Draft:Autocracies
2026 vertical web series about contemporary autocracies
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- Documentary
- Political
| Autocracies | |
|---|---|
| Genre |
|
| Country of origin | Germany |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
| Producer | Mathias Schwerbrock |
| Original release | |
| Network | YouTube, X, Instagram, Bluesky, TikTok |
| Release | 11 February 2026 |
Submission declined on 13 March 2026 by Pythoncoder (talk).
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Autocracies is a 2026 political vertical web series produced by Film Base Berlin GmbH and directed by anonymous filmmakers. The series examines the global rise of autocratic governance and its impact on democratic institutions worldwide, drawing on data from the V-Dem Institute at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. It was launched simultaneously across multiple social media platforms on 11 February 2026.
The project is notable for its use of the vertical (9:16 portrait) format, designed natively for mobile viewing, and for the deliberate anonymity of its directors — a creative and political decision reflecting the risks faced by filmmakers working in or reporting from authoritarian states.
Background and concept
The series takes its thematic impetus from data published by the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute, a research institute at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, which tracks political regimes worldwide. According to V-Dem data cited in the series, in 2024 there were 91 autocracies and 88 democracies globally.[1] The series poses the central question of how that ratio might shift by 2026, amid widespread global concern about democratic backsliding. The project is listed on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) under Film Base Berlin's company filmography.[2]
The project is part of a broader surge of politically engaged documentary and hybrid content responding to the global trend of democratic backsliding, a phenomenon documented by organisations including V-Dem, Freedom House, and the Economist Intelligence Unit. The series is designed to reach international audiences across multiple digital ecosystems through short-form, mobile-native content.
Format and distribution
Platforms
The series was released simultaneously on 11 February 2026 across five social media platforms: YouTube, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, Bluesky, and TikTok. This multi-platform simultaneous release strategy is intended to maximise international reach and allow the content to find audiences across different regional and demographic ecosystems.
The inclusion of Bluesky — a decentralised social network that gained significant traction following changes at X in 2023–2024 — indicates an intent to reach audiences sceptical of centralised corporate platforms, which may include politically engaged communities most likely to engage with content about democratic erosion.
Vertical format
The series adopts a vertical (9:16 aspect ratio) format designed for portrait-orientation mobile screens. This format, popularised by platforms such as TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts, prioritises accessibility and native mobile consumption over traditional cinematic presentation. The choice of a vertical format for political documentary content is notable, representing a deliberate effort to bring serious political subject matter into the short-form video ecosystem most commonly associated with entertainment content.
Production
Film Base Berlin
Film Base Berlin GmbH is a Berlin-based film and television production company founded in 2006 by producer Mathias Schwerbrock.[3] The company has an extensive track record of international co-productions and service productions, including the Bollywood action film Don 2 (2011, co-produced with Excel Entertainment, Mumbai), the BBC America series Killing Eve (service production, 2017–2018), the Amazon Studios series The Man in the High Castle (service production, 2017), and the Netflix documentary Eldorado: Everything the Nazis Hate (2023).[4] The company and the Autocracies series are listed on Crew United, the largest European online network for film professionals, where the series has its own dedicated project page.[5]
Film Base Berlin is a member of the Independent Producers Association of Germany (PROG).[3] Mathias Schwerbrock is a member of the European Film Academy.[3]
Schwerbrock has previously directed the short film Killing Boxes, which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale), under the pseudonym R. Troppman.[4] The use of pseudonyms and anonymous credits in the Autocracies series thus has a precedent within the company's own filmography.
Anonymous directors
One of the series' most distinctive features is the attribution of its direction to "Anonymous." This choice is understood as both a political statement and a practical precaution. Films that critically document autocratic regimes may expose their makers to legal, professional, or physical risk, particularly if the directors are citizens of or residents in countries being depicted. The anonymisation of creative personnel is a practice with precedent in political journalism and documentary filmmaking in authoritarian contexts.[6]
Political context
The series emerges during a period of sustained global concern about the erosion of democratic norms and institutions. According to V-Dem's 2024 Democracy Report, the world reached a tipping point at which autocracies outnumbered democracies for the first time since the early 2000s. The report identified autocratization — a gradual process of democratic erosion rather than sudden coup — as the dominant mode of regime change in the contemporary period.[7]
The V-Dem Institute's 2026 Democracy Report, published on 18 March 2026, confirmed and deepened the trend the series foregrounds. The report found that by end of 2025 there were 92 autocracies and 87 democracies worldwide — a further deterioration from the 91–88 split of 2024. It concluded that global democracy had fallen back to 1978 levels, and notably downgraded the United States from a liberal democracy to an electoral democracy for the first time in more than 50 years. The report estimated that 74 percent of the world's population — approximately 6 billion people — now live under autocratic governments.[8]
The project's release in February 2026 coincided with the 76th Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale), which ran 12–22 February 2026, and with heightened global debate about the health of democratic institutions in Europe, the Americas, and Asia. While Autocracies was not part of the official Berlinale selection, its Berlin-based production and launch date positioned it within a broad cultural moment of political filmmaking.
Release
The series launched on 11 February 2026 and is distributed exclusively through social media platforms, with no announced theatrical or traditional broadcast distribution. The production company's website hosts the project's page, featuring production stills but no detailed episode synopsis or cast information, consistent with the series' policy of minimal public-facing documentation of creative personnel.[9]
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