Who will win the Bear at Berlin? [2026 edition]

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Poll Closing Date: Friday, 20 February 2026 00:00 (in 3 days)

Wow! Look at all these well known and beloved filmmakers.

At the Sea by Kornél Mundruczó
Dao by Alain Gomis
Dust by Anke Blondé
Everybody Digs Bill Evans by Grant Gee
Home Stories by Eva Trobisch
In a Whisper by Leyla Bouzid
Josephine by Beth de Araújo
The Loneliest Man in Town by Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel
Flies by Fernando Eimbcke
My Wife Cries by Angela Schanelec
A New Dawn by Yoshitoshi Shinomiya
Nightborn by Hanna Bergholm
Nina Roza by Geneviève Dulude-De Celles
Queen at Sea by Lance Hammer
Rose by Markus Schleinzer
Rosebush Pruning by Karim Aïnouz
Soumsoum, The Night of the Stars by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
Salvation by Emin Alper
Yellow Letters by İlker Çatak
We Are All Strangers by Anthony Chen
Wolfram by Warwick Thornton
YO Love Is a Rebellious Bird by Anna Fitch and Banker White


Frederik B, Tuesday, 20 January 2026 18:27 (three weeks ago)

Rooting for Gomis, Schanelec or Schleinzer, I think.

Frederik B, Tuesday, 20 January 2026 18:28 (three weeks ago)

Not going to lie, joke or no I don't think I recognize a single one of those directors. That's kinda cool, though.

Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 20 January 2026 18:53 (three weeks ago)

Kornél Mundruczó did that 'dead baby' film a couple of years back with Vanessa Kirby and Shia LaBeouf. Some of the others are, like, MUBI-known. But it's even more obscure than usual, I think.

Frederik B, Tuesday, 20 January 2026 19:42 (three weeks ago)

Grant Gee did a Radiohead video, I think?

Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 20 January 2026 19:45 (three weeks ago)

"Mubi-known" lol. I guess that's how I know Karim Aïnouz. I'd be prepared to believe that he *may* have something excellent in his future?!? My country of residence means that I also know Warwick Thornton's oeuvre fairly well. (He also won the Camera d'Or some 15 years ago (?) but I think it's fair to say he's been kinda patchy.)

Heavy, downy baby goose (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Tuesday, 20 January 2026 22:14 (three weeks ago)

Karin has great movies I would recommend:
• Cinema, Aspirins and Vultures
• I Travel Because I Have to, I Come Back Because I Love You (this is almost a Chris Marker-lite movie/road movie in the northeast of Brazil)
• The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão

fpsa, Wednesday, 21 January 2026 01:29 (three weeks ago)

The first two can go on my watchlist methinks. Cheers. I had a soft spot for the one with faintly Chris Marker-ish musings on travelling to his father's Algerian birthplace, despite part of me craving a tighter edit. :)

I guess I've seen a couple of Mahamat-Saleh Haroun films too. They were... pretty good, from memory.

Heavy, downy baby goose (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Wednesday, 21 January 2026 02:15 (three weeks ago)

Cinema, Aspirins and Vultures is directed by Marcelo Gomes, the co-director of I Travel Because I Have to, I Come Back Because I Love You, but co-written and produced by Aïnouz, and it is indeed quite good. Aïnouz' debut Madame Satã is absolutely worth checking out, and honestly his last film, Motel Destino, is an enjoyable neon-lit erotic thriller. This new one looks pretty awful, though.

Alain Gomis did a great docu-essay based on footage of Thelonious Monk on a French music program in the sixties. It's called Rewind & Play and on Mubi, at least in Denmark.

Frederik B, Wednesday, 21 January 2026 08:13 (three weeks ago)

three weeks pass...

So far it seems like a pretty boring year, but the trailer to Markus Schleinzers 'Rose' looks very good:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80xR3G5eowo

Frederik B, Monday, 16 February 2026 20:03 (sixteen minutes ago)


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