Simone Baumann is a German producer and expert in international co-productions, with more than 35 years of experience in fiction and documentary film production. Since 2019, she has been the Managing Director of German Films, the organisation responsible for the international promotion and distribution of German cinema.
International Feature Film Competition
Main Competition
With this competition programme, we aim to highlight the originality and boldness of emerging European filmmakers. The selection features directors presenting their first, second or third works.
“Supporting Role”, dir. Ana Urushadze
01 / 10
About the competition
Ten films, each with its own distinctive tone, compete to reveal the richness and diversity of European cinema, outlining the future contours of a curious and ambitious new generation.
Traditional narrative and original hybrid forms, bold innovation and the quiet tone of contemplative storytelling, documentary insight and fictional creativity – these are the diverse coordinates of our Main Competition. This year, they come together in particularly intriguing ways, opening up encounters between power and humanity, the tragedy of existential loneliness, and dramas of emotion and human relationships.
Film festivals around the world are paying ever closer attention to the potential of first-time filmmakers and are creating special programmes dedicated to debut films. Our selection drew on the Berlinale’s Perspectives, Cannes’ ambitious ACID programme, San Sebastián’s New Directors, Venice’s Giornate degli Autori, as well as special programmes at Locarno and Göteborg. First films can also surprise with their artistic maturity and distinctive visual language. The jury of the Main Competition will therefore face no easy task in selecting the best film.
The Main Competition award is presented by
Jury
Jaana Puskala is a Finnish film-industry professional who worked at the Finnish Film Foundation for more than three decades. She has attended the Cannes Film Festival 33 times and has organised hundreds of Finnish film weeks and events around the world, from China to Iran.
Sunna Guðnadóttir is an Icelandic film producer and the founder of the production company Bjartsýn Films. She gained international experience working on films by Hlynur Pálmason and Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson, and made her debut as lead producer on Helena Stefánsdóttir’s Natatorium in 2024.
Jannike Åhlund is a Swedish cultural journalist and film critic. Until 2007, she served as the Artistic Director of the Göteborg Film Festival. Currently, she chairs the boards of the Bergman Center on Fårö and the Tempo Documentary Film Festival.
Stefan Djordjević is a Serbian director, cinematographer and actor. He began his film career with a role in Tilva Roš. After graduating from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, he went on to make short films. His internationally acclaimed feature directorial debut, Wind, Talk to Me, was presented in Scanorama’s feature film competition in 2025.
Competition films
01
Do You Love Me
France, Lebanon, Germany, Qatar, 2025 · 1 hr. 15 min.
A filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist based in Beirut, Lebanon, Lana Daher studied filmmaking, visual arts and graphic design. She is an active presence on Beirut’s art and music scenes, bringing together sound, image and archival research in her work. Her debut feature, Do You Love Me, is accompanied by a website cataloguing the project’s sources and materials. The project aims to bring Lebanon’s cinematic heritage to a wider audience.
Screenings
02
I Want to Be Human
Lithuania, 2026 · 1 hr. 29 min.
Rinaldas Tomaševičius is a film director and screenwriter. Rinaldas is primarily interested in stories about people who do not conform to social norms. He strives to help people on the margins integrate into society and has personally supported them for many years, volunteering with various organisations that assist former prisoners and people struggling with drug addiction.
His short films The Last Time and -15 have been presented at international festivals and have won more than 10 awards.
Screenings
03
Low Expectations
Lave forventninger
Norway, Denmark, 2026 · 1 hr. 45 min.
Eivind Landsvik is a Norwegian writer and director. He began his film career directing music videos, developing a sensitive visual style that he later brought to his fiction work. His short film Sofia, Last Summer won the Film Critics’ Award at the Norwegian Short Film Festival. Tits screened in competition at the Cannes Film Festival and went on to appear at more than a hundred festivals worldwide. Low Expectations was selected for Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes.
Screenings
04
Paris Paris
Belgium, 2026 · 1 hr. 18 min.
