Chloé Zhao, Hiam Abbass, Aidan Zamiri, Daniel Blumberg, Warwick Thornton & more at the Berlinale Talents 2026 Public Programme
With this year’s theme, “Creating (and) Confusion – Cinema, Chaos and the Power of Discomfort”, Berlinale Talents invites audiences to embrace the creative potential of uncertainty – to explore the possibilities that emerge when one dives into the unknown. The programme offers 14 public ticketed talks for Berlin audiences and accredited guests, alongside an extensive programme for the 200 invited Talents.
Berlinale Talents 2026 brings together an exceptional group of filmmakers and artists who embrace chaos, discomfort and creative risk to challenge dominant narratives. This years’ Academy Award–nominated directors Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni as well as Andrew Jarecki expose systems shaped by institutional failure, while production designers Francesca Di Mottola and Cora Pratz illuminate the craft of building visual coherence from script to screen. Director Aidan Zamiri explores identity and artistic pressure through his collaboration with Charli xcx and celebrated actor Hiam Abbass reflects on her expansive career across film, theatre and television. Joining the programme, Oscar winning and nominated filmmaker Chloé Zhao discusses her creative evolution, her instinct driven approach and her adaptation of Hamnet. Indigenous Australian director Warwick Thornton reframes erased histories through image and silence, while genre innovators Hanna Bergholm and Edwin explore empathy through horror and transformation. Abdallah Alkhatib, with collaborators Rana Eid and Talal Khoury, examines filmmaking under siege and choreographer Sasha Waltz traces the deep connections between movement and the camera. Alain Gomis reflects on cinema shaped across continents and the Teddy Talents Talks celebrate queer form as a radical space for insight. Composer Daniel Blumberg delves into improvisation as creative catalyst, while Olivier Bugge Coutté and Eskil Vogt, both Oscar nominated for Sentimental Value, close the programme by exploring discomfort as a source of artistic clarity.
All Talents Talks will be hosted in English at Berlin’s art and culture venue, Radialsystem and cover a wide range of cinematic disciplines. Tickets at www.berlinale.de
February 14, 10.00 am
Chaos and Control: Exposing Systems That Thrive on Confusion
Academy Award–nominated filmmakers Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni (Cutting Through Rocks) as well as Andrew Jarecki (The Alabama Solution) examine how their documentaries confront abuses of state power and the erosion of trust in public institutions.
February 14, 2.30 pm
Controlled Chaos: The Production Design Process
Production designers Francesca Di Mottola (The Moment – Panorama), Cora Pratz (The Weight – Berlinale Special Gala), Inbal Weinberg (Roofman) share their creative journey from early stages of pre-production to the final execution stage of bringing all of the elements together.
February 14, 5.00 pm
The Moment: Aidan Zamiri on Chaos, Brat and Creative Discomfort
Director Aidan Zamiri breaks down his long running creative partnership with Charli xcx and how it deepens his film’s playful discomfort, shaping a funhouse mirror world where authenticity and performance blur.
February 15, 11.30 am
The Identity of a Voice: In Conversation with Hiam Abbass
Hiam Abbass (In a Whisper – Competition) addresses the process of how she selects her projects, how she gives her characters a voice and her collaborations with acclaimed directors, including Hany Abu-Assad, Annemarie Jacir, Steven Spielberg and Denis Villeneuve.
February 15, 2.00 pm
Berlinale Talents: Love in Numbers: Creating a Short Film Canon Bottom Up
Short film lovers worldwide were invited to nominate ten films under 60 minutes that they consider the “greatest” ever. This resulted in a ranked list of 104 titles. But what now? A collective conversation about pros, cons and potentials of such a canon.
February 15, 5.00 pm
Con Fusion: Sasha Waltz on Creating Connecting Choreographies
Internationally renowned choreographer Sasha Waltz, who is based with her company Sasha Waltz & Guests at Radialsystem, makes her Berlinale debut by giving a lecture at Berlinale Talents.
February 16, 12.00 noon
Reframing Stolen Narratives: The Cinema of Warwick Thornton
Premiering his new film Wolfram in Competition, Warwick Thornton joins Berlinale Talents to reflect on his work as both director and cinematographer.
Event in English. Tickets at www.berlinale.de
February 16, 2.30 pm
Mixed Feelings: Empathy for the Monster in Genre
Berlinale Talents alumni Hanna Bergholm (Nightborn) and Edwin (Sleep No More) discuss their approaches to genre filmmaking and how they create empathy for their monsters.
Feburar 16, 5.00 pm
Filming Under Siege
Filmmaker Abdallah Alkhatib (Chronicles from the Siege) and his team address their relationship built on trust, but also the current political state of their region, which has directly influenced some of their artistic and technical choices.
February 17, 11.15 am
World Cinema Fund Talk: Alain Gomis
Co-hosted by the World Cinema Fund, Alain Gomis (Dao – Competition) joins to discuss his filmmaking practice shaped across borders, various languages and production contexts.
February 17, 5.00 pm
Teddy Talents Talks: Confusion as Catalyst
Daniela Vega (A Fantastic Woman – TEDDY 40), Efraín Mojica and Rebecca Zweig (Jaripeo – Panorama Dokumente), Fallon Mayanja (Joy Boy: A Tribute to Julius Eastman – Forum) as well as Sarnt Utamachote (I Don’t Want to Be Just a Memory) explore how queer cinema harnesses ambiguity, resists categorisation and uses formal disruption to generate new ways of seeing from the margins.
February 18, 12.00 noon
Chloé Zhao – In Conversation
February 18, 2.00 pm
Composer’s Talk with Daniel Blumberg
Academy Award–winning composer Daniel Blumberg (The Brutalist) dives into his musical curiosity and shares his insights from his work on The Testament of Ann Lee.
February 18, 5.00 pm
The Power of Discomfort: Crafting Sentimental Value
Academy Award-nominated editor Olivier Bugge Coutté and Berlinale Talents alum Eskil Vogt discuss their collaboration with Joachim Trier, another alum of Berlinale Talents, on Sentimental Value.
Berlinale Talents is part of Berlinale Pro, which unites the European Film Market, the Berlinale Co-Production Market, Berlinale Talents and the World Cinema Fund. Berlinale Pro is the festival’s full-circle industry infrastructure that serves the global film industry as incubator, enhancer and supporter in all stages of film development, production, sales and distribution.
Berlinale Talents is supported by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, Creative Europe – MEDIA Programme of the European Union, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, German Federal Film Board, Mastercard and CUPRA.
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February 05, 2026