Visegrad Film Forum 2026 | March 11–14

Step out of your classroom and into four days of concentrated exchange with filmmakers and fellow students from across Europe.

After a successful collaboration last year, the Visegrad Film Forum once again invites students from Film EU institutions beyond its official partner schools to take part in its programme. The 13th edition of VFF will take place March 11–14 at The Academy of Performing Arts (VŠMU) in Bratislava and Cinema Lumière, offering Film EU students four intensive days immersed in contemporary filmmaking discourse.

VFF brings film students into close contact with filmmakers and professionals who openly discuss their creative processes, choices, and doubts. The programme is built around detailed masterclasses, case studies, and conversations that focus on how films are actually made: from the first idea to final decisions.

Guests of this year’s Visegrad Film Forum

This year’s Visegrad Film Forum brings together an exceptional group of filmmakers and film professionals whose work spans radically different cinematic territories, from European auteur cinema to Hollywood blockbusters. United less by style than by practice, the invited guests share a deep commitment to cinema as a craft shaped by time, collaboration, and material decisions. Whether working with actors, documentary subjects, physical space, or practical effects, each of them approaches filmmaking from within the process itself, privileging experience, precision, and presence over formula.

Among this year’s guests are German production designer Uli Hanisch, whose work ranges from Babylon Berlin to The Queen’s Gambit; German–Romanian documentary filmmaker Alexander Nanau, known for intimate long-term films such as Toto and His Sisters and Collective; Hungarian director György Pálfi, one of the most singular voices in contemporary European cinema, whose films from Taxidermia to Hen continue to challenge cinematic conventions; and American special effects creator Shane Patrick Mahan, a key figure behind iconic films including The Terminator, Iron Man, and The Shape of Water. Together, they offer a rare opportunity to encounter filmmaking across borders, genres, and generations, revealing how vastly different approaches can coexist within a shared dedication to cinema as a living, hands-on art form.

Why Apply

VFF offers a rare chance to step out of the classroom and into a shared international space with other film students, emerging filmmakers, and experienced professionals. It is an environment that encourages curiosity, critical thinking, and exchange across disciplines — directing, cinematography, editing, sound, production, and film theory.

Participants are not passive listeners. Questions, discussion, and engagement are at the centre of the experience.

Film Criticism Workshop (with AGRFT)

Students interested in writing and thinking about film can also apply for the Peer-to-Peer Film Criticism Workshop, organised in collaboration with AGRFT (Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television, Ljubljana). The workshop provides a focused setting for developing analytical skills, critical language, and confidence in articulating ideas about cinema.

Accommodation Covered by VFF

To support wider participation, VFF provides accommodation for selected Film EU students through a dedicated budget created specifically for this collaboration.

How to Apply

To apply, Film EU students should:

  • contact their Film EU coordinator or designated contact person at their home institution,
  • express interest in participating in the Visegrad Film Forum and optional activities,
  • selected students will be connected directly with the VFF organising team.

Four days, one concentrated programme, dozens of conversations that can reshape how you think about film.


Apply through your Film EU institution and join us during VFF 2026 in Bratislava this March!