Berlin 2026 Unveils Series, Forum Highlights
From Brazilian emergency responders to Berlin gangsters and avant-garde politics, the Berlinale’s 2026 sidebars put high-concept series and radical cinema in the spotlight.
The Berlinale has unveiled details of its sidebar sections for 2026, including an expanded focus on television and episodic content across the European Film Market, alongside a wide-ranging Forum and Forum Expanded programme that continues to foreground political, documentary and experimental work.
Television is again anchored by the Berlinale Series Market, the European Film Market’s dedicated platform for serial content, which will run from Feb. 15 to 18. The 12th edition of the market will showcase 17 scripted series and three docuseries ranging across genre and geography, from Brazilian drama Emergency 53, which follows the struggles of a mobile emergency service unit; to steamy Iberian period romance The Marquise aboBerlin Unveils Series, Forum Highlightsut love, art, and revolution in 18th century Europe; to Kovar, a mystery series from Bosnia and Herzegovina, in which a bus load of travelers in the Komar mountains vanish without a trace.
Morocco, named Country in Focus at the 2026 European Film Market, will present a dedicated showcase within the Berlinale Series Market, offering insight into upcoming Moroccan series projects as well as the country’s cash rebate system. The emphasis on series also aligns with a refocused approach within the festival’s Official Selection, where all episodic titles will be presented under Berlinale Special Series, with six new series screening in 2026.
There will also be a Up Next: Germany showcase, focusing on new German projects, and featuring series including the sci-fi project The Dark Ones, about alien invasion; 4 Blocks Zero, HBO Max’s German-language prequel to the popular Berlin-set gangster drama 4 Blocks; and the docuseries Clangold, which examines the brazen heist of a massive Big Maple Leaf gold coin from Berlin’s Bode Museum in 2017.
Berlinale Co-Production Market’s Co-Pro Series strand will present 10 international projects looking for co-production partners and funding, among them the Spanish heist series Robbery, Beating and Death; the Dutch true-story project Jomanda!; Romania’s post-World War I drama Angelmaker; and Danis Tanović’s Hedgehogs in the Haze from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Beyond television, Berlin’s Forum section of avant-garde cinema unveiled its 2026 selection, which includes debut features from Brazil, Colombia, China, India, Japan and Germany, alongside politically engaged fiction and extensive documentary work addressing colonial history, war, racism and social change. Long-form documentary projects, including Haile Gerima’s nearly ten-hour Black Lions — Roman Wolves, sit alongside Asian horror features — Yusuke Iwasaki’s AnyMart from Japan, Joko Anwar’s Indonesian horror-comedy Ghost in the Cell, and the Belgian art project Joy Boy: A Tribute To Julius Eastman, in which a transnational-artist collective pay homage to the iconic African American composer.
The Berlin Film Festival will announce its full 2026 lineup on Jan. 20.
Source: hollywoodreporter
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