Turkish drama Gelbe Briefe (Yellow Letters), by Ilker Çatak, has gained the Golden Bear on the Berlinale 2026. Shot in Germany, and with out hiding it on the display screen – one poster studies “Berlin as if it were Istanbul” and one other explains: “Hamburg as if it were Ankara” – the brand new movie by Turkish-German Çatak, who was nominated for the Oscar for worldwide movie together with his earlier work, academics room, makes use of basic movie footage as an instance the destruction of a household. The joyful lifetime of the protagonists explodes when the Government sends a dismissal letter to the daddy, a college professor and playwright (the title refers to these yellow letters) for being “unpatriotic”, which drags down his spouse, a profitable actress, and people round him, primarily his daughter. They lose their jobs, they lose their residence. And subsequently, they face the dilemma of defending their beliefs or giving up and transferring ahead with their lives.
To the jury, chaired by Wim Wenders, Yellow letters It made them really feel “chills.” “We saw his film as a terrifying premonition, a look into a near future that could also occur in our countries.”
And sure, for the primary time the genocide in Gaza was spoken loud and clear, as a result of a number of winners recalled all the things suffered by the Palestinian folks within the Strip, after all through this version varied filmmakers and the Berlinale group had determined to not touch upon the Israeli invasion, regardless of honoring the Iranian and Ukrainian folks.
Win Wenders assured that for him and his colleagues the primary three awards have been equal, that they thought of the trio of awarded movies on the similar stage. By the best way, he deeply thanked Tricia Tuttle, director of the competition, for her help throughout today, since on the first press convention she stated the phrases which have echoed since that day: “We have to stay out of politics. We are the counterweight of politics, the opposite of politicians; we must do the work of the people, not that of politicians.” The starting of a debate that this Saturday marked the awards ceremony. On the closing stage, Wenders defended himself, explaining: “We need to unite activists, filmmakers and journalists. This is how we will confront the terrifying, out-of-control world we live in.”
At the tip of the ceremony, Tuttle herself defended the fitting of any filmmaker to talk “on any topic” or to stay silent, in the event that they most well-liked to speak by way of their work.
The Kurdish Emin Alper, when amassing the Silver Bear Special Jury Prize for the Turkish Liberation, He made an emotional speech during which he recalled the ache of the Palestinian folks (“You are not alone”, phrases acquired with little applause and shouts of “Free Palestine”), the struggling of the Iranian inhabitants (“You are not alone”, and right here there was a a lot larger ovation) and, lastly, that of his Kurdish compatriots, reciting the names of imprisoned pals.
To Queen At Sea, by Lance Hammer, have been the Bear Prize of the Jury and the one for the most effective supporting efficiency, shared by two classics of British performing, Tom Courtenay (it should be remembered that he debuted on the large display screen in 1962 with The loneliness of the runner background) and Anna Calder-Marshall (now that there’s a lot of discuss Wuthering Heights, she starred in a really fascinating model in 1970 alongside Timothy Dalton). Hammer thanked the 2 actors, who play an aged couple during which she suffers from the deterioration of dementia, and Juliette Binoche, the on-screen daughter of the sick lady and stepdaughter of her husband, for his or her work. Calder-Marshall, who barely says a dozen phrases in the course of the footage, took the chance to speak about his work and the collaboration between the three.
The Silver Bear for greatest lead efficiency (there isn’t a gender distinction) was gained by Sandra Hüller for Rose, the place she performs a lady who within the seventeenth century poses as a former soldier together with his face disfigured by a bullet to say a farm that isn’t hers. Hüller, who achieved fame in Europe for Toni Erdmann (2013) after which the world championship in 2023, for Anatomy of a fall y The space of curiosity, I had already achieved this Bear in 2006 for Requiem, his first characteristic movie.
The award for greatest route went to Englishman Grant Gee, one other creator who grew up making music movies, who has utilized that have in Everybody Digs Bill Evans, which illustrates the lifetime of the legendary jazz pianist from June 1961 till his demise (the date is essential, because of the private and inventive breakdown he suffered). On stage, Gee assured that his work, in black and white and with sure experimental airs, had been very straightforward to do for one massive purpose: “I chose the best possible team.”
The Silver Bear for greatest screenplay went to Canadian Geneviève Dulude-de Celles for her movie—which she additionally directed— Nina Roza, starring an artwork curator who acquires works for a millionaire, and who returns to Bulgaria—the place he left 28 years in the past together with his daughter, after his spouse died—to see whether it is true that there’s a portray genius within the type of an eight-year-old prodigy. On that journey he’ll face the misplaced emotional territory, and can nourish the sensation that, regardless of all the things, the double journey was not in useless: that of exile and that of returning residence.
The award for greatest inventive contribution went to Anna Fitch and Banker White, for his or her work on Yo (Love Is a Rebellious Bird), a movie very primarily based on a dollhouse and learn how to overcome the ache of loss by way of puppets. In the checklist of winners, some recognition was missed for the American Josephine, by Beth de Araújo, and for the Mexican Flies, by Fernando Eimbcke. The jury led by Wenders awarded movies that have been extra basic of their type. Besides, Josephine He had simply gained the 2 most essential trophies at Sundance: on the Berlinale the group frequently packages movies from the American competitors which are then often disregarded by the juries.
In addition to the aforementioned Emin Alper, different winners spoke concerning the genocide in Gaza. Marie-Rose Osta, who gained the award for greatest brief movie for Yawman Ma Walad, during which a Palestinian baby has powers to shoot down Israeli planes in Lebanon, stated: “The children of Gaza, all of Palestine and my Lebanon do not have superpowers to protect them from Israeli bombs. No child should need superpowers to survive a genocide powered by the right of veto and the collapse of international law.”
More stress was skilled when the Palestinian-Syrian filmmaker Abdallah Alkhatib, who gained the award for greatest debut movie for Chronicles From the Siege, life in an nameless metropolis beneath siege, accused the German Government of being “complicit in genocide by Israel” in Gaza. “Some people told me that maybe I should be careful before saying what I am going to say now, because I am a refugee in Germany and there are many red lines. But I don’t care. I care about my people, I care about Palestine. So I address my last words to the German government: you are complicit in the genocide in Gaza by Israel […]. They are smart enough to recognize this truth, but they choose not to. Free Palestine, from now until the end of the world.”
Following her words, the gala’s presenter, actress Désirée Nosbusch, noted: “Cinema usually displays the conflicts of our world and, in fact, additionally the deep ache that we concern and really feel. These are the voices of artists and filmmakers. And that doesn’t essentially mirror the place of the Berlinale as an establishment.”
Among the rest of the awards, the one received by Ian de la Rosa stands out, the only Spanish filmmaker present at the Berlinale, whose feature debut, Ivan & Hadoum, screened in the Panorama section, it won the Teddy award, the most consolidated and prestigious trophy (in this edition it celebrated its 40th birthday) among the film awards intended for films about the LGTBI community. “We made the movie making an attempt to hug the viewer and we have now felt this hug again with the folks right here, the general public right here. It has been very, very good,” stated De la Rosa from Granada on the crimson carpet previous to his recognition ceremony.
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