The selection includes four African films set to have their world premieres across these sections, with three screening in Competition and one in Perspectives.
By Vivian Nneka Nwajiaku
Following the announcement of films selected for the Panorama, Forum and Forum Extended sections of the 76th Berlin International Film Festival, the Berlinale has unveiled the lineup for its main Competition and the competitive first-feature section, Perspectives. Announced on Tuesday, 20th January, 2026, the selection includes four African films set to have their world premieres across these sections, with three screening in Competition and one in Perspectives.
Premiering in competition is À Voix Basse (In a Whisper) (France/Tunisia), the third feature from Tunisian director Leyla Bouzid, winner of the Women in Motion Young Talent Award at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. Starring Eya Bouteraa alongside Hiam Abbass—who also appears in Danielle Arbid’s Only Rebels Win, the opening film of the Panorama section—Marion Barbeau, and Feriel Chamari, À Voix Basse follows a Paris-based woman who returns home to Tunisia for her uncle’s funeral and sets out to unravel the mystery surrounding his sudden death.
Also competing is Dao (France/Senegal/Guinea-Bissau), by acclaimed French-Senegalese director Alain Gomis, a longtime Berlinale alum who won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize in 2017 for the Africa Movie Academy Award-winning Félicité. In Dao, Gomis interweaves two celebrations of life—a wedding in France and a commemoration in Guinea Bissau—with the threads of family and heritage. The film stars Katy Correa, D’Johé Kouadio, Samir Guesmi, Mike Etienne, and Nicolas Gomis.
Veteran Chadian director, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, famed for directing Chad’s first feature film, Bye Bye Africa (1999), also makes an appearance in the Berlinale Competition with Soumsoum, la Nuit des Astres (Soumsoum, The Night of the Stars) (France/Chad). Starring Maïmouna Miawama, Ériq Ebouaney, and Achouackh Abakar Souleymane, the film follows seventeen-year-old Kellou, who has been gifted with supernatural powers she does not understand. Her disquiet and uncertainty only change when she meets Aya in an encounter with destiny that forges a mystical world where the visible and invisible converge.
Premiering in the Perspectives section is Chronicles from the Siege (Algeria/France/Palestine), directed by Palestinian-Syrian director Abdallah Alkhatib. The film is set in a city under siege, where the lives of a group of ordinary people are upended, forcing them to confront impossible choices in their struggle for survival. Starring Nadeem Rimawi, Saja Kilani, Maria Zreik, Emad Azmi, and Idir Benaibouche, the film unfolds through five stories that explore the challenging decisions people must make under extreme conditions.
The 76th Berlin International Film Festival will take place from 12th to 22nd February, 2026 in Berlin, Germany.