Cynthia Beatt’s debut centers on Queenie (Tilda Swinton), who, after years of intimacy, feels nothing but emptiness in her relationship with Burrsie (Lutz Weidlich). They decide: “It’s time for a party.”

In addition to the Silver and Golden Bears, various independent juries award prizes at the Berlinale. Forum films received several awards this year.

The Berlinale Documentary Award 2026 goes to IF PIGEONS TURNED TO GOLD by Pepa Lubojacki. The Forum film Sometimes, I Imagine Them All at a Party by Daniela Magani Hüller received a Special Mention.

This year's Caligari film prize goes to IF PIGEONS TURNED TO GOLD by Pepa Lubojacki. A self-reflexive film on addiction, family and memory, confronting archival material with deliberate estrangement.

One of the most fascinating films of the L.A. Rebellion: With Charles Burnett's MY BROTHER'S WEDDING, we are adding the new digital restoration of another classic of New Black Cinema to our catalogue. It is now available for rental with German subtitles.

On May 3, 2026, the Arsenal Film Institute will open its new cinema at silent green.

Gaps and omissions, counter-narratives and revisions: many of the film works selected for the 21st Berlinale Forum Expanded focus on the ways in which individuals and states write their histories.

The 56th Forum offers opportunities to explore the cinema status quo in all its many facets and shows films by people who take their work and its impact seriously: the way it affects our coexistence, our battles, our reconciliations, our history and stories.

In its third year, the Forum Special programme focuses on closeness and neighbourhood, examining the “condition féminine” – and female directors East and West, now and back in the day.