10 of the best movies from the 2026 Berlin film festival

The Berlin International Film Festival has always been a politically charged event, but this year’s 76th edition was a cauldron. Early on, author Arundhati Roy resigned from her duties at the festival after Wim Wenders, the German filmmaker and head of the jury, said filmmakers should stay out of politics. This followed a jury press conference where a journalist questioned the festival’s stance on showing solidarity with victims of global conflicts, but ignoring Gaza. In the wake of this, over 100 film personalities – including Tilda Swinton, Mark Ruffalo and Javier Bardem – signed a letter calling on the festival to state its opposition to what they described as Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Becoming the main talking point in festival head Tricia Tuttle’s second full year in charge, the controversy overshadowed an otherwise engaging selection. Stepping aside from politics, here are 10 of the best films that screened at the Berlinale. 1. The Loneliest Man in Town If Finnish auteur Aki Kaurismäki ever took a trip to Vienna, he might have made something like this droll, touching story from co-directors Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel. Fact and fiction collide as real blues guitarist Alois Koch – stage name Al Cook – plays a version of himself, facing the loss of the flat he has lived in his entire life, as the building faces demolition. However, clearing out a home filled with musical memorabilia from a bygone era reignites a long-held dream: to head to the Mississippi Delta. Frequently funny, it is also an utterly poignant piece about a rapidly changing world leaving this soulful old-timer behind. 2. Moscas Think Italian neorealistic classic Bicycle Thieves in Mexico City in this superlative, economical work from Fernando Eimbcke, marking his fifth feature. Bastian Escobar gives a winning turn as Christian, a nine-year-old boy whose path crosses with Olga (Teresita Sanchez), a landlady with emotional issues. All Christian wants to do is deliver slippers to his mother in hospital and play the Space Invaders-esque arcade game at which he excels. Shot in black-and-white, Moscas never slips into sentimentality as Christian and Olga grow closer. 3. Queen at Sea Eighteen years after his acclaimed 2008 debut Ballast, Lance Hammer is back with this insightful second feature. Walking an emotional and ethical tightrope, the London-set story casts Juliette Binoche as an academic who clashes with her stepfather (Tom Courtenay) over the care of her mother (Anna Calder-Marshall), who suffers from dementia. Dealing with the thorny issue of human desire, it asks whether someone with declining mental faculties can give sexual consent. Sublimely acted and shot by Adolpho Veloso, the Oscar-nominated cinematographer of Train Dreams, it came away with the Jury Prize and best supporting performance, jointly awarded to Courtenay and Calder-Marshall. 4. Josephine A supremely confident second feature from Beth de Araújo (Soft & Quiet), this was the must-see at Sundance in January, winning both the US Dramatic Grand Jury Prize and the US Dramatic Audience Award. Beautifully measured, the story hinges on what happens when the titular eight-year-old (terrific newcomer Mason Reeves), out running with her father (a never-better Channing Tatum) in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, witnesses a sexual assault. As Josephine struggles to understand what she has seen, De Araújo cleverly puts us inside the confused mind of a young girl while also exploring male anger. 5. Nightborn (Yön Lapsi) Finnish folklore winds around this parental horror like a tree vine. The second film from Hanna Bergholm, following 2022’s Hatching, this is like a female Eraserhead, as a newborn infant begins to unsettle both mother (Seidi Haarla) and father (former Harry Potter star Rupert Grint) in different ways. Using animatronics to bring the baby to life, Bergholm teases us with genre tropes. But really she is making a film about the pain and perils of parenthood. Like any new mother, Haarla does most of the heavy lifting here, but Grint’s turn as the emasculated British husband amuses. 6. We Are All Strangers Anthony Chen completes his “Growing Up” trilogy, following Ilo Ilo and Wet Season, with this gentle, sometimes profound familial drama set amid Singapore’s working class. Reuniting with Koh Jia Ler and Yeo Yann Yann, who appeared in the earlier films (although none of the narratives or characters overlap), Chen delivers a nuanced study of the ups and downs of life, love and death. Yeo and Koh are joined by the wonderful Andi Lim in a story that somewhat recalls the recent Sean Baker-produced Left-Handed Girl. 7. Rose Directed by Markus Schleinzer (Michael), this black-and-white feature, set in the 17th century, was the festival’s critical darling. Winning the Silver Bear for best leading performance, Sandra Hüller follows her remarkable turns in Anatomy of a Fall and The Zone of Interest with another cracker, playing a woman in disguise – as a soldier from Central Europe’s Thirty Years’ War arriving in a village to stake a claim on a farmstead. Beautifully crafted, this handsome package deals with subjects of transgression and gender with the same flourishes as Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon – no surprises there, as Schleinzer was once Haneke’s casting director. 8. The Only Living Pickpocket in New York For those who savour the now golden era of 1990s American independent filmmaking, Noah Segan’s drama, unspooling in the Berlinale Special strand, felt like a welcome flashback. John Turturro, in a rare lead, excels as Harry, a thief working the streets of New York to help pay the medical bills of his chronically ill wife. Steve Buscemi co-stars as Harry’s fence, alongside Breaking Bad’s Giancarlo Esposito as a sympathetic policeman. While nominally shaded as a downbeat thriller – sparked when Harry accidentally steals from the wrong target – the film is ultimately a poignant look at second chances. 9. The Ballad of Judas Priest Playing in the Midnight Special selection, this documentary about Judas Priest, the British heavy metal pioneers behind “Breaking the Law”, brought the house down. Co-directed by Sam Dunn and Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello, it features interviews with the band, including lead singer Rob Halford, and celebrity fans, such as Jack Black, Metallica’s Kirk Hammett (who gets very emotional) and even the late Ozzy Osbourne. Bustling through the highs and lows, including the fact that it took Halford 27 years to come out as gay, it treats the serious subjects with dignity, but never takes itself too seriously. 10. A Family Selected for the Generation 14plus sidebar, this Dutch tale of a custody battle that tips into aggression is produced by Lukas Dhont, and it certainly has the painfully sensitive feel of the filmmaker behind Close and Girl. Discreetly directed by Mees Peijnenburg, the story switches perspectives as brother Eli (Finn Vogels) and sister Nina (Celeste Holsheimer) are affected by their parents’ spiteful fallout in different ways. Also starring Game of Thrones’ Carice van Houten, icy cold as the mother Maria, A Family is a universal story, simple but powerful in its execution. Want more articles like this? Follow SCMP Film on Facebook

10 of the best movies from the 2026 Berlin film festival

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Controversy overshadowed an engaging selection at this year’s Berlinale, the best of which included Rose, Josephine and Queen at Sea

1. The Loneliest Man in Town

Controversy overshadowed an engaging selection at this year’s Berlinale, the best of which included Rose, Josephine and Queen at Sea