Berlinale 2026 Golden Bear Goes to Political Drama 'Yellow Letters'

After drawing social media backlash for suggesting filmmakers should "stay out of politics," German director Wim Wenders and his fellow jurors at the 76th Berlin Film Festival delivered a pointed rebuttal of sorts, awarding the festival's top prizes to a number of overtly political films.

Top prize, the Golden Bear for best film, went to Ilker Çatak's Yellow Letters, a drama following Derya (Ozgu Namal) and Aziz (Tansu Bicer), two Turkish theatre artists who lose their jobs due to political persecution from Turkey's authoritarian government. Though set in Ankara and Istanbul, Yellow Letters is shot entirely in Germany, with Çatak making no effort to disguise the fact, hinting that what has happened in Ankara can also happen in Berlin, reported The Hollywood Reporter.

Awarding the Golden Bear, Wenders called Yellow Letters, a drama of "the political language of totalitarianism as opposed to the empathetic language of cinema."

The Silver Bear for best performance went to German star Sandra Huller for her gender-bending turn in Rose, from Austrian director Markus Schleinzer, in which she plays a woman trying to pass as a man in 17th-century rural Germany, reported The Hollywood Reporter.

The black-and-white feature was inspired by hundreds of comparable documented cases throughout history. It's another stand-out role for Huller, who was Oscar-nominated for her turn in Anatomy of a Fall, and is about to leap into Hollywood, starring alongside Tom Cruise in Alejandro G. Inarritu's hotly anticipated dramedy 'Digger', and together with Ryan Gosling in the sci-fi feature 'Project Hail Mary' from Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, reported The Hollywood Reporter.

Here are the key winners of the 76th Berlin International Film Festival:

Golden Bear for Best FilmYellow Letters, director Ilker Çatak

Silver Bear Grand Jury PrizeSalvation, director Emin Alper

Silver Bear Jury PrizeQueen at Sea, director Lance Hammer

Silver Bear for Best DirectorGrant Gee, Everyone Digs Bill Evans

Silver Bear for Best Leading PerformanceSandra Huller, Rose

Silver Bear for Best Supporting PerformanceAnna Calder-Marshall and Tom Courtenay, Queen at Sea

Silver Bear for Best ScreenplayNina Roza, director Geneviève Dulude-de Celles

Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic ContributionYo (Love Is a Rebellious Bird), director Anna Fitch

PerspectivesGFF First Feature AwardChronicles From the Siege, director Abdallah Alkhatib

Special MentionForest High (Foret Ivre), director Manon Coubia

Berlinale Documentary AwardIf Pigeons Turned to Gold, director Pepa Lubojacki

Shorts

Golden Bear Best Short FilmSomeday a Child, director Marie-Rose Osta

Silver Bear Jury Prize (Short Film)A Woman's Place Is Everywhere, director Fanny Texier

CUPRA Filmmaker AwardJingkai Qu, director Kleptomania.

- ANI