The 2026 Berlin Film Festival is officially underway with the world premiere of Shahrbanoo Sadat’s No Good Men firing up the Berlinale Palast.
Afghan director-star Sadat was joined by her fellow cast members Anwar Hashimi, Liam Hussaini, Yasin Negah, and Torkan Omari on the red carpet as cold, wet weather, unsurprisingly, left bundled-up attendees a little windswept Thursday night. The crowd inside the Berlinale Palast theater was a who’s-who of European cinema’s brightest talent, as well as a smattering of U.S. stars, including Neil Patrick Harris, Daniel Bruhl, Bella Ramsey, Lars Eidinger, and more.
Ahead of the movie’s screening, however, it was Michelle Yeoh’s turn to pick up the honorary Golden Bear. She was given an effusive congratulatory intro by multi-Oscar-winning filmmaker Sean Baker, who recently collaborated with her on the short film Sandiwara, premiering in Berlin on Friday.
“Michelle Yeoh is a once-in-a-generation screen presence, the kind who doesn’t just appear in movies, but the kind that redefines the temperature of the room,” Baker said. “You feel it shift when she walks on screen. Suddenly, the stakes are higher.”
Baker added that the Berlinale Golden Bear, “a symbol of artistic freedom, strength and fearlessness,” was “more than fitting” for Yeoh before thanking her for “the decades of unforgettable performances, for raising the bar for all of us and for reminding us why we fell in love with the movies in the first place.”
Yeoh, famed for roles in Tomorrow Never Dies, Crazy Rich Asians and Everything Everywhere All At Once, made her way to the stage and was characteristically poised and forceful while accepting the prestigious prize, given to Martin Scorsese, Meryl Streep, Tilda Swinton and Steven Spielberg at past Berlinales.
“I feel an immense sense of gratitude and a quiet sense of wonder,” Yeoh said. “Lifetime Achievement is a very big phrase — sounds like a conclusion, but I prefer to think of it as a pause, a moment to breathe, to look back, and then to keep walking forward.”
She added: “I never imagined that a girl from Malaysia who loved discipline, dance, dreaming without limits, would travel so far through stories. My path has crossed languages and cultures, continents and genres, sometimes gracefully, sometimes a little painfully, but always guided by curiosity and deep faith in cinema. Film became the place where I could hold contradictions, strength and vulnerability, seriousness and play, control and surrender. It gave me not just a career, but a life far larger than I ever dared to imagine.”
Yeoh also offered advice to the next generation of filmmakers. “To young artists, especially those who feel unseen or out of place, please know this: Your voice already belongs. Your difference is not something to correct. It is your power.”
In closing, Yeoh brought the Palast crowd to its feet — and some to tears — with a heartfelt dedication to her late father. “I carry him with me,” she said, “his discipline, his steadiness, his belief that if something is worth doing, it is worth doing well — and if he could see me standing here tonight holding this Golden Bear, I know he would smile.”
Berlin’s 2026 jury chief Wim Wenders, hero of the New German Cinema, received another rousing standing ovation upon taking the stage. Reflecting on his own life in cinema and beyond, Wim — now 80 but impressively dashing at the ceremony — offered some thoughts on what he would tell a “little Wim” if he were to meet him today: “I would say it’s fine to take movies so seriously, but maybe take other people more seriously, and yourself not so much!”
The festival was then officially underway with the world premiere of Sadat’s No Good Men, follow-up her early breakthroughs Wolf and Sheep (2016) and The Orphanage (2019).
No Good Men, described as a political rom-com, is set in Afghanistan in 2021, shortly before the Taliban’s return to power. Naru, the only camerawoman at Kabul’s main TV station, is struggling to retain custody of her three-year-old son. After leaving her serially cheating husband, she has become convinced that no good men exist in her country — so she’s caught off guard when Qodrat, Kabul TV’s most important journalist, offers her a career opportunity. As the two criss-cross the city reporting on its last days of freedom, sparks fly between them, and Naru starts to doubt her conviction.
This year’s fest will no doubt prove a politically charged event, evident in the international jury presser Thursday morning, which turned heated in a matter of minutes.
Wim Wenders and his jury members were made to field questions on war, Israel, Palestine, with the legendary filmmaker eventually declaring: “We have to stay out of politics… We have to do the work of people — not the work of politicians.”
The 2026 Berlinale runs Feb. 12-22.