Guests - Espoo Ciné

Main Guests

Erika Balsom – Curator

Erika Balsom is a reader in Film and Media Studies at King’s College London. She is the author of four books, including After Uniqueness: A History of Film and Video Art in Circulation (2017) and TEN SKIES (2021). Her writing has appeared in publications including Bookforum, Camera Obscura, Cinema Scope, e-flux, frieze, Film Comment, New Left Review, and Screen, as well as in exhibition catalogues on artists including Ed Atkins, Aria Dean, Amar Kanwar, and Christian Marclay. Her curatorial practice extends across the cinema and the gallery and includes the major survey exhibition “No Master Territories: Feminist Worldmaking and the Moving Image,” which began at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, in 2022 and has since toured internationally. In 2026, Columbia University Press will publish her criticism collection The Edges of Cinema: Essays on 21st Century Film Culture.

Ben Rivers – Artist in Focus

Ben Rivers has made around 40 films. His work treads a line between documentary and fiction, often following people who have in some way separated themselves from mainstream society, creating oblique narratives imagining alternative existences. He has won multiple awards including the EYE Art Film Prize; FIPRESCI International Critics Prize, 68th Venice Film Festival for his first feature film Two Years At Sea; Baloise Art Prize, Art Basel; Paul Hamlyn Award for Artists, twice winner of the Tiger Award at Rotterdam Film Festival, and most recently the Pardo Verde for Mare’s Nest at Locarno Film Festival.

He was commissioned by Artangel to make The Two Eyes Are Not Brothers, shown at the former BBC Television Centre, London and The Whitworth Museum, Manchester. Solo shows include It’s About Time, STUK, Leuven; After London, Jeu de Paume, Paris; Urthworks, Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo/Hestercombe Gallery, Somerset; Phantoms, Triennale, Milan; Urth, Renaissance Society, Chicago; Islands, Hamburg Kunstverein; Earth Needs More Magicians, Camden Arts Centre, London. He recently had a full retrospective at Jeu de Paume, Paris.

Nour Ouayda – Artist in Focus

Nour Ouayda is a filmmaker and film programmer. She explores the multiple relationships between image, text, voice, and sound, through filmmaking, curating, research, and writing. She approaches these practices as part of a single ecosystem that supports diverse cinematic forms and formats. Her films, videos, and curated programs have been presented at festivals, exhibition venues, and museums internationally. Her film The Secret Garden (2023) received the Boundless Vision Award at Images Festival 2024 and the Best Experimental Film award at FestCurtas Vila do Conde 2023. She is the artistic director of The Second Encounter and The Multiple Lives of Images, a festival and symposium on archival practices organized by Metropolis Cinema Association as part of its Cinematheque Beirut project. She is also a 2026 fellow of the Network of Arab Alternative Screens (NAAS) research and curatorial fellowship, a member of the editorial team of the Montreal-based film journal Hors Champ, and part of the artist collective The Camelia Committee. She teaches film programming in Beirut.

Seminar speakers – Day 1

Krist Gruijthuijsen Director and CEO of EMMA. Former Director of KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2016–2024). Internationally recognised for his artist-driven, experimental approach to curating and institutional programming.

Itha O'Neill Head of Curatorial at Amos Rex, Helsinki. Over 15 years curating contemporary art with a focus on new media, technology, and installation. She has co-curated The Phantom Combatants and the Metabolism of Disobedient Organs - a solo presentation by Natasha Tontey - currently showing in Venice 2026.

Saara Hacklin, PhD, is a curator, writer, and researcher based in Helsinki. She works as Chief Curator for collections at the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Finnish National Gallery.

Paul O'Neill Artistic Director of PUBLICS, Helsinki. Curator, writer, and educator; former Director of the Graduate Program at the Center for Curatorial Studies (CCS), Bard College, , New York. Author of the critically acclaimed bookThe Culture of Curating and the Curating of Culture(s).

Sini Mononen Art critic and Academy of Finland Research Fellow at the University of Helsinki. Regular contributor to Helsingin Sanomat. Currently researching music and sound in expanded cinema.

