There is a lot of unpack here with the official competition offerings which consists of two international premieres and twenty world premieres for a gnarly twenty-two titles vying for the Golden Bear.
In what will be a fruitful year of offerings with two feature films, Kornél Mundruczó‘s At the Sea with Amy Adams toplining is his first out of the gate. After rehab, a woman returns to her family’s Cape Cod home, where sobriety forces her to confront buried trauma and redefine herself beyond her life as a dancer. Alain Gomis returns to the Berlinale comp with the long awaited Dao. A wedding in France and a commemoration in Guinea-Bissau intertwine, tracing a family’s shared heritage and the cyclical movement of life between two worlds. Céline Bozon is the cinematographer. Arieh Worthalter toplines Belgian former casting director Anke Blondé‘s sophomore feature. Written by Angelo Tijssens, 1990s set Dust looks at the Belgian tech boom, two visionary entrepreneurs see their fraudulent empire collapse and, with one day of freedom left, split in search of redemption. After Ivo, German filmmaker Eva Trobisch returns with Home Stories ..when asked, “Who are you and what defines you?” Lea begins searching for her identity in and beyond her family’s East German hotel. Meeting People Is Easy‘s Grant Gee brings fiction film Everybody Digs Bill Evans with Anders Danielsen Lie toplining in the inner life of a musical genius as he struggles to learn that sometimes an intermission is part of the music.
After owning the Berlinale with The Teachers’ Lounge, Ilker Çatak makes his first trip to the comp with Yellow Letters. Life is good for Turkish artists Derya and Aziz until a premiere incident brings state scrutiny, testing their ideals and pushing their marriage to the brink. Beth de Araújo‘s Josephine is having a massive launch double launch as it will be first featured at Sundance’s U.S. Dramatic Comp. Channing Tatum, Gemma Chan, Mason Reeves star. After showcasing his first three films in Berlin, Venice and then Cannes respectively, Turkish filmmaker Emin Alper presents his fourth feature Salvation which looks at an exiled clan returning to a remote village, reigniting a land feud, as Mesut, guided by visions, challenges his brother’s leadership—salvation or tragedy awaits. Vera duo Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel bring The Loneliest Man in Town — this is about a Blues musician Al Cook who faces demolition of his memory-filled apartment, sparking the return of a long-forgotten dream. Angela Schanelec returns to a section she knows well (and won twice) with My Wife Cries about a crane operator Thomas picks up his wife from the hospital, only to find her alone and crying on a park bench. Mexican helmer Fernando Eimbcke takes a step up at the fest with colorless Moscas. Starring Teresita Sánchez, this is about Olga who rents a room to a man secretly housing his nine-year-old son, upending her carefully controlled life. Yoshitoshi Shinomiya‘s brings his first solo anime work in A New Dawn. French Canadian filmmaker Geneviève Dulude-De Celles who preemed her fiction debut at the Berlinale back in Une colonie (2018) makes her sophomore trip to the fest with Nina Roza. This is about a viral video of a 7-year-old Bulgarian artist–a painting prodigy, which is circulating on the internet. This phenomenon attracts the attention of a collector who wants to acquire her paintings.
Ballast helmer Lance Hammer finally makes his long-awaited return to cinema with his sophomore feature Queen at Sea. Juliette Binoche is placed in a character facing dementia — it strips her ability to communicate, a woman’s husband and daughter navigate love, care, and autonomy. Karim Aïnouz‘s Rosebush Pruning is a contemporary satire about the absurdity of the traditional patriarchal family starring Callum Turner, Riley Keough, Jamie Bell, Lukas Gage, Elena Anaya, with Tracy Letts, and Elle Fanning, and Pamela Anderson. Markus Schleinzer‘s much anticipated third feature Rose sees Sandra Hüller in a 17th-century drama set in the aftermath of the Thirty Years’ War, the film sees Hüller play an enigmatic soldier who surfaces in an isolated Protestant village. Chad filmmaker Mahamat-Saleh Haroun won’t be shoring up in Cannes, instead Soumsoum the Night of the Stars, teenager Kellou, unsure of her newfound powers, meets Aya, sparking a mystical world where the visible and invisible converge. Leyla Bouzid’s À voix basse stars is about Lilia who returns to Tunisia for her uncle’s funeral, she uncovers family secrets while investigating his sudden death. Hiam Abbass stara. Anthony Chen completes his trilogy with We Are All Strangers, which is about a life-changing event pushes 21-year-old Junyang and his girlfriend to confront reality, while his father’s world is upended by a new woman, forcing both generations to redefine their family. With references to 2017’s Sweet Country, the already premiered Wolfram by Warwick Thornton is set in 1930s Australia colonial frontier. Anna Fitch and Banker White present the comp’s only docu in YO Love is a Rebellious Bird – about Anna who spends a decade building a 1/3-scale version of her late friend Yo’s house, reflecting their deep bond despite a 49-year age gap. And finally Hanna Bergholm blasted out of the gates with 2022’s Hatching, we can expect the Finnish forest set Nightborn to be just as gnarly. Here is the comp:
by Kornél Mundruczó | with Amy Adams, Murray Bartlett, Chloe East, Brett Goldstein, Dan Levy
USA / Hungary 2026
Competition | World premiere
After a stint in rehab, a woman returns to her family’s Cape Cod home where sobriety forces her to confront buried trauma and the terrifying question of who she is without her career as a dancer.
