Before Tuesday’s reveal of the competition strands at the 2026 Berlinale, several side sections have already been announced. The Panorama section, which typically selects less risky works, comprises 37 films from 36 countries. The opening film is Danielle Arbid’s Only Rebels Win. Other directors include Joaquín del Paso, André Novais Oliveira, Tobias Nölle, Alisa Kovalenko, Marcelo Martinessi, Mahnaz Mohammadi and Aidan Zamiri. A notable fact is that Hong Sang-Soo‘s new film is in this section rather than in the competition. Nölle (Aloys) (2016)and his documentary, Tristan Forever, made with Loran Bonnardot, might be worth looking out for. Marcelo Martinessi’s debut film, The Heiresses, appeared in the main competition in 2018. The complete Panorama programme can be found here.
The Forum section used to be the place to find more challenging films. That was somewhat changed during the Chatrian years, when the Encounters strand took on that duty. This year, the strand boasts 32 films. Among them is the Swedish Doggerland by Kim Ekberg, who made XXL in 2024, which premiered at the Gothenburg Film Festival. Section head Barbara Wurm claims that this year’s edition is “probably the most political in a long time”. Among the most anticipated films, one can mention Liebhaberinnen (Women as Lovers) by Koxi, an adaptation of Elfriede Jelinek. Other films include Ralitza Petrova’s Lust and Banu Sıvacı’s Hear the Yellow. Haile Gerimas’s Black Lions — Roman Wolves deals with Italian colonialism in Ethiopia.
Besides Doggerland, other films play with hybrid and experimental forms. Joy Boy is a flashy tribute to composer Julius Eastman, while The Moths & the Flame by Kevin Contento is a portrait of young Black fathers in his neighbourhood. The films from this year’s Forum section are available here.
Other Side Sections at the 2026 Berlinale
The Berlinale Special section is devoted to films with mainstream appeal and stars on the red carpet, but not in competition. Among the 19 films, six are documentaries. Teodora Ana Mihai’s striking new drama about the devastating tragedy at Heysel Stadium Heysel 85 will be there, as will Ulrike Ottinger’s witty and original horror-tinged Die Blutgräfin (The Blood Countess), co-written with Elfriede Jelinek and starring Isabelle Huppert, as well as the international premiere of Noah Segan’s The Only Living Pickpocket in New York with John Turturro and Steve Buscemi. European premieres include Padraic McKinley’s The Weight, starring Ethan Hawke and Russell Crowe, and Gore Verbinski’s sci-fi comedy Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die.
Berlinale Classics 2026 presents ten films from nine countries. Georg Wilhelm Pabst’s Geheimnisse einer Seele (Secrets of a Soul) will be presented with new music by Yongbom Lee. Other films include La kermesse héroïque (Carnival in Flanders) by Jacques Feyder, Assarab (Mirage, 1979) by Ahmed Bouanani, and best of all, Shohei Imamura’s Jinruigaku nyûmon (The Pornographers 1966). The complete list of the Berlinale Classics is listed here.
The Berlinale 2026 kicks off with the world premiere of No Good Men, the third feature film by award-winning Afghan director Shahrbanoo Sadat. It’s the director’s third film, following Wolf and Sheep (2016) and Parwareshgah (The Orphanage, 2019). Both films were screened at the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs in Cannes, but now it is time for the Berlinale instead.
On Tuesday, we will know which films will take part in the main competition and also in the Perspectives section. Rumours have been floating around about a Leos Carax film in the vein of C’est pas moi, but it is difficult to imagine that it would be included in the competition. It remains to be seen what Tricia Tuttle and her team will reveal on Tuesday.
