European Media Art Festival 2026

In the organizer's words:

Films - Videos - Installations - Performances - Lectures - Exhibition

In its programs, the EMAF takes up developments and discourses that shape our social coexistence - be they of an artistic, technological or political nature. This debate takes place in particular within the framework of the festival theme.

With this year's focus "An Incomplete Assembly", we would like to shed light on the role and responsibility of (art) institutions: What free spaces can and must they offer, but where do they also prevent open exchange and encounters? What benefits do they have for whom, and at whose expense? How can their resources be used or redirected to initiate positive change?

The exhibition curated by Inga Seidler (Kunsthalle Osnabrück until May 25, 2026) thinks of institutions as "performative ensembles", as choreographed processes, as collective structures of roles, rhythms and silent agreements that can be read, adapted, disrupted and improvised.

The film program on the theme of "An Incomplete Assembly", curated by Ana Vaz, attempts to expand our idea of film as a completed work. It examines practices that view their creation process not as a means to an end, but as a central component of the works themselves. "What Is Needed", curated by Raquel Schefer and Philip Widmann, is dedicated to the Mostra Internacional de Cinema de Intervenção, a festival that took place in post-revolutionary Portugal in 1976, through film screenings and discussions.

The Talks & Workshops curated by Franziska Pierwoss deal with the everyday realities of cultural work in a practice-oriented way. The program asks how we work - on site, in process and in relation to each other.
This year's "Artist in Focus" series is dedicated to the artist Marwa Arsanios. In her films, she accompanies feminist collectives and initiatives in Iraqi Kurdistan, Syria, Lebanon and Colombia, who are fighting for their right to land and self-determination, the restoration of historical common property and the passing on of knowledge. In addition to her own work, Arsanios will be showing films by other authors, complemented by workshops, readings and discussions with guests.

The extremely successful Expanded Cinema series "Unburdened Recollections" will be continued this year with a new concept. The initiators Anja Dornieden and Juan David González Monroy have invited the curator duo Mark Toscano and Zena Grey from Los Angeles to show two evenings of experimental films and videos from the 1960s and 70s that not only expand our perception, but also our consciousness. In this year's International Selection and Features Films, 30 current short films and four feature-length films will be shown, which we will bring into dialog with three other historical works.

Further information can be found at www.emaf.de.

various times
Organizer: Int. Experimentalfilm Workshop e.V.

seated, free choice of seats

Price information:

Tickets for 3, 5 and day tickets as well as festival passes are available from April 22, 2 p.m. at the info counter in the Lagerhalle. One-way tickets are available at the Box Offices of the venues. Information on tickets at www.emaf.de/service