2026 has been a festival year for Turkish cinema rather than a box-office one, with its biggest international wins happening at Berlinale rather than the domestic multiplex. Here's what actually matters this year, alongside the classics that built Turkish cinema's reputation in the first place.
2026's standout films
Sarı Zarflar (Yellow Letters), directed by İlker Çatak, won the Golden Bear at the Berlinale 2026, the festival's top prize. A political drama starring Özgü Namal and Tansu Biçer. It has been mid-pack commercially at home, which is typical for a Golden Bear winner in its own domestic market rather than a sign the film underperforms.
Kurtuluş (Salvation), directed by Emin Alper, won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at the same festival, a village land-dispute drama starring Caner Cindoruk. Neither film has a confirmed official studio YouTube trailer at the time of writing; festival clips exist, but check the distributor's own channel for the eventual release rather than a fan upload.
Domestically, 2026's actual box office has run in a very different direction: family comedy and horror franchise sequels have led admissions, with the awards-circuit films sitting well behind them commercially, which is worth knowing before assuming critical acclaim and popularity move together here.
The all-time classics, with trailers where one exists
Ayla: The Daughter of War (2017)
A Turkish-Korean War drama, trailer above, rated 8.2 on IMDb and among the highest-rated popular Turkish films of the last decade. Note the exact title: a different, unrelated 2017 film also called simply "Ayla" exists and is not this one.
Baskin (2015)
Can Evrenol's horror film, a Sitges Film Festival favourite and the one Turkish horror title Western critics consistently cite by name, working in a Clive Barker-adjacent register rather than the jinn-horror formula that dominates the genre domestically.
The festival-circuit canon without a studio trailer
Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Winter Sleep (2014, Palme d'Or) and Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011), along with Yılmaz Güney's Yol (1982, also a Palme d'Or winner), are the reference points for Turkish cinema's art-house reputation internationally. None of the three has a widely available official Turkish-studio YouTube trailer; Ceylan's work is generally distributed through MUBI rather than the channels that produce the kind of trailer this article can embed. Worth seeking out regardless, just not through a link we can vouch for here.
Frequently asked questions
What Turkish film won at Berlinale 2026?
Sarı Zarflar (Yellow Letters), directed by İlker Çatak, won the Golden Bear, the festival's top prize. Kurtuluş (Salvation), directed by Emin Alper, won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at the same festival.
What is the best Turkish film of all time?
There's no single consensus answer, but Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Winter Sleep (Palme d'Or, 2014) and Yılmaz Güney's Yol (Palme d'Or, 1982) are the two most consistently cited internationally. For a more accessible, popular classic, Ayla: The Daughter of War is highly rated and easier to find.
Is Ayla on Netflix?
Reported as available in some regions per recent coverage; check your own library, since availability shifts month to month. It's also widely available to rent or buy outside Netflix.
Why don't the Ceylan and Güney classics have trailers in this article?
We couldn't find an official Turkish-studio YouTube upload for any of the three at the time of writing. Rather than link a fan-made or lower-quality upload and call it official, we've named them without an embed.