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| Turkish-German director Ilker Catak on the red carpet in Berlin. He won the Golden Bear for his film Yellow Letters. Photograph and cover picture of Dua Lipa by Jay Zoo. |
The 76th Berlin International Film Festival culminated in an awards night that balanced cinematic achievement with a palpable sense of global unease. On the red carpet, nominees and winners gathered beneath the lights of the Berlinale Palast before the Golden and Silver Bears were handed out. Photography by Jay Zoo for DAM |
In Berlin, award-winning director Lance Hammer with supporting actor Anna Calder-Marshall. |
AS cameras whirred and flashbulbs ricocheted across the red carpet at the Palast and the winter air in the German capital carried its familiar bite, guests gathered to attend the Berlin Film Festival's awards ceremony.
The top prize of the Berlinale went to Yellow Letters from İlker Çatak, while the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize honored Salvation by Emin Alper. Sandra Hüller claimed Best Leading Performance for Rose, and Queen at Sea secured both the Silver Bear Jury Prize for director Lance Hammer and supporting performance wins for its veteran co-stars, Anna Calder-Marshall and Tom Courtenay. When Yellow Letters director İlker Çatak stepped onto the stage to accept the Golden Bear, it was another confirmation of his arrival as one of Europe’s most evocative filmmakers.
Çatak’s fifth feature is a tightly wound political drama centered on a married couple, an actress and her playwright husband, whose lives unravel after state authorities target them for dissent. Set in Turkey but filmed in Germany in a bold, self-aware gesture, the film blurs geography to underscore a chilling thesis: authoritarian language travels easily. What begins as professional reprisal escalates into social erasure, as the couple’s comfortable existence collapses under mounting surveillance and public suspicion.
Jury president Wim Wenders praised the Golden Bear winning film as a stark examination of "the political language of totalitarianism"
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President Wim Wenders with the rest of the jury on the red carpet before the awards ceremony. |
Jury president Wim Wenders praised the film as a stark examination of “the political language of totalitarianism,” positioning it as both cautionary tale and contemporary mirror.
For Çatak, whose previous feature The Teachers’ Lounge earned an Oscar nomination, the win marks a career-defining moment and a rare homegrown triumph at Berlin for a German-Turkish director.
The awards ceremony itself unfolded against a charged backdrop. Festival director Tricia Tuttle acknowledged a year defined by debate and division, describing the atmosphere as “raw and fractured.”
Throughout the evening, multiple winners used their acceptance speeches to address global conflicts and the responsibilities of artists in volatile times. If the Berlinale has long been considered the most overtly political of the major European festivals, this edition reaffirmed that reputation, at least among the attendees.
Yellow Letters defined the night, a film that insists private lives cannot remain untouched by public power
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Director Ilker Catak with the cast of his film Yellow Letters that took out the top prize. |
Beyond the Golden Bear, the jury spread recognition across an eclectic slate, including Grant Gee took Best Director for
Everybody Digs Bill Evans. The
Silver Bear for Best Screenplay went to
Nina Roza, by Geneviève Dulude-De Celles and the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution was won by
Yo (Love is a Rebellious Bird), by Anna Fitch and Banker White.
Yet it was Yellow Letters that defined the night, a film that insists private lives cannot remain untouched by public power. As Çatak stood beneath the festival’s iconic bear emblem, applause rolling through the Palast, the result reflected the importance of films attentive to intimate human stories shaped by political and historical forces. ~ Antonio Visconti
Scroll down to see guests on the red-carpet of the awards evening of the 76th Berlin Film Festival
