Berlin competition titles Soumsoum, the Night of the Stars, and Moscas won over the independent juries at this year’s Berlinale, with Soumsoum, from Franco-Chadian auteur Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, taking top prize for best film from the Fipresci jury of international film critics, and Moscas from Mexican Director Fernando Eimbcke, winning the top honor of this year’s Ecumenical jury.
Soumsoum follows a 17-year-old girl haunted by visions and supernatural powers she cannot understand. In our review, The Hollywood Reporter critic Jordan Mintzer called the film “a modern-day fable of adolescence and resilience that plays, at times, like a classic teen horror flick — minus the jump scares but with similar twists and motifs.” Films Boutique is handling worldwide sales.
The black-and-white drama Moscas plays on a sweeter register, following a young boy who, while waiting for news of his hospitalized mother, slowly breaks down the resistance of a lonely woman who has forgotten the value of human connection. In his review, THR chief critic David Rooney gave Moscas a rave, saying it was precisely the kind of “low-key observational comedy and incisive character definition [that] Mexican director Eimbcke does best.” Alpha Violet is handling world sales for Moscas.
The Fipresci prize for best film in the Berlinale Perspectives section went to British prison drama Animol, the directorial debut of Adolescence actor Ashley Walters, which features Adolescence star Stephen Graham alongside Tut Nyuot (Steve, The Long Walk). Marcelo Martinessi’s Paraguayan drama Narciso took the prize for best film in Panorama, and Japanese horror comedy AnyMart, from director Iwasaki Yusuke, won for best Forum film.
The Ecumenical jury gave its Panorama honor to Pete Muller’s documentary Bucks Harbor, set among the fishermen of Downeast Maine, and its prize for best film in Berlin’s Forum section to Kristina Mikhailova’s Kasachstani-set documentary River Dreams.
Iván & Hadoum, Ian de la Rosa’s star-crossed romance about a trans man and woman working as seasonal pickers in a greenhouse in southern Spain, won the Teddy Award for best LGBTQ+ feature film at the 2026 Berlinale.
The full list of the independent jury winners is below.
PRIZES OF THE FIPRESCI JURY
Competition
Soumsoum, la nuit des astres (Soumsoum, the Night of the Stars)
Perspectives
Animol
Panorama
Narciso
Forum
AnyMart
PRIZES OF THE ECUMENICAL JURY
Competition
Moscas (Flies)
Panorama
Bucks Harbor
Forum
River Dreams
TEDDY AWARDS
Best Feature Film
Iván & Hadoum
Best Documentary/Essay Film
Barbara Forever
Best Short Film
TAXI MOTO
Jury Award
Der Heimatlose (Trial of Hein)
Special Teddy Award
Céline Sciamma
CICAE ART CINEMA AWARD
Panorama
Staatsschutz (Prosecution)
Forum
De capul nostru (On Our Own)
GUILD FILM PRIZE
Winner
Gelbe Briefe (Yellow Letters)
LABEL EUROPA CINEMAS
Winner
Vier Minus Drei (Four Minus Three)
CALIGARI FILM PRIZE
Winner
If Pigeons Turned to Gold
PEACE FILM PRIZE
Winner
TUTU
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL FILM AWARD
Winner
What Will I Become?
HEINER CAROW PRIZE
Winner
Staatsschutz (Prosecution)
PRIZE OF AG KINO – GILDE – CINEMA VISION 14PLUS
Winner
What Will I Become?
Special Mention
Sunny Dancer
BERLINER MORGENPOST READERS’ JURY AWARD
Winner
Moscas (Flies)
TAGESSPIEGEL READERS’ JURY AWARD
Winner
I Built a Rocket Imagining Your Arrival
KOMPAGNON FELLOWSHIP
Winner
Maya with Y
Winner
Mother/Tongue
ARTEKINO INTERNATIONAL AWARD
Winner
Lotus Feet
EURIMAGES CO-PRODUCTION DEVELOPMENT AWARD
Winner
Liberations
VFF TALENT HIGHLIGHT AWARD
Main Award
The Most Romantic Man in the World
Nomination Award
Watch It Burn
Nomination Award
Acts of Kindness
BERLINALE TALENTS MASTERCARD ENABLEMENT PROGRAMME
Main Award
Audiovisual Entrepreneurs Laboratory (AVEL)
Main Award
enREDadera
Alumni Project Award
Majoaneng – Academy of Images and Letters
Alumni Project Award
Super Sohni
GEN Z AUDIENCE AWARD
Winner
Cura Sana
THE DREAM MAKERS SHORT FILM CONTEST
Main Award
The Zebra
Nomination Award
Day One
