Hungarian Premiere

Sorella’s Story

Peter is an award-winning writer, director, and producer of both documentary and drama films. Since beginning his professional career in 1999, his films have screened in numerous national and international festivals and been broadcast around the world. With an Academy Award shortlist under his belt by the age of 26, Peter has earned the attention of critics the world over. At times he has even been called a “rising star” and one of Queensland’s best and brightest. Peter also lectures at Griffith Film School and runs the Master of Screen Production course as program director. In 2011 Peter was awarded the Griffith University Alumni Award for his achievements in filmmaking. He continues to break new ground since, including venturing into new work with local communities, writing and directing versatile short films, developing a reality TV series, and an ambitious feature film work.

Solastalgia

Szymon Rogiński (b. 1975 in Gdańsk). Visual artist, photographer, and author of photobooks. Lives and works in Warsaw. With photography as a base for his work and practice, for more than twenty years he has been working in series, focusing on nocturnes and the material qualities of light. His work, present in a number of collections (i.e. MuFo in Krakow, the Wroclaw Contemporary Museum, and the National Institute of Architecture and Urban Planning in Warsaw), has been exhibited in museums and galleries around the world. Outside of working solo, he enjoys collaborations, both in artistic and commercial contexts in the role of photographer/director. Inspirations for his works range from David Lynch and road movies, pop culture and Poland (as cliché, phantasm, and place), to the Anthropocene, postapocalyptic scenarios and visions, and the man-altered landscape. Right now, he is in the process of exploring the creative uses of drone photography, photogrammetry, as well as VR.

Plastisapiens

Miri Chekhanovich is a multi-disciplinary visual artist who blends bio-material research, film, and installation. Born in Armenia, Miri grew up in Jerusalem and immigrated to Canada in 2013. She currently lives and works in Tiohtià:ke (Montreal). Her work emerges from what she refers to as a gentle state of emergency, which leads her to make, share, and intervene in public space. The artist is interested in neglected materials, geological history, wounds, and the illusion of time.

Edith Jorisch is a screenwriter and director based in Montreal, known for her work in fiction. After completing her studies in screenwriting and television at UQAM, she directed her first feature-length documentary, “L’héritier(The Heir)”, in 2016. Her video installation “Being-With” was presented by the Phi Center in Montreal, as well as in the Theatre of Virtuallity during the 58th Venice Biennale in 2019. Her bio-material research work is exhibited internationally including at the Hors Piste festival at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in 2021. Since 2019, Miri works in a duo with the director Edith Jorisch, their first collaboration; “Plastisapiens” presented in a world premiere at Tribeca Film Festival and won the IDFA DocLab Special Jury Award for Creative Technology In 2022. In addition to Plastisapiens, the duo is currently developing a new interactive video installation called “Fruit Opera”.

Missing 10 Hours

Fanni is currently a Senior Lecturer at Victoria University Wellington – Te Herenga Waka, where she teaches in the Master of Design Technology program. Previously, she taught "VR for good" non-linear storytelling at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design and earned her BA degree. Fanni is a graduate of the New York University ITP Program, where she earned her master’s degree in 2019. She is an Unreal Engine Technical Artist, Director, and Researcher who focuses on elevating the stories of underestimated individuals in XR to achieve measurable positive real-world impact. Her recent project, Missing 10 Hours has earned recognition as the Best in Show VR at Siggraph Los Angeles and Best XR Impact at DocEdge Film Festival New Zealand. The five-year-long community-based project led to the development of a series of co-creation strategies and principles, which she actively uses in her teaching and artistic work within her female digital artist collective RUMEXR.

From the Main Square

Pedro Harres is a director, animator, screenwriter, and multimedia artist born in Porto Alegre and based in Berlin. He holds a BA in Cinema from UNISINOS (Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos) and a BA in Philosophy from UFRGS (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul), both in Brazil; and an MA in Animation Direction from Babelsberg Film Universität, Germany. Among his previous works are the short film “A Smaller Animal (Um Animal Menor)”, which received several awards in Brazil; The video installation “Ego Machine (EgoMáquina)”, and the short film “Castillo y el Armado”, Oscar-qualified in 2015 and premiered in the Orizzonti competition at Venice Film Festival. “From The Main Square” is his Master’s thesis in Directing Animation at Babelsberg Film University, his debut in interactive VR, and won the Immersive Grand Jury Prize at the 79th Venice International Film Festival 2022.

