts of the audience.<\/p>\n

\n\tOther winners and presenters echoed similar sentiments. Abdallah Alkhatib, winner of the best documentary prize for Chronicles From a Siege, brought a Palestinian flag on stage, and called out the German government for what he called as its \u201ccomplicity\u201d in Israeli \u201cgenocide\u201d in Gaza. He ended his passionate speech with a call to \u201cfree Palestine from now to the end of the world!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAt one point, the show\u2019s host, Luxembourg actress D\u00e9sir\u00e9e Nosbusch, become visually emotional as she tried to calm the audience, asking hecklers yelling out in support of the criticism of Israel and the German government to remain respectful. She reminded the audience, and viewers watching at home, that the artists\u2019 personal views expressed on stage don\u2019t necessarily reflect those of the Berlinale, which receives significant support from the German government. <\/p>\n

\n\tEarlier in the evening, Syrian filmmaker Ameer Fakher Eldin, head of the Berlinale Short Film Jury, sought to reframe the debate, arguing that artists \u201cmust insist on complexity\u201d and resist being reduced to polemical positions.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cA festival space should not function like a parliamentary floor,\u201d he said. \u201cSome artists speak through their statements, which is ok. Others speak through the long arc of their work, like you Mr. Wenders. Both artists can and must co-exist.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWenders, who has largely stayed quiet since the initial controversy, addressed the issues before announcing the competition winners, saying there was an \u201cartificial discrepancy\u201d between those criticizing the Berlinale and the organizers and festival jury members. \u201cMost of us applaud you,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\n\tBerlin award winners below, updating live. <\/p>\n

\n\tGOLDEN BEAR FOR BEST FILM
Yellow Letters, dir. Ilker \u00c7atak<\/p>\n

\n\tSILVER BEAR GRAND JURY PRIZE
Salvation, dir. Emin Alper <\/p>\n

\n\tSILVER BEAR JURY PRIZE
Queen at Sea, dir. Lance Hammer<\/p>\n

\n\tSILVER BEAR FOR BEST DIRECTOR
Grant Gee for Everyone Digs Bill Evans<\/p>\n

\n\tSILVER BEAR FOR BEST PERFORMANCE
Sandra H\u00fcller for Rose<\/p>\n

\n\tSILVER BEAR FOR BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE
Anna Calder-Marshall and Tom Courtenay, Queen at Sea<\/p>\n

\n\tSILVER BEAR FOR BEST SCREENPLAY
Nina Roza, dir. Genevi\u00e8ve Dulude-de Celles<\/p>\n

\n\tSILVER BEAR FOR OUTSTANDING ARTISTIC CONTRIBUTION
Yo (Love Is a Rebellious Bird), dir. Anna Fitch<\/p>\n

\n\tPERSPECTIVES <\/p>\n

\n\tGFF FIRST FEATURE AWARD
Chronicles From the Siege, dir. Abdallah Alkhatib<\/p>\n

\n\tSpecial Mention
Forest High (For\u00eat Ivre), dir. Manon Coubia<\/p>\n

\n\tBERLINALE DOCUMENTARY AWARD<\/p>\n

\n\tIf Pigeons Turned to Gold, dir. Pepa Lubojacki<\/p>\n

\n\tSHORTS<\/p>\n

\n\tGolden Bear Best Short Film
Someday a Child dir. Marie-Rose Osta<\/p>\n

\n\tSilver Bear Jury Prize (Short Film)
A Woman\u2019s Place Is Everywhere, dir. Fanny Texier<\/p>\n

\n\tCUPRA Filmmaker Award
Jingkai Qu, dir. Kleptomania<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The awards ceremony for the 76th Berlinale transformed into an overtly political stage, as filmmaker after filmmaker used…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":440131,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[156324,155902,96,59,718,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-440130","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-berlin-2026","9":"tag-berlinale","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-gb","12":"tag-international","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}