The Berlinale will once again place Berlin at the center of the global film industry from February 12 to 22 with the celebration of its 76th edition. A total of 22 films will compete for the festival’s top prizes, including the Golden Bear for Best Film and the coveted Silver Bears. The awards will be announced during the official ceremony held on February 21 at the Berlinale Palast.

The international jury responsible for deliberating will be chaired by German director, screenwriter, and photographer Wim Wenders, one of the most influential figures of the New German Cinema. Deeply connected to the festival for decades, the filmmaker received the Honorary Golden Bear in 2015, cementing a longstanding relationship with the Berlin event.

Joining Wenders will be a group of distinguished figures from world cinema. Among them is Nepali director and producer Min Bahadur Bham, a key figure in the so-called “New Wave” of Nepali cinema, whose film Shambhala competed for the Golden Bear in 2024. South Korean actress Bae Doona will also serve on the jury. She is known for her collaborations with filmmakers such as Bong Joon-ho, Park Chan-wook, and Hirokazu Kore-eda, as well as for her roles in international productions like Cloud Atlas and the series Sense8.

The jury is rounded out by Indian director, producer, and archivist Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, founder of the Film Heritage Foundation and one of the most prominent voices in film preservation; American filmmaker Reinaldo Marcus Green, director of titles such as Monsters and Men, King Richard, and Bob Marley: One Love; Japanese director, screenwriter, and producer HIKARI, whose film 37 Seconds won the Audience Award in the Panorama section in 2019; and Polish producer Ewa Puszczyńska, whose credits include acclaimed films such as Ida, Cold War, and The Zone of Interest.

In the Perspectives section, dedicated to debut feature films, a three-member jury will present the GWFF Best First Feature Award, endowed with €50,000, to be shared between the director and producer of the winning film. The jury will consist of Moroccan filmmaker Sofia Alaoui, director of Animalia; German screenwriter and director Frédéric Hambalek, known for What Marielle Knows; and Polish-Canadian curator Dorota Lech, recently appointed director of the New Horizons festival. This award will also be presented during the official ceremony on February 21.

The international jury for Berlinale Shorts will be composed of Syrian director Ameer Fakher Eldin, Austrian cultural journalist and critic Stefan Grissemann, and German artist and author Gabriele Stötzer. From among the 21 nominated short films, they will select the winners of the Golden Bear for Best Short Film, the Silver Bear Jury Prize (Short Film), the Berlin nomination for the European Film Awards, and the Berlinale Shorts CUPRA Filmmaker Award, endowed with €20,000.

Meanwhile, the Berlinale Documentary Award will go to one of the 16 titles selected from the Competition, Berlinale Special, Panorama, Forum, and Generation sections. The jury will be made up of filmmaker and visual artist Lemohang Mosese, U.S. scholar and critic B. Ruby Rich—an influential figure in feminist and queer film theory—and Indian documentary filmmaker Shaunak Sen, director of All That Breathes. The award carries a €40,000 prize, to be shared between the director and producer of the winning film.

The Generation section, focused on cinema for young audiences, has also announced its juries. The international jury will consist of Indonesian filmmaker Khozy Rizal, U.S. programmer Kim Yutani, and German actress Lena Urzendowsky, who will present the Grand Prix for Best Film and the Special Prize for Best Short Film in the Kplus and 14plus competitions. In parallel, a children’s jury and a youth jury will decide the winners of the Crystal Bear in their respective categories, reinforcing the Berlinale’s longstanding commitment to new generations of viewers and to emerging voices in international cinema.