Dao
by Alain Gomis | with Katy Correa, D’Johé Kouadio, Samir Guesmi, Mike Etienne, Nicolas Gomis
France / Senegal / Guinea-Bissau 2026
Competition | World premiere
A film in which two celebrations of life, a wedding in France and a commemoration in Guinea Bissau, are organically intertwined with the threads of a family and heritage that live and travel between these two worlds. Perpetual circular movement framing reality.
Dust
by Anke Blondé | with Arieh Worthalter, Jan Hammenecker, Thibaud Dooms, Anthony Welsh
Belgium / Poland / Greece / United Kingdom 2026
Competition | World premiere
At the end of the 1990s, during the height of the Belgian tech boom, visionary entrepreneurs Luc and Geert watch their empire collapse as news of their fraud breaks. With just one day of freedom left, they part ways in search of redemption.
Etwas ganz Besonderes (Home Stories)
by Eva Trobisch | with Frida Hornemann, Max Riemelt, Eva Löbau, Gina Henkel, Rahel Ohm
Germany 2026
Competition | World premiere
“Who are you and what defines you?”, Lea is asked by the production crew of a reality talent show. She does not know. And with this question, her search for an identity within and beyond her family’s hotel in the forests of the former East Germany begins
Everybody Digs Bill Evans
by Grant Gee | with Anders Danielsen Lie, Bill Pullman, Laurie Metcalf
Ireland / United Kingdom 2026
Competition | World premiere
At the height of his career, legendary jazz pianist Bill Evans loses his bassist and musical soulmate in a tragic car crash. The film portrays the inner life of a musical genius as he struggles to learn that sometimes an intermission is part of the music.
Gelbe Briefe (Yellow Letters)
by İlker Çatak | with Özgü Namal, Tansu Biçer, Leyla Smyrna Cabas, İpek Bilgin
Germany / France / Turkey 2026
Competition | World premiere
Life is good for Derya and Aziz, a celebrated artist couple from Turkey, until an incident at their play’s premiere. Suddenly targeted by the state and struggling to balance their ideals with life’s necessities, their marriage is pushed to a breaking point.
Josephine
by Beth de Araújo | with Channing Tatum, Gemma Chan, Mason Reeves, Phillip Ettinger, Syra McCarthy
USA 2025
Competition | International premiere
After eight-year-old Josephine accidentally witnesses a crime in Golden Gate Park, she begins to act out violently to protect herself. This emotional trauma leads to conflicts between her parents as they search for justice, and a way to feel safe again.
Kurtuluş (Salvation)
by Emin Alper | with Caner Cindoruk, Berkay Ateş, Feyyaz Duman, Naz Göktan, Özlem Taş
Turkey / France / Netherlands / Greece / Sweden / Saudi Arabia 2026
Competition | World premiere
In a remote village, an exiled clan returns, reviving a decades-old land feud. Seized by divine visions, Mesut challenges his brother’s leadership to save his people. Will this new path bring salvation or tragedy?
The Loneliest Man in Town
by Tizza Covi, Rainer Frimmel | with Alois Koch, Brigitte Meduna, Alfred Blechinger, Flurina Schneider
Austria 2026
Competition | World premiere
Blues musician Al Cook lives in an apartment filled with memories. Outside, the world carries on without him. But when his home is slated for demolition, out of the ruins of his existence, a long-forgotten dream suddenly resurfaces.
Meine Frau weint (My Wife Cries)
by Angela Schanelec | with Vladimir Vulević, Agathe Bonitzer, Birte Schnöink, Pauline Rebmann, Clara Gostynski
Germany / France 2026
Competition | World premiere
An ordinary workday on a building site. Forty-year-old crane operator Thomas receives a call from his wife: he has to pick her up from the hospital. Once there, he finds her sitting alone on a park bench, crying.
Moscas (Flies)
by Fernando Eimbcke | with Teresita Sánchez, Bastian Escobar, Hugo Ramírez
Mexico 2026
Competition | World premiere
Olga rents out a room to a man whose wife has been admitted to a hospital nearby. However, the man has a nine-year-old son he has been sneaking into the room, which leads to Olga’s carefully controlled world shifting as their lives become intertwined.
