Desire Lines: First Panorama Films Confirmed

Powerful independent filmmaking, documentary works balancing poetry and urgency, and bold young German-language cinema: Berlinale Panorama unveils its first twelve titles. Among the ten world premieres and five feature debuts are new works by Danielle Arbid, Patric Chiha, Kelly O’Sullivan & Alex Thompson, Anna Roller, Faraz Shariat, Ian de la Rosa and Sebastian Brameshuber.

There is much to discover and experience in this year’s selection: Filmmakers lead us astray with formal rigour and subversive storytelling. Which spaces are open to us? Which ones do we conquer and defend? These are central questions posed by the programme so far. The films speak of life in exile, of the devastating situation in the Congolese city of Goma, of a gripping struggle against structural racism in Germany, of rebellious lovers in Beirut, Berlin and Spain, of queer subculture amidst Mexican rodeos, and of deeply human encounters on an Austrian highway.

These are the early signs of an idiosyncratic and welcoming Panorama programme for 2026.

The first films in Panorama