Berlin Film Festival director Tricia Tuttle had a difficult 76th edition of the Berlinale. And now, a German media report suggests she may be on the way out.
A festival representative didn’t comment on Tuttle’s future on Wednesday. The Berlin fest director has so far overseen two editions of a five-year contract.
But Bild, Germany’s largest tabloid newspaper, reported on Wednesday that the German minister of state for culture, Wolfram Weimer, has called an extraordinary meeting of the supervisory board of the Kulturveranstaltungen des Bundes in Berlin, or KBB, for Thursday. The KBB is the organization responsible for the management of the Berlinale.
The festival rep shared a statement that confirmed this meeting would take place on “Thursday morning.” The statement also detailed: “The meeting will include a discussion on the future direction of the Berlinale. We will not comment on any further speculation.”
The Berlinale 2026 was marred by controversy upon controversy. At various press conferences, filmmakers were asked targeted political questions, often with little or no connection to the movies being discussed. Critics called out filmmakers and stars for not being vocal enough, particularly on the war in Gaza.
Eventually, 81 Berlinale alumni, including Tilda Swinton, Javier Bardem, Tatiana Maslany, and Adam McKay, signed an open letter, suggesting that the Berlinale was “censoring artists who oppose Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and the German state’s key role in enabling it.” Tuttle, the former director of the London Film Festival, said that was not the case, describing the fest as a space for filmmakers to discuss political or other issues as they see fit.
Then followed a German political backlash against pro-Palestinian speeches at the closing ceremony on Saturday. Syrian-Palestinian director Abdallah Al-Khatib, winner of the Berlin Perspectives section for his drama Chronicles of a Siege, said the current German government was one of the “partners in the genocide in Gaza by Israel” and added that “the long-awaited day is coming, and when people ask you what happened, tell them: Palestine remembers.”
The Bild report suggested that this was the reason for Thursday’s meeting. The comments had prompted German environment minister Carsten Schneider to leave the gala in protest. In a statement, a rep for the minister said Schneider “considers these statements unacceptable and therefore left the event during the speech.”
