The travellers guide
The winter in Berlin can be long and sometimes harsh, and with the bright lights of Christmas nothing but a memory, February in particular can feel like the longest month of the year, despite being the shortest! But that’s where the Berlinale comes in… one of the world’s premier international film festivals brings some glitz, glamour and movies from all corners of the planet to the cinemas of our city.
In 2026 the Berlinale is celebrating its 76th edition as well as the 40th year of the TEDDY AWARD, recognising the contribution of queer films and artists to culture. The festival takes place from the 12th to the 22nd February, and if you happen to be in town during these wonderful weeks, we’ve put together our own mini-guide to help you discover the world of cinema in Berlin.
To give the Berlinale its official title, The Berlin International Film Festival began back in 1951 in the aftermath of World War II. It was founded to showcase cinema from around the world, offering a variety of perspectives and promoting international dialogue through film. In the decades since, the Berlinale has become one of the most prestigious film festivals on the planet, and attracts some of the world’s finest filmmakers as well as the most exciting emerging talents.
The main prize of the Berlinale is the Golden Bear, and the list of winners includes some of film history’s most accomplished directors, including Ingmar Bergman for Wild Strawberries (1958), Jean-Luc Godard for Alphaville (1965), Rainer Werner Fassbinder for Veronika Voss (1982), Hayao Miyazaki for Spirited Away (2002) and Carla Simon for Alcarràs (2022). In 2025 the prize went to Dag Johan Haugerud for Drømmer, a Norwegian drama about love and female sexuality across the generations.
The festival is split up into different sections, which is useful for when you are trying to navigate the programme to decide what to try and watch… It can be a bit overwhelming! The Competition is the showpiece – the films competing for the Golden Bear – but the other sections are well worth exploring. Panorama shows off extraordinary cinema from around the world, Encounters showcases daring films by independent filmmakers, and Generation brings to the festival films for young audiences (and indeed, anyone else).
But one of the joys of the Berlinale is simply seeing what is showing and what is available. The bigger and more well-known films are likely to reach your local cinemas at some point in the future, whereas this might be the only chance you get to catch a melancholy Japanese drama, a family comedy from Sri Lanka or a dark psychological thriller from Uruguay on the big screen. So take a chance!
You can explore the different sections and the full programme on the Berlinale website.
The Berlinale takes place across the city, and one of the joys of the festival can be looking at the programme for a particular cinema and seeing what happens to be showing. It is a fantastic opportunity to see films you would otherwise not get to see, and the vast majority are screened either in English or with English subtitles.
At the time of writing, the final list venues and festival locations is still to be announced, but in recent years some of the more interesting venues have included Silent Green, a former crematorium that has been transformed into a cultural space, and the Kino International – the premier cinema in the GDR before the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Once the programme is announced, explore the map page of the Berlinale website where you can search the films showing at each specific venue at the festival.
Ah, the big question. It’s a great festival, but how do you get tickets? The simple answer is – if 2026 works like previous years, tickets go online three days in advance from 10am (Berlin time). Which means, as the festival begins on the 12th February, tickets for the opening day’s screenings will be available on 9th at 10am.
As we write this, the programme has not been announced and neither has the ticket sales information for 2026, but all you need to know will be made available on the ticket page of the festival website.
Of course, some films are bound to be more popular than others. Berlinale Specials, including premieres or other events with the cast and crew, or the Competition films in general, are likely to have a lot of people vying for tickets. But the programme is broad and deep, and the joy of the Berlinale is taking your chance on a film you might otherwise never come across.
If you want even more tips and ideas for your visit to Berlin, check out the rest of our Experience Berlin blog or follow us on Instagram.
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