Category: BEST FEATURE FILM – ARFF BERLIN 2026

Original Film Title: Tiradiavoli

Director’s Name: Stefano Carbone, Nicola Lodato

Writer’s Name: Roberto Campili

Producer: Stefano Carbone, Nicola Lodato

Country of Origin: Italy

Country of Filming: Italy

Language: Italian

Runtime: 1 hour 55 minutes 15 seconds

Film Description:

A theatre company becomes caught in a curse that intertwines past and present: amid suspicion, obsession, and an ambiguous love story on stage, the struggle to escape destiny will force everyone to confront truths that transcend time.

Original Film Title: Caracas Avenue

Director’s Name: Juana Jimenez Del Toro

Writer’s Name: Juana Jimenez Del Toro

Producer: Juana Jimenez Del Toro Producciones

Country of Origin: Colombia

Country of Filming: Colombia, France, Italy

Language: Spanish

Runtime: 1 hour 32 minutes

Film Description:

Caracas Avenue tells the story of four children in the 1980s who, rejected by their parents for their sexual orientation, are thrown out onto the streets, where they are sexually exploited by a pedophile and begin to commit crimes and engage in prostitution to survive. They dream of traveling to the United States, and amidst their harsh reality, that dream persists. When they arrive in Bogotá, the American dream ends when they are denied visas. The course of their lives takes a drastic turn, and they end up in Bogotá’s red-light district, in the Santafé neighborhood, where they become transvestites. As time passes, their lives take different paths.
Caracas Avenue presenta la historia de cuatro niños de los años 80s, que sufren rechazo por parte de sus padres por su orientación sexual, echados a la calle, donde son explotados sexualmente por un pederasta y comienzan a delinquir y a prostituirse para sobrevivir. Tienen el sueño de viajar a los Estados Unidos y en medio de su cruda realidad ese sueño persiste. Cuando llegan a Bogotá el sueño americano se les acaba por no les dan la visa, el rumbo de sus vidas da un cambio drástico y terminan en la zona roja de Bogotá en el barrio Santafé, donde se transforman en travestis y con el correr del tiempo sus vidas tomaron diferentes caminos.

Original Film Title: The Guardian Angel

Director’s Name: Andrei Christian Bortica

Writer’s Name: Andrei Christian Bortica

Producer: Catalina Bortica

Country of Origin: Romania

Country of Filming: Romania

Language: Romanian

Runtime: 1 hour 38 minutes 47 seconds

Film Description:

After his wife is kidnapped by the Italian mafia, Andrei assumes a false identity and infiltrates the rival organization. In a dangerous game of deception and betrayal, every step brings him closer either to saving his family or to his own destruction.

Original Film Title: Homework

Director’s Name: Achintta Shankar

Writer’s Name: Himanshu Nath

Producer: Mukesh Kumar Mour

Country of Origin: India

Country of Filming: India

Language: Assamese

Runtime: 1 hour 35 minutes 55 seconds

Film Description:

Original Film Title: FROM FALLING PETALS TO NEW BLOOM

Director’s Name: Dao Xi

Writer’s Name: Dao Xi

Producer: Dao Xi

Country of Origin: China

Country of Filming: China

Language: Chinese

Runtime: 1 hour 40 minutes

Film Description:

On their seventh wedding anniversary, Liu Xiaoyan and Li Ziyang end their marriage amidst a bitter argument. However, on the very day they receive their divorce certificate, Xiaoyan is diagnosed with suspected gastric cancer. Faced with the sudden onset of a terminal illness and the sting of perceived betrayal, the two—who had become virtual strangers—are forced back into each other’s lives.
Li Ziyang casts everything aside to accompany his ex-wife on a grueling journey toward recovery. Within the walls of a hospital ward filled with joy and sorrow, they witness the fragility of life and taste the bitterness of human nature. Yet, in this desperate struggle, they begin to re-examine one another and the true meaning of marriage.
Moving from resentment and collapse to a bond where they must rely on each other to survive, they nourish their nearly withered love with blood and tears amidst the agony of fighting the disease. This is a journey of life defined by betrayal and protection, despair and rebirth, farewells and reunions. When the long winter finally fades, the flowers that once withered shall surely bloom again.

Original Film Title: BIMOKSH-emancipation

Director’s Name: Tushar Kanti Bandyopadhyay

Writer’s Name: Tushar Kanti Bandyopadhyay

Producer: Tushar Kanti Bandyopadhyay

Country of Origin: India

Country of Filming: India

Language: Bengali

Runtime: 1 hour 2 minutes 13 seconds

Film Description:

What remains of love when life itself comes to an end?
After losing their daughter to a brutal crime, two grieving parents cross the threshold between life and death, only to discover that the world beyond holds a truth even more unsettling than the one they left behind.

Dr. Jyotishka Acharya and Dr. Aditi Acharya, an elderly couple living in the quiet town of Madhupur, are shattered when their only daughter Rohini is brutally murdered while traveling home to visit them. Unable to bear the devastating loss, they choose to leave their earthly existence and search for her soul in the astral realm.

But in the mysterious world beyond death, they encounter a profound revelation — souls exist free from all earthly relationships and emotional bonds. Confronted with this unsettling truth, they begin to realize that the imperfect human world they left behind may hold a deeper meaning than they ever imagined.

Bimoksh – Emancipation is a contemplative journey into grief, spirituality, and the eternal search for liberation of the soul.