Berlin Film Festival 2024: Political Films Win Top Prizes, Wim Wenders Responds to Controversy

Berlin – The Berlinale concluded Saturday, February 21, 2026, not with a quiet celebration of cinema, but with a pointed artistic response to a controversy that threatened to overshadow the entire festival. After jury president Wim Wenders sparked outrage by suggesting filmmakers should “stay out of politics,” the festival’s jury awarded its top prizes to a slate of films deeply engaged with political and social issues.

The Golden Bear for best film went to Yellow Letters, directed by Ilker Çatak. The drama follows two Turkish theater artists, Derya (Özgü Namal) and Aziz (Tansu Biçer), forced to flee their homeland due to political persecution. Notably, despite being set in Turkey, the film was shot entirely in Germany, a deliberate choice by Çatak to underscore the potential for similar repression to take root elsewhere. Wenders described Yellow Letters as a powerful exploration of “the political language of totalitarianism as opposed to the empathetic language of cinema.”

Çatak’s win marks a significant moment for German cinema, making him the first German director to receive the Golden Bear since Fatih Akin’s Head-On in 2004. Akin, like Çatak, is a German director of Turkish immigrant parentage.

The acting awards also reflected this shift towards politically resonant storytelling. Sandra Hüller took home the Silver Bear for best leading performance for her role in Markus Schleinzer’s Rose, a black-and-white historical drama inspired by documented cases of women living as men in 17th-century Germany. Hüller’s performance arrives on the heels of her Oscar nomination for Anatomy of a Fall and precedes a busy period in Hollywood, with roles lined up alongside Tom Cruise in Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Digger and Ryan Gosling in Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s Project Hail Mary.

In a playful nod to a recent Oscar moment, Hüller celebrated her win with a kiss on the lips directed at Ewa Puszczyńska, her producer on The Zone of Interest, who was a member of the jury.

The Silver Bear for best supporting performance was shared by British acting veterans Anna Calder-Marshall and Tom Courtenay for their portrayal of an aging couple in Lance Hammer’s Queen at Sea, a drama also featuring Juliette Binoche and Florence Hunt. Queen at Sea also received the Silver Bear Jury Prize.

The festival’s opening days were marked by controversy after Wenders’ initial comments during a press conference. When asked about the German government’s support for Israel, he stated that films could “change the world” but “not in a political way.” This prompted a swift backlash, including a withdrawal from the festival by Indian novelist Arundhati Roy and an open letter signed by dozens of film industry figures condemning the Berlinale’s “silence on the genocide of Palestinians.”

Berlinale director Tricia Tuttle defended the festival’s position, rejecting accusations of censorship and describing some claims as “misinformation” and “inaccurate.” However, the political temperature continued to rise throughout the event. During the awards ceremony, several filmmakers used the platform to voice their concerns about global conflicts. Lebanese filmmaker Marie-Rose Osta, accepting the Golden Bear for best short film Someday a Child, condemned Israeli bombings and the perceived collapse of international law. Abdallah Alkhatib, winning the Berlinale Documentary Award for Chronicles From a Siege, displayed a Palestinian flag onstage and called for “free Palestine.”

Ameer Fakher Eldin, head of the short film jury, urged artists to embrace “complexity” and resist reducing festival spaces to political arenas, arguing that direct statements and politically engaged works could coexist. Wenders, largely silent since the initial controversy, acknowledged an “artificial discrepancy” between critics and organizers, noting that most in attendance applauded the artists who spoke out.

Grant Gee received the Silver Bear for best director for Everyone Digs Bill Evans, a fragmented bio-drama about the influential jazz pianist. The Grand Jury Prize went to Emin Alper’s Salvation, a drama exploring escalating violence in a remote Turkish mountain community. Alper used his acceptance speech to express solidarity with oppressed people in Palestine, Iran, and Kurdistan.

Perhaps the most resonant statement came from a producer of Yellow Letters, who called for unity among artists, stating, “We are not enemies. The real threat among us is not among us. We see the autocrats, the right-wing parties, the nihilists of our time. Let us not fight each other. Let’s fight them.”

Geneviève Dulude-de Celles won the Silver Bear for best screenplay for Nina Roza, and Anna Fitch’s Yo (Love Is a Rebellious Bird) received the Silver Bear for extraordinary artistic achievement.

GOLDEN BEAR FOR BEST FILM
Yellow Letters, dir. Ilker 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, Everyone Digs Bill Evans

SILVER BEAR FOR BEST LEADING PERFORMANCE
Sandra Hüller, Rose

SILVER BEAR FOR BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE
Anna Calder-Marshall and Tom Courtenay, Queen at Sea

SILVER BEAR FOR BEST SCREENPLAY
Nina Roza, dir. Geneviève Dulude-de Celles

SILVER BEAR FOR OUTSTANDING ARTISTIC CONTRIBUTION
Yo (Love Is a Rebellious Bird), dir. Anna Fitch

GFF FIRST FEATURE AWARD
Chronicles From the Siege, dir. Abdallah Alkhatib

Special Mention
Forest High (Forêt Ivre), dir. Manon Coubia

BERLINALE DOCUMENTARY AWARD
If Pigeons Turned to Gold, dir. Pepa Lubojacki

GOLDEN BEAR 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

CUPRA Filmmaker Award
Jingkai Qu, dir. Kleptomania