Palestine Flag Raised at Berlin Festival and "Yellow Letters" Snatches the Gold

SadaNews - The words were not just an acceptance speech for an award; they were a "cry" that shook the foundations of the "Berlinale" during the closing night of the 76th Berlin International Film Festival, last night, Saturday, February 21, 2026.

As Palestinian director Abdullah Al-Khatib ascended the stage to accept the Best First Feature Award for his film "Chronicles From the Siege", the hall transformed into a battleground.

Al-Khatib, who strongly criticized the German government's stance on the war in Gaza, challenged the pressures placed on him to remain silent, unleashing a resounding cry that sparked a standing ovation: "I came here for one reason only... to say that Palestinians will be free."

The moment, described as the "emotional peak" of the festival, was merely the spark that proved cinema is the "last refuge" for dreams and protests.

The Award Night

The German-Turkish film "Yellow Letters" (Gelbe Briefe) by director İlker Çatak was able to snatch the "Golden Bear", the festival's highest award.

This win represents an extraordinary historical moment, as it is the first "gold" award for a German director in over two decades, specifically since Fatih Akin won with his film "Against the Wall" in 2004.

Çatak stated after receiving the award that this victory gives a voice to the voiceless, warning against the rise of regimes that tighten the noose on free speech, recalling lessons from Germany's history of 1933, confirming that art remains the last bastion against totalitarianism.

The Awards

The official competition, featuring 22 films, witnessed a stunning diversity in aesthetic and political proposals, and the complete list of winners was accompanied by a thorough explanation of the issues addressed in the winning films:

The film "Yellow Letters" (Gelbe Briefe) that won the Golden Bear addresses the suffering of an artist couple in Turkey after the husband is pursued by security due to his digital publications, forcing them to abandon their stability.

The film "Salvation" (Kurtuluş) won the Silver Bear (Grand Jury Prize), where director Emin Alper presents an epic vision of the moral and political conflicts rooted deep in remote villages, where individual destinies intersect with the complexities of authority and traditions in complex dramatic confrontations.

Meanwhile, the film "Queen at Sea" won the Silver Bear (Jury Prize), showcasing director Lance Hammer's meditative cinematic experience on human isolation through the story of a woman facing her mother's memory deterioration and its psychological effects on her marital life.

Director Grant Gee won the Silver Bear for Best Direction for the film "Everybody Digs Bill Evans", which focuses on the biographical and musical life of the famous jazz musician Bill Evans in a documentary and experimental format exploring his artistic genius and personal struggles with a distinctive visual style.

German star Sandra Hüller received the Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance for the film "Rose", where she portrays a complex role of a woman forced to disguise herself as a man to confront the ghosts of her past and the challenges of her reality in a historical drama that explores concepts of identity and gender.

The Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance was jointly awarded to Tom Courtenay and Anna Calder-Marshall for the film "Queen at Sea", while the film "Nina Roza" won Best Screenplay by Geneviève Dolow de Ceil, which tells the story of an art coordinator returning to Bulgaria to verify the genius of a miracle child in painting.

The film "Yo - Love is a Rebellious Bird" won the Outstanding Artistic Contribution Award, providing an extraordinary visual experience focusing on cinematic aesthetics to tell a story about passion and rebellion using a cinematic language that blends music with contemporary reality.

In the documentary film category, "If Pigeons Turned to Gold" won Best Documentary Film, a work by director Pippa Loboha that reflects a contemplative look at the transformations of reality and the ability to extract beauty from difficult circumstances.

The major awards concluded with the Palestinian film "Chronicles From the Siege" by director Abdullah Al-Khatib winning Best First Feature, a film that documents painful and heroic chapters of Palestinian steadfastness under siege, providing a bold and living testimony of survival.

A Tremor of Solidarity and Protest

The echo of the war in Gaza did not miss any corner of the ceremony; rather, the awards platform transformed into a space for loud political protest.

The most impactful moment was Palestinian director Abdullah Al-Khatib standing up, delivering a fiery speech criticizing the international silence and the stance of the German government, condemning the "red lines" imposed on voices defending the right, and ending his speech with a cry of "Palestinians will be free", which ignited a wave of standing ovation in the hall.

In an unusual moment of tension, parallel events witnessed a heroic stance by Tunisian director Kother Ben Henia, who refused to accept an award for her film "The Voice of Hind Rjib", leaving the statuette in the hall, stating that peace is not "a perfume we spray on violence to make power seem civilized", describing the award as a reminder of blood rather than an honoring of art.

The festival also recorded the withdrawal of Indian writer Arundhati Roy in protest against the statements of jury president Wim Wenders, who called for "keeping cinema away from politics", considering it an attempt to strip art of its moral responsibilities.

This tension prompted Wenders in his closing speech to attempt to contain the situation by inviting filmmakers and activists to be "allies not adversaries" in the battle for truth, affirming that "cinema does not have armies but has the ability to penetrate walls".

On the red carpet, stars did not limit themselves to fashion, but over 80 participants, including Javier Bardem and Tilda Swinton, signed an open letter accusing the festival of "institutional silence" regarding Gaza.

A Platform for Confrontation

The 76th edition was characterized by a clear inclination towards "confrontational cinema" that steers away from mere entertainment to delve deeply into humanitarian crises.

The awards were not just an artistic evaluation, but a clear bias towards films that have the courage to tell the truth in the face of authority.

The victory of a film like "Yellow Letters" and the celebration of "Chronicles From the Siege" in the hall underscore that cinema remains the strongest weapon against obfuscation and that international festivals are the space where art breathes the air of freedom.

As the curtain falls, the voices of protesters and the cries of the winners reverberate in the Berlin space, reminding everyone that cinema is the "last refuge" for dreams and protest simultaneously, and that when art touches human issues, it transcends being merely an image to become a historical document for change.

Source: Al Jazeera