[Commlist] 2026 INEFF Conference Call for Contributions

The fourth Experimental Fiction Film Conference will take place on 18-19 
June 2026 in MediaCityUK, Manchester. The conference aims to explore and 
define the boundaries of Experimental Fiction Filmmaking (EFF) by 
bringing together practice-as-research (PaR) academics, film scholars, 
industry professionals and independent filmmakers for a series of 
workshops, presentations and screenings.

​EFF draws upon traditions in cinema, experimental film, art cinema and 
expanded cinema, but also specific philosophical concerns and 
practitioner insights and sensibilities. EFF is not tied to one 
particular movement or period of cinema history, some of its varied 
histories can be traced back to the modernist period in the early 20th 
century, for example the early works of Surrealism in cinema, photogenie 
and the work of Jean Epstein and Louis Delluc, or the experiments in 
montage of Sergei Eisenstein and Dziga Vertov. More contemporary 
examples can be found in the work of Agnes Varda, Vera Chytilova, 
William Greaves, Lars von Trier, Claire Denis, Werner Herzog, Andrei 
Tarkovsky, Harmony Korine, Luis Bunuel, Lucile Hadzihalilovic, Tsai Ming 
Liang, Wong Kar Wai, Philippe Grandrieux, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 
Mike Figgis, and many others. However, the aim of this event is not to 
re-reclassify the history of cinema based on narrative or formal 
markers, but rather to establish and develop a set of experimental 
methods and approaches to fiction film production, which will expand on 
the creative potential of cinema and provide guidance and inspiration to 
both established and emerging filmmakers, in a rapidly developing 
technological context. Alongside this practical experimentation, the 
event asks how experimental fiction filmmaking might enable new modes of 
critical engagement and interpretation with the processes developed and 
the films made, within their theoretical, philosophical and ethical 
contexts.

Film fiction continues to be a form of storytelling under constant 
development, whether in terms of exploration of film’s unique 
audio-visual possibilities of expression and communication, or new 
processes afforded to filmmakers through changing cultural and 
technological contexts. Therefore, film fiction can benefit from new 
conceptualisations of storytelling that are rooted both in the 
specificity of film as a  medium, and the way different contexts and 
processes might be brought to film anew. Practice-as-research in film is 
a useful approach to developing such new conceptual approaches.
 Some of the questions that the INEFF Conference hopes to address 
include but are not limited to:
– What are the creative possibilities and boundaries of experimental 
fiction filmmaking?
– Which processes of collaboration can inform novel and meaningful 
experimental fiction film outputs?
– How might new technology shape new narrative fiction forms?
– How might experimental fiction filmmaking lead to novel modes of 
critical engagement and interpretation?
– How might we define Experimental Fiction Filmmaking?

INEFF 2026 aims to continue the conversations from previous iterations 
of the conference.

Proposals may consider ways in which an experimental fiction film practice:
– Invents new filmic concepts and processes.
– Offers emancipation through the disruption of taken-for-granted 
industry norms and standards.
– Redefines the grammar of film.
– Subverts established narrative conventions of cinema, and privileges 
the emergence of spontaneous moments and structures over prefigured 
narratives.
– Privileges care and collaboration over power and hierarchies.
– Mobilises theory into practice.
– Is a termite art form, which privileges aesthetic innovation over the 
gloss of perfection.
– Plays with duration and running time in ways that sit between the 
traditions of short film and the feature. – Operates as an independent 
or low-budget art form. How might we reconsider crew roles and 
responsibilities?

We also welcome proposals that seek to expand understanding of EFF in 
directions that are not articulated in the prompts above.

We welcome proposals for PaR statements (1000-2000 words) accompanied by 
audio-visual practice and/or documentation, short papers (2500-3500 
words), workshops or performances (up to 30 minutes) and installations 
(negotiable).
PaR statements and papers will be published on the INEFF.org website 
ahead of the event, and will inform a five-minute live verbal summary as 
part of a thematic panel, followed by a critical discussion during the 
event. Where relevant, the accompanying practice will be included in a 
dedicated screening during the event ahead of the thematic panel, and, 
with your permission, can also be included on the website alongside your 
statement. ​

Submit your proposal by Friday 20 February 2026 at 
https://www.ineff.org/2026call.html


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