‘Yellow Letters’ Wins Golden Bear At Politically Charged Berlin Film Festival

Turkish filmmaker İlker Çatak’s Yellow Letters was awarded the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlin film festival, following ten days of political debate and controversy that threatened at times to overshadow the films playing at the festival.

Yellow Letters, the first German film to win the Golden Bear since 2004, tells the story of a left-leaning Turkish couple who find their comfortable existence in Ankara under pressure when they draw the unwelcome attention of the state. Critics noted the similarities between the story and the current situation in the US. “This is a movie that speaks up very clearly about the political language of totalitarianism as opposed to the empathetic language of cinema,” said jury president Wim Wenders.

The Grand Jury Prize also went to a Turkish film – Emin Alper’s Salvation – about a violent clan feud in the Turkish mountains. The Jury Prize went to US director Lance Hammer’s Queen At Sea, about an elderly couple coping with the wife’s dementia, which also won Best Supporting Performance for Anna Calder-Marshall and Tom Courtenay.

Best Leading Performance went to Sandra Huller for her role in Rose, directed by Markus Schleinzer, a black-and-white drama in which she plays a woman claiming to be the owner of an abandoned farmstead while pretending to be a man. French-Canadian filmmaker Geneviève Dulude-de Celles won best screenplay for her second feature film, Nina Roza.

UK filmmaker Grant Gee won Best Director for his fiction debut Everybody Digs Bill Evans, while the Outstanding Artistic Contribution award went to to the documentary Yo (Love Is a Rebellious Bird) from Anna Fitch and Banker White (see below for full list of winners across all sections).

Berlin’s political woes started at a press conference for the international competition jury due to comments made by Wenders when asked a question about the German government’s ties to Israel and the genocide in Gaza. The media uproar continued throughout the festival, with accusations that the organisers were attempting to suppress political debate. A group of 80 filmmakers and actors, including Javier Bardem and Tilda Swinton, issued a statement condemning the festival for its silence on Gaza, prompting festival director Tricia Tuttle to put out a response mid-way through the festival.

Tuttle addressed the issue again before the announcement of the winners at the closing ceremony (see her full statement below), during which several prize winners made political statements while collecting their awards.

While accepting the GWFF First Feature Award in the Perspectives section for Chronicles From The Siege, Palestinian-Syrian filmmaker Abdallah Alkhatib described the German government as “partners in the genocide in Gaza by Israel. I believe you are intelligent enough to recognise this is true, but you choose not to care.”

Berlin Film Festival took place February 12-22, while the European Film Market (EFM) ran February 12-18.

BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL 2026 AWARDS:

INTERNATIONAL JURY:

Golden Bear For Best Film: Yellow Letters, dir: İlker Çatak

Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize: Salvation, dir: Emin Alper

Silver Bear Jury Prize: Queen At Sea, dir: Lance Hammer

Silver Bear For Best Director: Grant Gee, Everybody Digs Bill Evans

Silver Bear For Best Leading Performance: Sandra Hüller, Rose by Markus Schleinzer

Silver Bear For Best Supporting Performance: Anna Calder-Marshall & Tom Courtenay, Queen At Sea by Lance Hammer

Silver Bear For Best Screenplay: Geneviève Dulude-De Celles, Nina Roza by Geneviève Dulude-De Celles

Silver Bear For Outstanding Artistic Contribution: Anna Fitch, Banker White, Yo (Love Is A Rebellious Bird) by Anna Fitch, Banker White

PERSPECTIVES JURY:

Best First Feature Award Funded By GWFF (€50,000): Chronicles From The Siege, dir: Abdallah Alkhatib

Special Mention: Forest High, dir: Manon Coubia

DOCUMENTARY AWARD:

Berlinale Documentary Award (€40,000): If Pigeons Turned To Gold, dir: Pepa Lubojacki

Special Mention: Tutu, dir: Sam Pollard
Special Mention: Sometimes, I Imagine Them All At A Party, dir: Daniela Magnani Hüller

INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM JURY:

Golden Bear For Best Short Film: Someday A Child, dir: Marie-Rose Osta

Silver Bear Jury Prize (Short Film): A Woman’s Place Is Everywhere, dir: Fanny Texier

Berlinale Shorts Cupra Filmmaker Award (€20,000): Jingkai Qu, Kleptomania

PANORAMA:

Panorama Audience Award Feature Film: Prosecution, dir: Faraz Shariat (Germany)

2nd Place: Four Minus Three, dir: Adrian Goiginger (Austria, Germany)

3rd Place: Mouse, dir: Kelly O’sullivan, Alex Thompson (US)

Panorama Audience Award Documentary: Traces, dirs: Alisa Kovalenko, Marysia Nikitiuk (Ukraine, Poland)

