The Espoo Ciné International Film Festival launches Cinéstesia — a festival strand dedicated to the intersections between cinema, visual arts, and artists’ moving image practices. The programme brings together a curated selection of both contemporary and archival screenings, a professional cross-disciplinary seminar, and collaborative exchange to strengthen global networks within the moving image field. Cinéstesia positions itself as a necessary forum connecting artists, filmmakers, curators, and institutions to build shared knowledge, encourage critical debate, and contribute to a more cohesive, vivid, and visible moving image ecosystem. Cinéstesia is part of the 37th edition of the Espoo Ciné International Film Festival held 21–30 August 2026 at venues across Espoo and Helsinki.

“We need to enhance collaboration and dialogue across different art forms, practices, and traditions more than ever before in times of uncertainty and profound transformation in the cultural sector. The artists’ moving image field in Finland is and has always been highly transnational by its nature. Cinéstesia is a new chapter in that continuum. Having over a decade of experience in the audiovisual field, and now with Espoo Ciné, we have observed that a new generation of film lovers is particularly hungry for fresh ideas, meaningfully curated programming, and fruitful encounters. This is precisely what lies at the heart of Cinéstesia”, says Tytti Rantanen, the executive director of Espoo Ciné.

The artistic content of Cinéstesia is shaped in collaboration with an annually invited leading international curator. The inaugural edition welcomes renowned UK-based film scholar and critic Erika Balsom whose curatorial contribution will draw together filmmakers and visual artists engaging in the shifting boundaries between cinema and art. Cinéstesia will also spotlight two artists in focus: London-based artist and experimental filmmaker Ben Rivers and Beirut-based filmmaker and film programmer Nour Ouayda. Their bodies of work reflect distinct yet complementary approaches to contemporary filmmaking, spanning from speculative character-driven narratives to embracing the fluid possibilities of docufiction.

“For years now, there has been a lot of doom and gloom about the supposed ‘death of cinema.’ I see how the current state of the film industry might inspire this kind of pronouncement, but if we look to where cinema meets visual art, or where experimental film meets documentary, we see that the contemporary moment is exceptionally vibrant. The works included in Cinéstesia are proof that the most exciting work with the moving image today is happening at the edges of cinema.” adds Erika Balsom, the invited guest curator for the Cinéstesia first edition.

The screening programme is accompanied and enriched by the Cinéstesia International Seminar on Film and Visual Arts (25–26 August 2026) that brings together keynote lectures and in-depth artist talks with Cinéstesia’s international guests, along with several panel discussions. The Seminar opens a series of conversations addressing key questions in contemporary moving image practices and its curation, as well as a critical reflection on the persistence of analogue and material processes in an increasingly digital landscape.

Cinéstesia is made possible through the generous support of the Saastamoinen Foundation. The foundation has already invested in the teaching and research of analogue film at the Academy of Fine Arts (Uniarts Helsinki) and supports the Academy’s alumni participation in the Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto residency (LIFT). Cinéstesia, in turn, strengthens these connections between the field of fine arts and the film industry.