Arturo Delgado Spanish filmmaker and Associate Professor of Documentary Film at Aalto University. Award-winning documentarist. His works have been screened at international festivals such as DOK Leipzig, IDFA, IFFR.

Ben Rivers — Artist in Focus. London-based experimental filmmaker working at the threshold of documentary and fiction. Winner of multiple international awards including the Tiger Award (IFFR) and the Pardo Verde for Mare's Nest (Locarno, 2025).

Nour Ouayda — Artist in Focus. Beirut-based filmmaker, programmer, and member of the editorial team of Hors Champ. Artistic director of The Second Encounter and The Multiple Lives of Images at Cinematheque Beirut project. Her films navigate documentary, fiction, and the political imagination of landscape.

Azar Saiyar is a Helsinki-based filmmaker and media artist. Work based on various kinds of archives and screened at international film and art galleries. She received the AVEK Award for media art in 2022.

Seminar speakers - Day 2

Erika Balsom — Invited Curator. Reader in Film Studies at King's College London, author of several books on artists' moving image, and curator of major international exhibitions. Her forthcoming The Edges of Cinema shapes the keynote lecture.

Ieva Balode Artist and co-founder of Baltic Analog Lab, Riga. Director of experimental film festival Process. Internationally exhibited filmmaker working with photochemical film, installation, and performance.

Britt Al-Busultan Finland-based artist and founder of Filmverkstaden, Vaasa. Working exclusively with analogue film since 2006. Internationally exhibited in expanded cinema, live performance, and film installation (IFFR, Ann Arbor, AAVE).

Lasse Vairio Helsinki-based artist and co-founder of ELK LAB. MFA in Time and Space Art, Finnish Academy of Fine Arts. Works at the intersection of the everyday and the fantastical through film and sound.

Avreno Heikka Programme Coordinator at AV-arkki. Curator, programmer, and writer specialising in artists' moving image and experimental cinematic practices. MFA in Art and Media from Aalto University.

Otto Kylmälä Senior Curator at Kino Regina. Former Artistic Director of Loud Silents Festival and Oulu Music Video Festival. Member of The International Federation of Film Archives' (FIAF) programming committee PACC.

Leena Närekangas Executive Director of ELKE, an association founded by Finnish filmmakers. Cinema Orion. Nearly 30 years in audiovisual culture as distributor, festival director, and producer.

Danai Anagnostou Producer and co-founder of Kenno Filmi, Helsinki. Doctoral candidate at Aalto University researching feminist film collectives. Most recent films screened at IFFR, Sarajevo, Nordisk Panorama.

Ulla Simonen Director of AVEK. Over 30 years in Finnish audiovisual culture as producer, festival director, and decision-maker. Former Artistic Director of DocPoint. Contributed to international training and industry initiatives, and a key role in bringing the Kehittämö development programme.

Hanna Maria Anttila Executive Director of AV-arkki and artist. Studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Helsinki and School of Visual Arts New York. Central figure in Finnish media art distribution and production.

Tuuli Penttinen-Lampisuo Producer and writer at Poike Productio. Extensive experience producing short films, video installations, and commissioned media art projects alongside leading Finnish artists.

Artistic Steering Committee

Mika Taanila Helsinki-based filmmaker and visual artist. Films screened at Berlinale, IFFR, IDFA, and Oberhausen. Installations shown at Venice Biennale (2017) and Documenta (2012). Co-founder of Testifilmi.

Milja Viita Visual artist and filmmaker based in Porvoo. Risto Jarva Award winner (2019). Her experimental feature People on Sunday (2026) is a rare theatrical release in Finnish experimental cinema.

Live Cinema Performers

Britt Al-Busultan Founder of Filmverkstaden and expanded cinema artist. Her immersive 16mm performances transform light, darkness, and motion into living, breathing spaces.

Ieva Balode Artist, film activist, and co-founder of Baltic Analog Lab — building a platform for analogue film production, research, and community in Riga since 2017.

Juan Duarte Mexican-born, Finland-based sound artist and researcher whose practice explores the profound relationship between atmosphere, listening, and attunement.

Sintija Andersone Riga-based filmmaker, sound performer, and Baltic Analog Lab member working at the intersection of analogue film, sound, and experimental cinema production.