The program proposes participatory and interdisciplinary cultural formats, ranging from experimental film screenings and public debates to performative and community events, including a traveling cinematic route through Bucharest that transforms building façades into temporary projection surfaces. Cinema thus becomes a starting point for encounter and dialogue, while the city becomes a space in which we can explore, debate, and collectively imagine different scenarios for the future.
The project is co-financed by the Bucharest City Hall through ARCUB within the „București în premieră” 2026 Programme. The content of this material does not necessarily represent the official position of the Bucharest City Hall or that of ARCUB. For detailed information about the financing programme of Bucharest City Hall through ARCUB, you can access www.arcub.ro.
The project will open with two warm-up events combining screenings of short films from the BIEFF archive with debates about living together in Bucharest and imagining the city’s future. The first one, titled BIEFF Vanishing Futures: Longing and Belonging, will take place at Apollo111 Cinema on September 13 and will explore the role of public spaces in fostering a sense of belonging among marginalized communities. The second, titled BIEFF Vanishing Futures: The World Without Us, will take place at the Museum of Recent Art on September 20 and will focus on the potential of initiatives that combine ecology with artistic and community-based intervention to transform the city.
The program continues between September 24-27 with a series of three screenings for young audiences, followed by discussions with guests from the artistic and academic fields. The films will open up conversations about ecology and sustainable futures, the cities of tomorrow and the transformation of urban space, identity and belonging, forms of community and solidarity, as well as imagination, dreams, and play as ways of thinking about the future. All the events will take place at Cinema Elvire Popesco.
On September 27, the garden of the National Museum of Romanian Literature will host a special event conceived by the Covor Plante Poezie collective in response to the project’s central theme, “Vanishing Futures.” The event brings together poetry, performance, and live music in a unique interdisciplinary experience, followed by a community meal in an informal setting built around the idea of being together, sharing experiences, and opening conversations about the city, belonging, vulnerability, and solidarity.
The series of related events will conclude on September 29, when BIEFF invites audiences to a traveling cinematic route created in partnership with A Wall is a Screen, an international collective founded in Hamburg in 2003. For one night, building façades, walls, and other urban surfaces in Bucharest will temporarily become cinema screens. The audience will embark on a route whose starting point will be announced beforehand, while the path and screening locations will be discovered as the group moves through the city. Experimental short films projected in unconventional spaces will enter into direct dialogue with the architecture and places along the route, transforming Bucharest simultaneously into a screen, a stage, and a space for collective exploration.
“Vanishing Futures” will take place throughout September 2026 as part of Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival, across several venues in the city. The full program details and information about access will be announced in the coming period.
Passes for Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival – BIEFF will go on sale through Eventbook at the beginning of September, when the festival schedule will also be announced.
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ORGANISER: Asociația Culturală Manekino
CO-FINANCED BY: Administrația Fondului Cultural Național, Primăria Municipiului București prin ARCUB în cadrul Programului „București în premieră” 2026, MEDIA – Creative Europe
MAIN PARTNERS: The European Network for Film Discourse, Conceptual Lab by Theo Nissim, Uniunea Cineaștilor din România, Dacin Sara, Institutul Francez din România, Institutul Italian de Cultură, Goethe-Institut România, Luno
INSTITUTIONAL PARTNERS: Universitatea de Artă Teatrală și Cinematografică “I.L.Caragiale”, Arhiva Națională de Filme, Muzeul Național al Literaturii Române, Cinema Elvire Popesco, Apollo111 Cinema, A Wall is a Screen, F-Sides, MozaiQ
MEDIA PARTNERS: Talking Shorts, RFI România, Radio România Cultural, Zile și Nopți, IQads, Films in Frame, Revista FILM, Observator Cultural, LiterNet, MovieNews.ro, Cinefilia.ro, CineFan.ro, Munteanu Recomandă
“Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival, the 16th edition” is a cultural project co-financed by the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. The project does not necessarily represent the position of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. AFCN is not responsible for the content of the project or how the project results can be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the beneficiary of the funding.
“Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival, the 16th edition” is a project co-financed by the Bucharest City Hall through ARCUB within the „București în premieră” 2026 Programme. The content of this material does not necessarily represent the official position of the Bucharest City Hall or that of ARCUB. For detailed information about the financing programme of Bucharest City Hall through ARCUB, you can access www.arcub.ro.
BIEFF is part of the international festival network The European Network for Film Discourse (THE END) alongside Filmfest Dresden (DE), Vienna Shorts (AT), Curtas Vila do Conde – International Film Festival (PT), Kortfilmfestival Leuven (BE), FeKK Ljubljana Short Film Festival (SI) and Vilnius Short Film Festival (LT). Between 2025 and 2026, the network is supported by a grant from MEDIA - Creative Europe.
Other event partners, both new and traditional, are currently in the process of confirmation.
