Berlin film festival unveils first wave of 2026 Panorama and Generation titles

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'Only Rebels Win'

Source: Danielle Arbid © Easy Riders Films

‘Only Rebels Win’

The Berlin Film Festival has unveiled the first wave of titles to play in the Panorama and Generation sections.

Scroll down for the full list of titles

Twelve titles have been announced for the Panorama sidebar, 10 of which are world premieres. Another five features and seven shorts have been unveiled for the Berlinale’s youth-focused Generation Kplus and Generation 14plus competitions.

The Panorama lineup includes new works by Danielle Arbid, Patric Chiha, Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson, Anna Roller, Faraz Shariat, Ian de la Rosa and Sebastian Brameshuber. Five of the selected films are documentaries.

The world premiere of German director Roller’s Allegro Pastell, is about a novelist and web designer who have a seemingly perfect long-distance relationship. Roller’s 2023 debut feature Dead Girls Dancing premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and was acquired by Mubi.

Also screening is the coming-of-age comedy drama Mouse by US directors O’Sullivan and Thompson, the filmmaking duo behind the acclaimed Sundance film Ghostlight.

German director Shariat, who won the Berlinale Teddy Award in 2020 for No Hard Feelings, returns with Prosecution, about a state prosecutor who survives a racist attack and takes her own case to court.

Lebanese-French director Arbid, whose films have played at San Sebastian and in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, will world premiere Beirut-set love story Only Rebels Win starring Hiam Abbass.

Elsewhere, Iván & Hadoum, the debut film by rising Spanish director Ian de la Rosa, world premieres. Set in a greenhouse in southern Spain, it’s about Iván who falls in love with his newly hired co-worker, Hadoum. But his long-awaited promotion interferes with their relationship, forcing Iván to decide what kind of person he wants to be. De la Rosa won the Cannes 2015 Cinéfondation Award with short Victor XX.

Among the documentaries are Elisé Sawasawa’s Enough Is Enough, billed as a “plunge into the chaos” of the city of Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo amid 30 years of war.

Austrian filmmaker Patric Chiha also world premieres A Russian Winter, his fourth consecutive film in Panorama. The documentary is set between Paris and Istanbul in the wake of the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. It centres on a group of friends who refuse to comply with the Russian regime and are forced into exile, searching for a place to call home but not feeling welcome anywhere.

Panorama

Allegro Pastell (Ger), dir. Anna Roller (World premiere)
Bucks Harbor (US), dir. Pete Muller (World premiere, documentary)
Iván & Hadoum (Sp-Ger-Bel), dir. Ian de la Rosa (World premiere)
Jaripeo (Mex-US-Fr) dir. Efraín Mojica, Rebecca Zweig (International premiere, documentary)
London (Austria) dir. Sebastian Brameshuber (World premiere)
Mouse (US) dir. Kelly O’Sullivan, Alex Thompson (World premiere)
Only Rebels Win (Fr-Leb-Qat), dir. Danielle Arbid (World premiere)
Numb (Japan), dir. Takuya Uchiyama (International premiere)
Prosecution (Ger), dir. Faraz Shariat (World premiere)
Enough is Enough (Fr-DR Congo), dir. Elisé Sawasawa (World premiere, documentary)
Two Mountains Weighing Down My Chest (Ger-Neth), dir. Viv Li (World premiere, documentary)
A Russian Winter (Fr), dir. Patric Chiha (World premiere, documentary)

Generation Kplus

The Fabulous Time Machine (Braz), dir. Eliza Capai (World premiere, documentary)
Ghost School (Pak-Ger-Saudi), dir. Seemab Guul (European premiere)
Papaya (Braz), dir. Priscilla Kellen (International premiere, animation)
Sorry Everyone’s Sorry Nowadays (Bel-Neth-Ger), dir. Frederike Migom (World premiere)