A Belgian filmmaker of Lithuanian heritage, Isabelle Tollenaere explores the role of spontaneity and improvisation in cinema. Her work focuses on the interplay between the rapid transformation of the physical world and the human experience of time and memory. Her short films and documentaries have screened at the Venice Film Festival, the Berlinale, IFFR, the Centre Pompidou, Viennale, Visions du Réel, FIDMarseille, IDFA, CPH and IndieLisboa. Her work has received the Caligari Film Prize at the Berlinale in 2020, the FIPRESCI Prize at IFFR in 2015 and the Special Jury Prize at IndieLisboa in 2020. Paris Paris, her first narrative feature, competed in the Proxima section of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.
Screenings
05
Petty Thieves
Sitni lopovi
Croatia, France, Germany, Serbia, 2026 · 1 hr. 50 min.
Mate Ugrin graduated in film directing from the Academy of Arts in Belgrade, Serbia, in 2012. He also holds a Master of Fine Arts from the Hamburg University of Fine Arts and completed the postgraduate Meisterschüler programme at the Berlin University of the Arts. His short films have won awards at festivals in Germany, Serbia and elsewhere. Petty Thieves had its world premiere at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.
Screenings
06
Shame and Money
Hatixhja dhe Shabani
Germany, Kosovo, Slovenia, Albania, North Macedonia, Belgium, 2026 · 2 hr. 10 min.
Visar Morina was born in Pristina and lives in Cologne. From 2004 to 2010, he studied film at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne. His short films have received awards at festivals in Germany and abroad. His debut feature, Father (2015), won the Best Director Award at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, as well as awards for directing and screenwriting at the Munich Film Festival. Morina attended Scanorama in 2016 to present the film.
Screenings
07
Supporting Role
მეორეხარისხოვანი როლი
Georgia, Estonia, Türkiye, Switzerland, United States, 2026 · 2 hr. 20 min.
Ana Urushadze was born in Tbilisi, Georgia. She graduated from Shota Rustaveli Theatre and Film Georgia State University in 2013 and has written and directed several short films. Her debut feature, Scary Mother, won the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Feature Film and screened at numerous international festivals, including Locarno, Gijón and New Directors/New Films.
Screenings
08
The Patron
Mecenaten
Sweden, 2026 · 1 hr. 40 min.
Swedish director Julia Thelin has received several prestigious nominations and awards for her short films. Push It competed for the Short Film Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2019, Sorry Not Sorry won the Startsladden Audience Award at the Göteborg Film Festival. The Patron is her feature debut.
Screenings
09
Trial of Hein
Der Heimatlose
Germany, 2026 · 2 hr. 2 min.
Kai Stänicke studied film and television production in Dortmund, where he directed his first short films. After graduating, he worked on various productions as an assistant director and assistant unit manager. His short films have screened at festivals around the world. His feature debut, Trial of Hein, was selected for the Berlinale’s Perspectives section and for New Directors/New Films, a leading showcase for emerging filmmakers, among other festivals. Critics have hailed it as one of the year’s standout debuts. Stänicke will attend Scanorama and meet audiences.
Screenings
10
Under a Bad Star
Mauvaise Étoile
France, 2026 · 2 hr. 5 min.
Yann Berlier (born 1993 in Montpellier, France) studied political philosophy and applied ethics before teaching philosophy in high school. He later left education to pursue filmmaking. Lola Cambourieu (born 1991 in Albi, France) trained in dramatic arts at Cours Florent and the Conservatoire de Seine-Saint-Denis. After working as an actress and theatre director, she gradually moved into filmmaking, with an interest in the boundary between documentary and fiction. In 2018, Lola and Yann founded the production company Réalviscéralisme. The pair have co-directed several short films, including Panthère (2018), Automne malade (2019), La cousinade (2020) and Enterrement de vie de jeune fille (2021), many of which appeared at international festivals. Their first feature film, Under a Bad Star (Mauvaise étoile), premiered in the ACID section of the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.