The Berlin Film Festival has unveiled the 35 feature films projects selected for its 23rd Berlinale Co-Production Market, running February 14–17.
The main selection, focused on partially financed projects, includes Lotus Feet by Malaysian director Amanda Nell Eu, whose debut film Tiger Stripes won the Cannes Critics’ Week Grand Prize in 2023 and was then Malaysia’s entry to the 2024 Oscars.
Further titles include Chilean director Fernando Guzzoni’s long-gestated romantic drama People Still Die of Love, which he began developing prior to making his Venice Horizons-winning 2022 breakout and Oscar submission Blanquita, and Il Dominio by Swiss Peruvian director Klaudia Reynicke, whose last film Queens played at Sundance and Berlin and was then Switzerland’s entry for the 2025 Oscars.
In other sidebars, the Berlinale Directors section will present four new projects in the early stages of financing by filmmakers with a track record at the festival, including The Vacation by Hungarian director Dénes Nagy who won the Silver Bear for Best Director in 2021 for Natural Light.
Two film projects, Beirut Baby by Lebanon’s Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige and The Dispute by U.S. directorial duo Andrea Ellsworth and Kasey Elise Walker, produced by Riley Keough’s U.S. production company Felix Culpa, are also participating under the Rotterdam-Berlinale Express initiative.
The Talent Project Market, organised in cooperation with the festival’s Berlinale Talents intiative, will feature upcoming features being put together by alumni producers.
Participants include winning Indonesian producer Yulia Evina Bhara, who will present Watch It Burn, the latest project by Makbul Mubarak after Autobiography, which she also launched in the Talent Project Market in 2019.
A number prizes will be handed out at the event including the 20,000 euros Eurimages Co-Production Development Award 20,000 euros, the VFF Talent Highlight Award (10,000 euros), for a Talent Project Market project; the ARTEKino International Award (6,000 euros), and the Gen Z Audience Award endowed (5,000 euros), sponsored by the Franco-German Youth Office, awarded by a jury of film students to a project that particularly appeals to young adults.
In addition to supporting individual projects, the market help five indie production houses through its Company Matching programme, which focuses on structural networking and project slates.
This year’s participants include Germany’s X Filme Creative Pool, Spain’s Elastica, Italy’s Kino Produzioni, Ukrains’s 2Brave Productions from Ukraine and Brazil’s Bubbles Project.
Close to 400 international co-productions supported by Berlinale Co-Production Market have come to fruition over the past two decades, with recently released titles including Agnieszka Holland’s Franz and Teona Strugar Mitevska’s Mother, starring Noomi Rapace.
Official Feature Project Selection 2026
(in alphabetical order of production company):
- – The Taste of Salt (dir: Deepak Rauniyar), Film and Music Entertainment, United Kingdom & Aadi Films, Nepal
- – Cura Sana (dir: Lucía G. Romero), Filmax, Spain
- – Lotus Feet (dir: Amanda Nell Eu), Ghost Grrrl Pictures, Malaysia
- – riot/girl (dir: Arman T. Riahi), Golden Girls Filmproduktion & Filmservices, Austria & Les Contes Modernes, France
- – Manatee (dir: Anna Roller), kalekone film, Germany & Totem Atelier, France
- – The Talas Affair (dir: Ivan Grbovic), micro_scope, Canada
- – Feral (dir: Nihaarika Negi), Moonweave Films, India & Mayana Films, Germany
- – The Black Goat (dir: Eduardo Casanova), Morena Films, Spain
- – Mum is in Puberty (dir: Ami-Ro Sköld), Onoma Productions, Sweden
- – People Still Die of Love (dir: Fernando Guzzoni), Oro Films, Chile & Hea Sas, Colombia
- – All in My Family (dir: Hao Wu), Q&A Entertainment, United States
- – Nativity (dir: Francisca Alegría), Quijote Films, Chile
- – Mercury Child (dir: Leonie Krippendorff), Razor Film Produktion, Germany
- – The Transmigration of Bodies (dir: Alonso Ruizpalacios), Saltalaliebre, Mexico
- – Karmic Knot (dir: Signe Baumane), Studio Locomotive, Latvia & Fabian&Fred, Germany
- – Sylvia (dir: Aida Begic), This and That Productions, Serbia
- – Life is Yours (dir: Emma Kawawada), Toei Company, Japan
- – Il Dominio (dir: Klaudia Reynicke), Turnus Film, Switzerland
- – Black As Snow (dir: Farhad Delaram), Unité, France
“Berlinale Directors” projects:
- – Liberations (dir: Laurynas Bareisa), afterschool production, Lithuania
- – The Vacation (dir: Dénes Nagy), Campfilm, Hungary & Films de Force Majeure, France
- – The Last Frontier (dir: Rodrigo Moreno), Wanka Cine, Argentina & Les Films Fauves, Luxembourg
World Cinema Market project:
- – Blue Card (dir: Mohammed Alomda), Station Films, Sudan & Mayana Films, Germany
Rotterdam-Berlinale Express:
- – Beirut Baby (dir: Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige), Abbout Productions, Lebanon & Haut et Court, France
- – The Dispute (dir: Andrea Ellsworth & Kasey Elise Walker), Felix Culpa, United States
Talent Project Market:
- – The Most Romantic Man in the World (dir: Simon Jaquemet), 8horses, Switzerland
- – Fabric of Grief (dir: Samantha Moore), Animate Projects, UK
- – Fear Zone (dir: Alina Simone), Cinemaria, USA
- – Apnea (dir: Lô Politi), Enquadramento Produções, Brazil
- – Watch It Burn (dir: Makbul Mubarak), KawanKawan Media, Indonesia
- – Claude (dir: Narcisse Wandji), Les Films d’Ebene, Cameroon
- – Porto Alegre (dir: Alvaro Gago), Ringo Media, Spain
- – Yesterday I Will Love You (dir: Guillermo Benet), Solita Films, Spain
- – Miss Pandora (dir: Jan Forsström), Tekele Productions, Finland
- – Acts of Kindness (dir: Ellen Ugelstad), Twentyone Pictures & Mantra Film, Norway
Company Matching Programme:
- – 2Brave Productions, Ukraine
- – Bubbles Project, Brazil
- – Elastica, Spain
- – Kino Produzioni, Italy
- – X Filme Creative Pool, Germany
