Under Berlin Film Festival (UBFF) 2026 | Programme #6

14.11., 21 Uhr

Binary

United States 2025, 3 min, Dir.: Padrick Ritch

Tapeworm Alexis & the Opera Diva

Switzerland, 2025, 11 min, Dir.: Thaïs Odermatt

How the tapeworm Alexis helped the opera diva Maria Callas to achieve fame and was allowed to spend a turbulent life with her until the bitter end.

Lovers in the Sky

Argentina / Germany / Peru 2025, 77 min, Dir.: Fermin de la Serna

Lovers in the Sky explores the stories of Cristina and La Bonita, two trans cooks who have spent decades working aboard cargo ships that tirelessly navigate the rivers of the Peruvian Amazon. Facing personal and social pressures, both women journey through and reinvent themselves within the territory of post-identity. Cristina seeks to fulfill a promise she made to her late mother, while La Bonita is driven by her fear of burning forever in hell.

Under Berlin Film Festival (UBFF) 2026 | 12–14 November

From 12 to 14 November, Under Berlin Film Festival will return for a new edition as the Berlin node of the Transterritorial Underground Film Festival.

For the past five years, the Berlin edition has been sustained as an independent, non-profit initiative, dedicated to creating space for films, filmmakers and stories that rarely find a place within commercial circuits.

The 2026 programme brings together 16 films from 15 countries — Argentina, Austria, Cameroon, Germany, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Mexico, Peru, Russian Federation, Spain, Switzerland, Türkiye, United States and Uruguay — presented across different programmes that bring diverse geographies, languages and sensibilities into dialogue.

This year, the selection focuses particularly on grief, binarity and human experiences that often remain outside the centre of the narrative. Stories of the invisible, approached from a range of intimate, social and cultural perspectives. All films will be screened in their original language with English subtitles. After the screenings, the gathering will continue in the same space with conversation, bread and a toast shared by audiences, filmmakers and guests.

Under Berlin Film Festival sees cinema as an experience that does not end on the screen. Each edition aims to create a space for exchange in which films become a starting point for reflection, conversation and encounters between different perspectives. The festival also encourages connections with other disciplines and with the spaces that host it, making context and audience participation part of the experience.

More information: IG: @underberlinfilmfestival

Artistic Direction and General Production: Peri Azar / Bies Culture (Spain)

Production: Transterritorial Underground Film Festival (Argentina)

Programming: Peri Azar / Tiff Cantoral

Technical Coordination: Sofía Fontenla

Social Media: Tiff Cantoral

Visuals: Randolfo Camarotto

Interpretation: Lara Ziemann