THE ASYMMETRICAL POWER OF MUYBRIDGE
Διεθνές Διαγωνιστικό πειραματικών ταινιών / Internatioonal Experimental Film Competition
Serafeim Papaloukas
2
Greece
20265
The Asymmetrical Power of Muybridge" is an experimental video essay that explores the inherent violence of the act of capturing motion. The work is built upon the historical paradox of Eadweard Muybridge: a man acquitted of murder on the grounds that his photographic experiments were too valuable to society to be interrupted. By morphologically juxtaposing the 'scientific' entrapment of Muybridge’s horse with the anarchic movements of a contemporary basketball player, the film examines the 'asymmetrical power' of the creator over the subject. Through hyper-tonic montage and a deliberate anachronism—basketball was invented shortly after Muybridge’s breakthroughs—the piece identifies the 'shooting' of the camera with the 'shooting' of a gun. It poses a critical question: In our quest to archive life, do we inevitably become its captors?
Visual artist and filmmaker whose work explores the boundaries between media archaeology and contemporary digital aesthetics. Specializing in the deconstruction of historical archives, my practice focuses on the evolution of the moving image and the inherent tensions within the cinematic frame. By re-examining the foundations of cinematography, I seek to expose the raw mechanics of vision.
The Bar is Low - The end of the world
Διεθνές Διαγωνιστικό πειραματικών ταινιών / Internatioonal Experimental Film Competition
Sergio Kotsovoulos
3
Greece
2026
Two fellow animators, Sergio and Christina, comment on two women sitting in a bar, One of the animators sees them in 2d and the other in pixelart. The ladies have forgotten to bring cash and the bartender, although friendly, will grumble about the credit card charge. At the same time, the world around them is ending, the arrival of the ancient CTHULU from the books of H. P. Lovecraft is a fact. How many things around us are actually important? Based on a “true” story
Sergio Kotsovoulos is a Greek multi award winning designer/director using "please insert coin" as his production alias. Since the summer of 2018 Sergio is part of MAL-VI www.mal-vi.com the award-winning, interdisciplinary design and communication agency based in London, UK and Thessaloniki, Greece. From 2014 to 2019 he co-found and was part of the holistic design and film bureau, WITHIN and was one of the Creative Directors of SYNERGASTIRION an award winning Art & Design collective In Athens Greece. Sergio has vast production experience on set and in post production starting as a 3d animator and continues as a director and a set designer for various tv shows and television commercials for the major production companies in Greece. Specialties: Sergio has worked on all pre/shoot/post fields he can handle budgets wisely for all kinds of production be it theater, television, web, Virtual Reality or advertisements. find me at [email protected]
The Kiss
Διεθνές Διαγωνιστικό πειραματικών ταινιών / Internatioonal Experimental Film Competition
Stella Mari
7
Greece
2026
A volcano is threatening them with its explosion. However, it seems, that the fear for its explosion cannot get over the fear for the explosion, that their love may cause. They have been married for years. But he has been unable to get over his jealousy. And they keep on going. Because their love exceeds everything, and there is but their kiss, that can truly speak about themselves and their love.
She studied Law in Athens, Maritime Law in Southampton (England), and became a Qualified Lawyer in Athens, England and Wales. Stella Mari knew beyond any doubt, that she should reset her life and do theatre. After relevant studies and roles ( she will just refer to the starting point of her studies in theatre, the four-year study Theatre Lab of the unforgettable Akis Davis) she soon formalized her involvement- as Member of the International Theatre Institute (actress), and as Member of the Union of Greek Directors (director). Her relationship with theatre is always practically present, also as founder of the Theatre Lab POCKEtFLAT, where she teaches acting. The pandemic turned her around to the screen, at the same time, led to the birth of “pocketmovies” and finally, amongst others, to 6 short films, based on scenarios of hers. Her love for writing had led her to publish poems of hers and two plays of hers by ΚΟΥΙΝΤΑ editions. She participated in 2025 AIDFF with the film AGGELOS - written and directed by herself and Antonis Mandranis in filming and editing. She played with Manolis Vazaios. They had the reward of 'finalist'.
There is something I don't understand
Διεθνές Διαγωνιστικό πειραματικών ταινιών / Internatioonal Experimental Film Competition
Sylvia Robyn Gionti
3
Greece
2026
An analog contemplation on crossing the road to the other side in a dreamscape.
