The Berlin Film Festival (February 12-22) has selected films for its Forum and Forum Expanded strands, as well as series projects for the Berlinale Series Market and Berlinale Co-Production Market Co-Pro Series programme.
The main Forum section consists of 32 films, 31 of which are world premieres. Titles include Ghost In The Cell, a supernatural horror-comedy from Indonesian filmmaker Joko Anwar. Set in a prison, the film sees inmates unite against a murderous ghost who turns corpses into art installations. Anwar’s previous genre titles include The Forbidden Door and two Satan’s Slaves films.
Cambodian director Rithy Panh’s latest documentary We Are The Fruits Of The Forest will have its European premiere in the section, having debuted at Tokyo film festival last year. The film depicts a four-year journey through indigenous communities in Cambodia’s northern mountains.
Further Forum world premieres include Kim Ekberg’s Swedish title Doggerland, about a man nearing 40 but still living with his parents, who drifts through the cultural scene in the city of Norrkorping.
The Forum Expanded selection consists of 33 works, including films, installations and performances. Titles include Film No. 4 (Bottoms), a 1966 silent, black-and-white film by Yoko Ono – Japanese artist and wife of late Beatle John Lennon – showing naked, walking buttocks.
The Berlinale Series Market, a platform for series content run by the European Film Market, has selected 17 scripted titles and three docuseries for its 2026 edition, running from February 15-18 at the Cinemaxx on Potsdamer Platz. Titles include Iceland-Portugal co-production Cold Haven, about an Icelandic detective who returns to her hometown to solve the case of the murder of a young Portuguese woman.
The Berlinale Co-Production Market has also selected 10 international series projects for its Co-Pro Series, the pitches for which will take place on February 17 at the Cinemaxx.
Titles include The Granddaughter, the first series project from Ilker Catak, the German director of 2023 feature The Teachers’ Lounge. Adapted from Bernhard Schlink’s novel of the same name, the story follows a widower who sets out to find his late wife’s granddaughter, of whose existence he was unaware.
Full list of titles to follow.
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