Tricia Tuttle (C) Udall Evans Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Send an Email Print the Article Post a Comment As the Berlinale enters its 78th edition, festival director Tricia Tuttle is using her second year in charge to reassert Berlin's position within a contracting independent film marketplace, emphasizing scale, breadth and sales potential at a time when distributors are increasingly risk-averse. The 2026 competition lineup, unveiled on Tuesday, sees Tuttle focusing on indie arthouse and Berlin-familiar names, favoring a strong contingent of European and world cinema titles - Kornél Mundruczó's At The Sea and Karim Aïnouz's Rosebush Pruning, Warwick Thornton's Australian Western Wolfram, Markus Schleinzer's Austrian period drama Rose, starring Sandra Hüller - over studio titles (of which there are none this year). "It's about getting back to the legacy at the festival," says Tuttle. "This lineup feels very authentically Berlin to me, but it also has high points that I hope will really interest the marketplace." Related Stories Movies 'One Battle After Another' Leads Vancouver Film Critics Circle Nominations With Seven Nods Business Pathé Bolsters U.K. Arm, Names Emma Luffingham and Claudia Yusef Creative Directors of TV and Film Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Tuttle about Berlin's role in supporting the "indie film ecosystem," the challenge of "cutting through the noise" of award season, and why the studios at the moment are "nervous" about launching bit titles on the festival circuit. What does this lineup say about the identity you want the Berlinale to have? Well, I think I spoke about it a lot last year. We have always thought of cinema as a very broad church, with space for people who are looking for different things in their cinema: Direct political cinema, films that are less directly political but more intimate, dramas, comedies, thrillers. I believe every film is political in some way, but that breadth is something I've always loved about the festival. We have a history of [avant garde sidebar section] Forum as an independent section alongside Competition, and while there were sometimes crossovers, what was really terrific was the way those sections created poles that together contained everything cinema can be. I really want to get back to that. I love all kinds of cinema, and I think the marketplace needs a festival that plays all kinds of cinema. We are an audience festival, with 340,000 tickets sold last year, but we are also one of the most important film markets in the world [with the European Film Market]. Those two things create lots of different textures and tones in the festival, and balancing them in a way that really serves the films and filmmakers is what I wanted to do. This lineup feels very authentically Berlin to me, but it also has high points that I hope will really interest the marketplace. We have films that haven't sold yet coming to us, and I hope and expect them to sell. It's important that we help launch films into the marketplace. I really believe there are many films here, some obvious and some less so, that adventurous distributors can find eager audiences for. You've said that one of the crises facing independent cinema is how difficult it is for films to sell and find distribution. What role do you see the Berlinale playing in that ecosystem? We're part of a small handful of festivals that can really drive that. There are probably five or six festivals that play a crucial role in ensuring there is space for discovery and for nurturing the next generation of talent. By nurturing, I mean making sure the industry has a place to discover filmmakers and that filmmakers have access to a platform like the Berlinale. That's so important for building awareness with audiences and with the industry. We have more than 2,000 journalists from all over the world here, and that's incredibly precious. We're a big festival that can do many things. We screen more than 200 contemporary features, and we have strands dedicated to discovery, like Perspectives, which give filmmakers an opportunity to break through. Not every festival has that. The Berlinale also has breadth: journalists may come for Competition and the Special Galas, but there are also places to go deeper and discover films you won't necessarily see at every other major festival. Last year you had some high-profile studio premieres, including Bong Joon Ho's Mickey 17 and Richard Linklater's Blue Moon. But no studio titles this year. What conclusion should we draw from that? It's a fair question, but you're really talking about two very high-profile films last year. Outside of those, I think this year's lineup actually has more breadth and diversity and is closer to what we usually do. Of course, anyone would want a Richard Linklater or Bong Joon Ho film in their lineup i