THE Political drama, Yellow Letters, by German director Liker Catak won the golden bear, the Berlin International Film Festival top prize for 2026. Starring Tansu Bicer in the role of a playwright and Ozgu Namal as a famous actress, Yellow Letters follows the married artists whose relationship is tested as they get caught in the state’s crosshairs.

The allegory on authoritarian oppression is set in contemporary Turkey, but was shot in Germany, with Berlin and Hamburg taking on the roles of Ankara and Istanbul. During the award presentation, jury president, Wim Wenders, remarked that the winning film spoke up very clearly about the political language of totalitarianism as opposed to the empathetic language cinema. Full list of winners can be sourced at www.berlinale.de.

Park Chan-Wook Is President Of Cannes Film Festival Jury

SOUTH Korean Director, screenwriter and producer, Park Chan-wook, has been named as President of the 79th edition of the yearly Festival de Cannes. Chan-wook is to preside over the jury for feature films in competition at the 2026 edition. His choice as jury president is considered a first for Korean cinema. Chan is expected to lead his fellow jurors on May 23 to award the 2026 Palme d’Or as the successor to last years award presented by Juliette Binonche to Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi who received the palme d’Or with his film, It was Just an Accident.

Visceral, subversive and baroque, Park Chan-wook’s films are bold in every way – in script, in style and in morality. Yet the virtuoso director never strays from a symbolic social message or from his audience, whom he immerses in dark, disturbing worlds on journeys that are sometimes terrifying, sometimes exhilarating, sometimes erotic… or all of these together. “Park Chan-wook’s inventiveness, visual mastery, and penchant for capturing the multiple impulses of women and men with strange destinies have given contemporary cinema some truly memorable moments,” said Festival President, Iris Knobloch and Director Thierry Frémaux.

“We are delighted to celebrate his immense talent and, more broadly, the cinema of a country deeply engaged with the questioning of our time.” For Park Chan-wook, it all began in Cannes with Old Boy, which won the Grand Prix in 2004. Since then, almost all of his films selected for the Competition have earned him awards: Thirst (Jury Prize 2009), The Handmaiden (2016) and Decision to Leave (Best Director 2022). His presence at the Palais des Festivals testifies to the mutual loyalty that exists between Park Chan-wook and the Festival de Cannes. Often compared to film-makers such as Tarantino, De Palma, and Fincher for artistry in composing images whose formal beauty is matched only by their moral rigor, Chan-wook also cites Kurosawa, Bergman, Visconti, and Hitchcock as models. Park Chan-wook’s presidency symbolizes the Festival’s early and deep attachment to Korean cinema, whose creativity has been revealed by the Official Selection. Korea is a great film-making country whose treasures are being restored year after year; it has shown that it can produce major contemporary works that attract millions of theatergoers in a space that celebrates its film-makers. The Cannes Film Festival opens on May 12. Details can be sourced at www.festival-cannes.com.

Flowers For Iconic Ethiopian Director At Berlinale

AT the just held 76th Berlin International Film Festival, the Ethiopian director, Haile Gerima, was honoured with a Berlinale Camera. Haile Gerima’s latest work Black Lions – Roman Wolves, a nearly nine-hour exploration of the history and mythology of Italian colonialism and a commemoration of the Ethiopian resistance, is celebrating its world premiere in this year’s Berlinale Forum. The presentation of the Berlinale Camera to Gerima took place on February 17, as part of the screening of his film. “Haile Gerima’s works bear witness to histories marked by oppression, resistance, and the unfinished work of decolonisation — stories that speak with urgent force to the world today.

Though he entered Competition with Sankofa in 1993, the Forum recognised Gerima’s work early on, and we are very proud to welcome him back to the Forum with his long-gestating Black Lions – Roman Wolves. It is an honour to present a Berlinale Camera to a filmmaker who has transformed the way so many understand the world,” says Tricia Tuttle, Director of the Berlinale. In 1967, Ethiopian director Gerima emigrated to the United States and studied at the University of California. He became part of the L.A. Rebellion, a group of African-American and African filmmakers who, beginning in the 1970s, created an alternative, independent Black American cinema. His works combine personal, historical, and political perspectives. Although he has long resided in the United States, he remains deeply connected to his Ethiopian heritage. Among his best-known films are Harvest: 3,000 Years (1975, Forum), Bush Mama (1976), Ashes and Embers (1982, 1983 in Forum), the internationally acclaimed Sankofa (1993, world premiere in Berlinale Competition), and Teza (2008), a drama reflecting on Ethiopia’s past. Since 1986, the Berlinale Camera has honoured individuals and institutions that have made outstanding contributions to filmmaking and with whom the festival feels a special connection. The Berlinale Camera consists of 128 individual components and is modeled on a real film camera. It is crafted by Düsseldorf-based goldsmith artist Georg Hornemann.