KIRILL & FRIENDS BERLIN FESTIVAL

September 6–10
CUBIX am Alexanderplatz

For more than thirty years, Joël Chapron has worked with the Cannes Film Festival as a Foreign Correspondent. A film critic, festival expert and selector, he has spent many years working with international film festivals and closely following developments in world cinema.

For the Kirill & Friends Berlin Festival, he has curated a selection of five films spanning different genres, from animation and documentary cinema to historical drama and socially engaged storytelling. Four of them were presented in various sections of the Cannes Film Festival and became highlights of their respective editions. The fifth film, Lumière! Le Cinéma by Thierry Frémaux, General Delegate of the Cannes Film Festival and Director of the Institut Lumière, is a special tribute to the origins of cinema and to the art of film itself.

Together, these films form a program that reflects Joël Chapron's personal view of contemporary cinema and at the same time serves as his declaration of love for the movies.

DREAMS OF CINEMA

In the 130 years since cinema came into being, directors have pushed technical boundaries to the point of embracing artificial intelligence—before it replaces them. It seemed right to me to return to the roots of this art of the moving image, to see how it has served—and continues to serve—the artistic vision of each filmmaker, how documentary and feature filmmaking interact, and how live-action and animated images respond to one another.

The Lumière brothers invented it all, and yet everything remained to be done. While it is often said that everything has already been said, written and filmed, it is nevertheless clear that every filmmaker's perspective on the same subject matter is different. Admittedly, stories abound, but one filmmaker's camera will focus on aspects of a story that another will overlook. It is this unique perspective that each filmmaker possesses which constitutes their strength, originality, and talent.

From the 130 short films that make up Lumière, Le Cinéma by Thierry Frémaux to Jim Queen by Marco Nguyen and Nicolas Athané—what a long way we've come! And yet both films depict the society into which they were born. In Clio Barnard's I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning, the protagonists struggle through their daily lives as they come to terms with the abandonment of the dreams they once cherished, while the characters in Christophe Dimitri Réveille's Che Guevara: The Last Companions recount the struggle they waged to see their dreams come to fruition. As for Kirill Serebrennikov's Tchaikovsky's Wife, its heroine burns her wings trying to reach the unattainable star of her husband.

Enjoy the dreams!

Joël Chapron

The Kirill & Friends Berlin Festival not only offers performances and encounters with artists, but also creates a space for experimentation, research, and the development of new artistic forms.

In the summer of 2026, an open call was announced for two festival workshops: one dedicated to movement and the other to contemporary music. We received numerous applications, after which the workshop leaders selected the participants for their programs.

Over several days, participants, musicians, students, and people from a wide range of backgrounds will work together with members of the Kirill & Friends artistic team, exploring new possibilities in theater, music, and performance. Intensive rehearsals, collective exploration, and real-time creation will form the foundation of these laboratories.

The result of each workshop will be a public presentation—fast, raw, and inevitably imperfect. Not a finished performance, but the moment an idea comes into being. Not a final product, but a process. Quick and dirty. Here and now.

I. OPEN CALL

A Contemporary Music Workshop with composer Alexander Manotskov

10, 11, 12 September 2026 | Full-day workshop, Berlin

Kirill & Friends Berlin Festival invites actors, musicians, performers, and anyone interested in exploring the intersection of voice and contemporary music theatre to take part in PROPHETS, an artistic workshop led by composer Alexander Manotskov.

Working languages: English and German.

To apply, please complete form until 7 August 2026 (Link) .

II. OPEN CALL

Artistic Workshop: Physical Theatre Lab with choreographers Evgeny Kulagin and Ivan Estegneev

4, 5 & 6 September 2026 | Full-day workshop, Berlin

Kirill & Friends Berlin Festival invites dancers, performers, physical theatre actors, circus artists, movement practitioners, and anyone interested in exploring the expressive potential of the body to take part in DANCING PLAGUE, an artistic workshop led by choreographers Evgeny Kulagin and Ivan Estegneev.

We are looking for participants who are open to intensive practice, improvisation, and collaborative artistic research. Previous professional experience is welcome, but above all we are looking for curiosity, commitment, and a willingness to experiment.

The workshop will conclude with a public presentation of DANCING PLAGUE as part of the Kirill & Friends Berlin Festival.

Working languages: English

To apply, please complete form until 7 August 2026 (Link)

September 4–13
Komische Oper Berlin / Schillertheater
Foyer

FACES IN MOTION

Exhibition of Photographs by Frol Podlesnyi

Frol Podlesnyi is the photographer and videographer of the Kirill & Friends company. For many years, he has documented Kirill Serebrennikov's productions, capturing performances, rehearsals, backstage life, and the creative process behind the work.

FACES IN MOTION is a personal photographic project by Frol Podlesnyi, bringing together portraits of artists, friends, and collaborators who, like him, have experienced relocation and the challenge of building a new life and creative practice in Europe.

Drawing on the tradition of Berlin street photography, the project lies at the intersection of portraiture and documentary observation. While Berlin remains its central point of reference, the photographs were taken in different cities across Europe, reflecting the personal journeys of the participants themselves.

Together, these portraits form a map of encounters, friendships, and shared experiences—traces left by people whose paths crossed and became part of one another's stories.

September 4–13
Komische Oper Berlin / Schillertheater Foyer

TRAGWERK

An Installation by ZIP Group

ZIP Group is an independent contemporary art collective founded in Krasnodar, Russia, now based in Berlin. After being forced to leave Russia in 2022, the artists continued their work in Germany, creating projects that explore community, urban space, migration, and collective forms of cultural life.

Created specifically for Kirill & Friends Berlin Festival and the foyer of the Komische Oper, TRAGWERK is a site-specific installation that aims to be both transparent and tangible. Composed of vertical wooden beams connected by a single steel rod, it explores solidarity and mutual support: while each beam is unstable on its own, together they form a strong, self-supporting structure.

Parts of the installation become benches and a shared table, creating a space for meetings, conversations, and exchange. The work also incorporates Safety Theater, an installation by Ksenia Sorokina and Alexandr Plotnikov dedicated to the production Finist, the Bright Falcon and to the Russian theater artists Zhenia Berkovich and Svetlana Petriychuk, who have been unjustly imprisoned for several years because of their artistic work.

Rather than seeing society as a structure shaped by individual figures, TRAGWERK offers a different vision: a community held together by people who support one another, becoming its true load-bearing structure.

This project is a collaboration between BMEIA and Kirill & Friends Company.