Fresh Memories: The Look

Volodymyr Kolbasa is a filmmaker and media artist with a background in classical cinema and immersive XR and media art. He also graduated as a cinematographer from the master's course in digital narratives at the international film school in Cologne and from the Viewfinder Erasmus Mundus master's course, within the latter program he also studied at the National Film School @ IADT, Ireland, SZFE, Hungary and the Baltic Film School, Tallinn. In addition to his film work, he also contributes to the development of AR projects for museum spaces and VR interactive films.

Ondřej Morávec is an independent director, screenwriter, and producer. He closely collaborates with Brainz Studios independent creative group. Since 2014 he has worked as an independent dramaturgist for multiple Czech film festivals. He curates VR movie categories at Anifilm, Letní filmová škola, Febiofest, and Zlín film fest festivals and he is the co-founder of Art*VR Festival in Prague (CZ). The world premiere of his first VR project ‘Darkening’ was held at the Venice Film Festival in 2022. Later, it was nominated for the Czech Lion Award in the animated movie category. His new project Fresh Memories: The Look premiered at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival this year.

21-22 China

Thierry Loa has diligently been exploring and working in various visual and media disciplines, on a diverse and mixed array of projects such as video installations, narrative films, symphonic cinema, VR cinema, interactive design, and photography. Conducting both commissioned and self-produced projects, and being interdisciplinary, Thierry shares his time between filmmaking, interactive design, photography, writing, drawing and traveling the World. As a filmmaker, he completed his feature film: a nonverbal film symphony titled 20-22 OMEGA (20-22.COM) evoking the classical symphonic films of the 1920s while giving a profound look at the contemporary Posthumans of the Anthropocene. Now he is working on the sequel project titled 21-22: a 360 VR film series exploring the state of life and nature on planet Earth.

Is There Anybody Out There?

Ella Glendining is a writer-director dedicated to telling authentic disabled stories. She has written and directed short films with backing from Film4, the BFI, Arts Council England, Screen South, and the National Paralympic Heritage Trust. Glendining was named one of Screen International’s Stars of Tomorrow 2020. She is currently writing a feature fiction film called Curiosities of Fools for the BFI.

Rap and Reindeer

Petteri Saario is a Finnish documentary filmmaker, specialized in directing and shooting films about disappearing natural and cultural values, and the complex relationship between man and nature. He runs an independent production company, DocArt. His films have been awarded and screened at numerous festivals around the world, including IDFA, Prix Europa, Krakow Film Festival, Moscow Film Festival and Japan Wildlife Film Festival.

The Mind Game

Eefje Blankevoort studied history at the University of Amsterdam, and has since developed into a journalistic Swiss Army Knife. She writes articles and books, makes interactive projects, exhibitions and documentary films. She is the co-founder of the journalistic production agency, Prospektor. She co-directed The Mind Game.

Els van Driel is a freelance documentary filmmaker. She created the award-winning youth documentary series, Just Kids, about children’s rights, and was co-founder/director, together with Eefje Blankevoort, of the multimedia productions The Asylummachine and The Deal, an analysis of the consequences of the 2017 EU-Turkey deal. In 2020, she co-directed Shadow Game, a multi-award winning transmedia documentary project.

Sajid Khan (SK) Nasiri was born in Afghanistan, in 2004. He had just turned fifteen when he fled his homeland. His perilous journey to and through Europe took more than two years. He was one of the main characters in the multi-award winning documentary Shadow Game, and one of the driving forces behind the accompanying impact campaign, “Protect Children on the Move.” He has spoken in the European Parliament, at the Council of Europe, and in the Croatian Parliament to raise awareness of the violation of refugee children’s rights. He is currently studying in Belgium, and is working on becoming a TikTok journalist, reporting on the life of refugee teenagers in Europe and the Afghan diaspora. This is his co-directorial debut.

22nd Verzió

11-19 NOVEMBER 2025.