A New Dawn
by Yoshitoshi Shinomiya | with Riku Hagiwara, Kotone Furukawa
Japan / France 2025
Competition | World premiere | Debut film | Animation
Keitaro lives in a fireworks factory that is about to be shut down. He is determined to unravel the mystery of the Shuhari, a mythical firework created by his father before he disappeared without a trace – and launch it before the factory closes.
Nina Roza
by Genevieve Dulude-de Celles | with Galin Stoev, Ekaterina Stanina, Sofia Stanina, Chiara Caselli, Michelle Tzontchev
Canada / Italy / Bulgaria / Belgium 2026
Competition | World premiere
An art dealer travels from Quebec to the homeland he abandoned to see the paintings of an elusive pre-teen prodigy in the Bulgarian countryside. It is only by viewing her work firsthand that he will be able to determine if she is a fraud, or a genius.
Queen at Sea
by Lance Hammer | with Juliette Binoche, Tom Courtenay, Anna Calder-Marshall, Florence Hunt
United Kingdom / USA 2026
Competition | World premiere
As advanced dementia erodes an older woman’s ability to communicate her inner life, her husband and daughter struggle to act in her best interests, navigating love and the fragile boundaries between care, protection and autonomy.
Rosebush Pruning
by Karim Aïnouz | with Callum Turner, Riley Keough, Jamie Bell, Elle Fanning, Pamela Anderson
Italy / Germany / Spain / United Kingdom 2026
Competition | World premiere
In a Spanish villa, American siblings Jack, Ed, Anna and Robert wallow in isolation and their inherited fortune. When Jack wants to move in with his girlfriend and Ed uncovers the truth about their mother’s death, the fabric of the family begins to unravel.
Rose
by Markus Schleinzer | with Sandra Hüller, Caro Braun, Marisa Growaldt, Godehard Giese, Augustino Renken
Austria / Germany 2026
Competition | World premiere
In the early 17th century, a soldier arrives at an isolated Protestant village in Germany claiming to be the heir to an abandoned farmstead. Even though he proves to be a good man, the villagers’ suspicions about his identity grow and they force a reckoning.
Soumsoum, la nuit des astres (Soumsoum, the Night of the Stars)
by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun | with Maïmouna Miawama, Ériq Ebouaney, Achouackh Abakar Souleymane
France / Chad 2026
Competition | World premiere
Seventeen-year-old Kellou has been gifted with supernatural powers she does not understand. Her disquiet and uncertainty only change when she meets Aya. It is an encounter with destiny that forges a mystical world where the visible and invisible converge.
À voix basse (In a Whisper)
by Leyla Bouzid | with Eya Bouteraa, Hiam Abbass, Marion Barbeau, Feriel Chamari
France / Tunisia 2026
Competition | World premiere
Lilia returns to Tunisia for her uncle’s funeral and reunites with a family that knows nothing about her life in Paris, especially her love life. Determined to confront her family’s secrets, Lilia sets out to unravel the mystery of her uncle’s sudden death.
Wo Men Bu Shi Mo Sheng Ren (We Are All Strangers)
by Anthony Chen | with Yeo Yann Yann, Koh Jia Ler, Andi Lim, Regene Lim
Singapore 2026
Competition | World premiere
A life-altering event forces 21-year-old Junyang and his girlfriend to face reality. At the same time, while Junyang’s father is struggling to hold their modest life together, a woman enters his life and both generations are forced to redefine their family.
Wolfram
by Warwick Thornton | with Deborah Mailman, Erroll Shand, Joe Bird, Thomas M Wright, Ferdinand Hoang
Australia 2025
Competition | International premiere
1930s Australia, the colonial frontier. Two swaggering outlaws roll into a mining town and unleash a wave of cruelty. Three kids use this opportunity to break free from their white masters and set off across the “sweet country” of central Australia.
YO Love is a Rebellious Bird
by Anna Fitch, Banker White | with Yolanda Shea
USA 2026
Competition | World premiere | Documentary form
Anna spends a decade building a 1/3-scale version of the house of her late friend, Yo, that she can fit into – along with a puppet of Yo. When the pair first met, Yo was 73 and Anna 24, but they formed a deep bond that defied the gap in age and experience.
Yön Lapsi (Nightborn)
by Hanna Bergholm | with Seidi Haarla, Rupert Grint
Finland / Lithuania / France / United Kingdom 2026
Competition | World premiere
Eager to start a family, Saga and Jon move to her childhood home in the Finnish forest. But after their baby is born, the couple’s dream of a perfect child turns into a nightmare – and only Saga senses the unsettling truth.
