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Marriage drama 'Yellow Letters' wins Berlin Film Festival's top prize
Turkish-German director explores marriage under political pressure; Sandra Hueller wins best actor award
- PUBLISHED: Sun 22 Feb 2026, 2:54 PM
- By:
- Reuters
Yellow Letters, a drama about what happens to a marriage under extraordinary political pressure, won the Berlin Film Festival's Golden Bear top prize.
The Turkish-language drama filmed in Germany stars Ozgu Namal and Tansu Bicer as a married actor and playwright who have to leave behind their comfortable lives after the husband is targeted by the Turkish state for posting critical content online.
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"The real threat is not among us. It is out there. It's the autocrats. It's the right-wing parties. It's the nihilists of our time who try to come to power and destroy our way of living," said Turkish-German director Ilker Catak while accepting the award.
"Let's not fight each other. Let's fight them," he said.
In total, 22 films had been in the running for the top prize.
Political festival
The festival maintained its reputation as the most overtly political of its peers, Venice and Cannes, with the war in Gaza in particular dominating public discussions about the films.
"If this Berlinale has been emotionally charged, that's not a failure of the Berlinale, and it's not a failure of cinema," said festival director Tricia Tuttle at the opening ceremony.
"That is the Berlinale doing its job," she added, using the festival's nickname. German filmmaker Wim Wenders used his final appearance as jury president to urge filmmakers and activists to act as allies, after his comment that filmmakers should not be political caused Indian novelist Arundhati Roy to pull out.
Turkish filmmaker Emin Alper, whose film Salvation took the second-place Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize, voiced solidarity with the oppressed in Turkey, Syria, Iran and Gaza.
"The least we can do here is to break the silence and remind them that they are not really alone," he said.
Sandra Hueller wins again
German actor Sandra Hueller, who starred in 2024 Oscar-winning films Anatomy of a Fall and Zone of Interest, continued her winning streak by taking home best actor for the period piece Rose.
Queen at Sea, a drama that follows French star Juliette Binoche as she deals with her mother's advanced dementia and its effects on her marriage, won two prizes: the third-place jury prize and best supporting actor, shared by its two elderly performers, Anna Calder-Marshall and Tom Courtenay.
Director Grant Gee won best director for Everybody Digs Bill Evans, a black-and-white biographical drama starring Norwegian actor Anders Danielsen Lie as the legendary US jazz pianist.
Nina Roza, about an art curator who returns to Bulgaria to verify whether a child painting prodigy is genuine, won best screenplay.