Sylvia Robyn Gionti is a director, writer and performance artist located in Athens, Greece. Pronouns: she/her, they/them
Towers Call
Διεθνές Διαγωνιστικό πειραματικών ταινιών / Internatioonal Experimental Film Competition
Gerald Habarth
5
United States
2026
I spoke to the electrical towers. Who knew they could talk? Or maybe they're just messengers. Like neurons talking in a network.
Towers Call is part of a larger ongoing animation project called North Star, exploring converging notions of space, electric currents, networks, communication signals, and thought. I’m playing with these themes through a series of animations and videos that bring together animated views of high-tension electrical towers and power lines, tiny hand-drawn neurons and synapses, radio telescopes, and the human figure interacting with them. I’m aiming for a sense of connectedness, embeddedness, and consciousness. But not so much for answers – these are musings, not proofs.
I’ve become increasingly drawn to these structures through this process. They have a kind of magnetism to them. Walking below the electrical towers and along their corridors provides a strange sense of connection, and even comfort. I begin to wonder: Might these networks “think” in the way that neurons do as they send and receive signals? Could they somehow be aware? How do we connect to them beyond our physical bodies? Where do we end and they begin?
Some of the imagery and ideas in this animation were developed during a 2026 residency at Signal Culture in Binghamton, NY.
The audio here is composed using sounds sampled from the ALMA Sounds project of the ALMA observatory in northern Chile. These sounds were once radio waves from the Orion Nebula – traveling nearly 1500 years at the speed of light – captured and transformed into audio by astronomers and engineers.
Gerald Habarth is an artist and animator currently serving as Associate Professor of Art at West Virginia University where he heads the Digital Art & Animation area in the School of Art and Design. He holds an MFA degree from the University of South Florida and a BFA degree from Parsons School of Design. His artwork centers on experimental approaches to animation and video, exploring a range of subjects from personal memories and historical events to reflections on consciousness, perception and mortality. They often merge photographic, hand-drawn and digital processes to explore the boundaries of narrative, expression, and the medium. His works have screened at numerous national and international festivals and venues including Festival Les Instants Vidéo, Stuttgarter Filmwinter, Bogotá Experimental Film Festival and the Tampa Museum of Art. He currently resides on the outskirts of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Vidi Serpentem
Διεθνές Διαγωνιστικό πειραματικών ταινιών / Internatioonal Experimental Film Competition
Giannakopoulos Efstathios
4
Greece
2026
In a sterile bedroom, a woman awakens to find a serpent beside her. Instead of reacting with fear, she is drawn into a slow, intimate interaction. The serpent becomes more than a creature — it is a manifestation of something deeper: instinct, temptation, memory, and transformation.
Stathis is an award-winning filmmaker, screenwriter, and visual artist from Greece. His work spans across narrative cinema, dance films, documentaries, music videos, and conceptual photography.
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Διεθνές Διαγωνιστικό πειραματικών ταινιών / Internatioonal Experimental Film Competition
Ian Gibbins Gibbins
7
Australia
2026
"itself all dry / leaf / rustle [and] splinter akin [to] skeletal bone [but] not animal... "
In 2025, South Australia emerged from a severe summer drought, accompanied by searing heat, bushfires and dying woodlands, only for the coastal waters to be devastated by a harmful algal bloom that killed millions of marine creatures. During winter, at the peak of the bloom, massive storms combined with high tides and large swells pounded the beaches leading to unprecedented damage. The clear driver for these events is anthropogenic climate change exacerbated by habitat destruction and pollution.
The domains of the four classical elements - earth, fire, water, air - have been severely disrupted, and the fifth element, aether, the quintessence, is as elusive as ever. We can plot changes in hydration (isohyets), temperature (isotherms), salinity (isohalides) and atmospheric pressure (isobars), but ultimately, they are all measures of different forms of the same thing (isomers): the damage we continue to do to our environment.
Each scene in this video has been composited from multiple sources, mostly from around South Australia. No AI was involved. These are visions of a near future, in which the world has changed for ever. Signs of human habitation are in ruins, many species are extinct, while out of the shadows, we glimpse traces of the survivors and their biomorphic descendants .
Ian Gibbins is a poet, video artist and electronic musician living in South Australia. His poetry has been widely published in Australia and overseas, and includes four books. His award-winning poetry videos, video art and soundscapes have been exhibited to acclaim at festivals, installations, galleries and public art displays around the world. Until he retired in 2014, Ian was an internationally recognised neuroscientist and Professor of Anatomy at Flinders University, South Australia.
