Over the past decades, this section has established itself as one of the festival’s leading platforms for avant-garde cinema, showcasing filmmakers who explore new relationships between image, sound, archive, performance, and the cinematic apparatus. The 2026 edition continues this commitment, bringing together works from a wide range of geographical and artistic contexts in a programme that challenges viewers’ perceptions and invites reflection on the very boundaries of cinema.

Among this year’s featured filmmakers is British artist and filmmaker Miranda Pennell, who is also the subject of this edition’s In Focus programme, with A person of the forest. The competition also includes new works by internationally acclaimed figures from the worlds of contemporary art and experimental cinema, including Kevin Jerome Everson, in collaboration with Claudrena N. Harold, Basma Alsharif, Charles-André Coderre, Jordan Strafer, and Abdellah Taïa — artists whose deeply personal and politically engaged practices continue to redefine the possibilities of the moving image.

The selection also features a strong Portuguese presence, with films by Inês Leal, Lúcia Prancha, Leonardo Pirondi, Weyna Macedo, Lucas Parente, Adeciany Castro, and Mariana Smith, reflecting the vitality of experimental filmmaking developed in Portugal and through international co-productions.

Bringing together performative installations, archive-based films, visual essays, works on film, and projects that intersect cinema, visual arts, and sound creation, the Experimental Competition once again confirms Curtas Vila do Conde as one of Europe’s leading festivals for emerging forms of the moving image and the continual reinvention of cinematic expression.

Selected Films – Experimental Competition 2026

• A person of the forest — Miranda Pennell (United Kingdom / Netherlands) | Documentary / Experimental | 34'

• A Planet Painted by Hand — Martí Madaula Esquirol (Spain / Germany / France / USA) | Experimental / Documentary | 19'

• Aftertide — Kaiwen Ren (USA / China) | Experimental | 4'

• Cairo Streets — Abdellah Taïa (France) | Documentary / Experimental | 19'

• Cannibal Carnival — Inês Leal (Portugal) | Experimental | 7'

• At Night — Anouk Chambaz (Italy / Switzerland) | Experimental / Fiction | 8'

• DISSONANCE — Jordan Strafer (Germany) | Experimental | 13'

• From the Cauldron of the Saint Cross of the Desert — Weyna Macedo, Lucas Parente, Adeciany Castro & Mariana Smith (Brazil) | Experimental | 11'

• Dooni — Kevin Jerome Everson & Claudrena N. Harold (USA / China) | Experimental | 8'

• Here or Here — Collectif Hasard, Hélène Rastegar, Shayma Awawdeh, Maxime Faure, Julie Mengelle, Emmanuel Piton, Fuad Hindieh & Ariane Zevaco (France) | Experimental / Documentary | 8'

• Wild Imaginings — Lúcia Prancha (Portugal) | Experimental | 11'

• YahneYahne or the Drowned Child — Antoinette Zwirchmayr (Austria) | Experimental | 10'

• JIRAPO — Maria Rojas Arias (Colombia / Portugal) | Experimental | 19'

• Mental Toughness — Charles-André Coderre (Canada) | Experimental | 20'

• Morning Circle — Basma Alsharif (Canada / United Arab Emirates) | Experimental | 21'

• Opera — Igor Zelic (Croatia) | Experimental | 20'

• Skin of Dead Bull — Aroldo Murguia (Peru) | Experimental | 24'

• Modern Rose, Huancor, Pakatnamu Premonition, Three Short Forms — Louidgi Beltrame (France / Peru) | Documentary / Experimental | 25'

• Language Models — Sidney Mandros & Giancarlo M. Sandoval (Peru / USA) | Experimental | 29'

• Travelers' Suite — Leonardo Pirondi (Portugal / Brazil) | Experimental | 7'

• Unruhe — Carlos Pereira (Germany) | Experimental | 12'

• WITH LOVE AND RAGE — Bojina Panayotova (France) | Documentary / Experimental | 43'