2nd Place: The Other Side Of The Sun, dir: Tawfik Sabouni (Belgium, France, Saudi Arabia)

3rd Place: Bucks Harbor, dir: Pete Muller (US)

GENERATION KPLUS CHILDREN'S JURY:

Crystal Bear For Best Film: Gugu’s World, dir: Allan Deberton

Special Mention: Not A Hero, dir: Rima Das

Crystal Bear For Best Short Film: Whale 52 – Suite For Man, Boy, And Whale, dir: Daniel Neiden

Special Mention: Under The Wave Off Little Dragon, dir: Luo Jian

GENERATION KPLUS INTERNATIONAL JURY:

Grand Prix For Best Film: Gugu’s World, dir: Allan Deberton

Special Mention: Atlas Of The Universe, dir: Paul Negoescu

Special Prize For Best Short Film: White, dir: Navroz Shaban

Special Mention: Under The Wave Off Little Dragon, dir: Luo Jian

GENERATION 14PLUS YOUTH JURY:

Crystal Bear For Best Film: Sad Girlz, dir: Fernanda Tovar

Special Mention: A Family, dir: Mees Peijnenburg

Crystal Bear For Best Short Film: Memories Of A Window, dir: Mehraneh Salimian & Amin Pakparvar

Special Mention: Nobody Knows The World, dir: Roddy Dextre

GENERATION 14PLUS INTERNATIONAL JURY:

Grand Prix For Best Film: Sad Girlz, dir: Fernanda Tovar

Special Mention: Matapanki, dir: Diego “Mapache” Fuentes

Special Prize For Best Short Film: The Thread, dir: Fenn O'meally

Special Mention: Memories Of A Window, dirs: Mehraneh Salimian & Amin Pakparvar

INDEPENDENT JURIES:

ECUMENICAL JURY:
Competition: Flies, dir: Fernando Eimbcke
Panorama: Bucks Harbor, dir: Pete Muller
Forum: River Dreams, dir: Kristina Mikhailova

FIPRESCI JURY:
Competition: Soumsoum, The Night Of The Stars, dir: Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
Perspectives: Animol, dir: Ashley Walters
Panorama: Narciso, dir: Marcelo Martinessi
Forum: Anymart, dir: Yusuke Iwasaki

TEDDY AWARDS:
Best Feature Film: Iván & Hadoum, dir: Ian De La Rosa
Best Documentary/Essay: Barbara Forever, dir: Brydie O’Connor
Best Short Film: Taxi Moto, dir: Gaël Kamilindi
Jury Award: Trial Of Hein, dir: Kai Stänicke
Special Teddy Award: Céline Sciamma

CICAE ART CINEMA AWARD:
Panorama: Prosecution, dir: Faraz Shariat
Forum: On Our Own, dir: Tudor Cristian Jurgiu

GUILD FILM PRIZE: Yellow Letters, dir: İlker Çatak
Special Mention: The Loneliest Man In Town, dir: Tizza Covi & Rainer Frimmel

LABEL EUROPA CINEMAS: Four Minus Three, dir: Adrian Goiginger

BERLIN FESTIVAL DIRECTOR TRICIA TUTTLE STATEMENT AT THE END OF THE FESTIVAL:
 This Berlinale has taken place in a world that feels raw and fractured. Many of people arrived carrying grief, anger and urgency about what is happening far beyond these cinema walls. Those feelings are real. They belong in our community. We hear them.
 
We have also been publicly challenged this year. That comes with being a visible cultural institution in a polarised moment. Criticism is part of democracy. So is disagreement. We respect people speaking out, even when we do not agree with every claim that is made about us.
 
What I am proud of is this. Over these ten days, the Berlinale has remained what it was founded to be. A place where people gather in public, where everyone is welcome, across difference, to sit together in the dark and look at the world through the eyes of others.
 
278 films from 80 countries. Filmmakers who risked a great deal to tell their stories. There are films about violence, injustice, memory, and survival and also art and love and friendship.
 
Free expression at the Berlinale is not one voice. It is many voices. Sometimes calm. Sometimes angry. Sometimes it looks silent but it is speaking through cinema. These voices can be contradictory. A festival does not resolve the world’s conflicts. But it can make space for complexity, listening, and humanising each other.
 
And we see this complexity reflected in the films – these do not offer one perspective – though they do all share something. They share a deep care about this world, and about people. They urge, they inspire, they demand, and they quietly or loudly insist that we SEE.
 
And this diversity of perspective will be reflected in the films which will be awarded tonight. Tonight is their space, and a chance for us to listen.
 
If this Berlinale has been noisy and emotionally charged, that is not a failure of cinema. That is the Berlinale doing its job. This is cinema doing its job.
 
Thank you to our filmmakers, our audiences, and our extraordinary, wonderful Berlinale team.