Saint Petersburg International Experimental Film Festival (SPIEXFF)
was founded in response to the fragmentation of the experimental film community in Russia and as a platform for international collaboration between filmmakers and curators. We seek to bring together artists working with unconventional practices in order to foster exchange and support independent cinema.
SPIEXFF focuses on films that resist clear classification, existing at the intersection of fiction and documentary, theatrical and exhibition spaces, and analogue and digital practices.
We are also interested in exploring the nature of experimentation itself, asking how this cinema resists established genres, methods, and industries while simultaneously transforming them, what makes it experimental, and what place it occupies within the field of visual art.
The festival is open to both emerging and experienced filmmakers who are not afraid to experiment and fail, as well as to invent their own methods of shooting, editing, and presenting films.
SPIEXFF is an independent project without government funding, run by a curatorial team from around the world.
was founded in response to the fragmentation of the experimental film community in Russia and as a platform for international collaboration between filmmakers and curators. We seek to bring together artists working with unconventional practices in order to foster exchange and support independent cinema.
SPIEXFF focuses on films that resist clear classification, existing at the intersection of fiction and documentary, theatrical and exhibition spaces, and analogue and digital practices.
We are also interested in exploring the nature of experimentation itself, asking how this cinema resists established genres, methods, and industries while simultaneously transforming them, what makes it experimental, and what place it occupies within the field of visual art.
The festival is open to both emerging and experienced filmmakers who are not afraid to experiment and fail, as well as to invent their own methods of shooting, editing, and presenting films.
SPIEXFF is an independent project without government funding, run by a curatorial team from around the world.
about
Saint Petersburg International Experimental Film Festival (SPIEXFF) is now calling for entries to the competitions of its 1st edition.
Call for Entries
15 March / 16:00
Saint Petersburg School of New Cinema
Saint Petersburg School of New Cinema
11 March / 19:00
Kinora Film Foundation
Kinora Film Foundation
TIMe
This program is organized around the question of how the concept of “time” can be experienced sensorially within cinema.
Curator: Kim Ji-hwan
Interview with FORREST SPRAGUE
Interview and edit by Francisco Rojas
Interview with Lynne Sachs
Interview and edit by Kim Ji-hwan
20 June / 18:00
Kinora Film Foundation
Kinora Film Foundation
14 June / 18:00
Saint Petersburg School of New Cinema
Saint Petersburg School of New Cinema
EMPTINesS
The concept on which this program revolves is “emptiness” and looks to understand this different way of (film)making, be it a slow change, a long anticipation, the absence of subject, even in the most literal sense, the rejection of traditional forms, the search for abstraction, and also the use of negative space in the cinema frame, not much different from the way a painter considers the sections of its canvas. Emptiness as a different kind of form.
Curator: Francisco Rojas
24 May / 18:00
Kinora Film Foundation
Kinora Film Foundation
17 May / 18:00
Saint Petersburg School of New Cinema
Saint Petersburg School of New Cinema
FLICKER
This program is dedicated to the phenomenon of flicker — one of the most radical techniques of experimental cinema, which changes conventional ways of perceiving image and sound, transforming them into a liminal cinematic experience.
Curator: Gevorg Galstian
19 April / 16:00
Saint Petersburg School of New Cinema
Saint Petersburg School of New Cinema
11 April / 16:00
Kinora Film Foundation
Kinora Film Foundation
LIGHT
This program focuses on the theme of “light” in cinema and the ways its texture is conveyed through different shooting techniques.
Curator: Mark Petrovitsky
news
Curated by:
Kim Ji-hwan
Mark Petrovitsky
Gevorg Galstian
Francisco Rojas
Kim Ji-hwan
Mark Petrovitsky
Gevorg Galstian
Francisco Rojas
Each program explores different approaches to film materiality, duration, perception, and the boundaries of cinematic language used by experimental filmmakers.
Time, Light, Flicker, Emptiness
Programs trailer
curated programs
As part of the festival, we have prepared four programs:
TEAM
Social Media
Polina Antipova
Designer
margarita asylgaraeva
Curator
Francisco Rojas
Submission Coordinator
Anastasia Nikolaenko
Designer
anastasia dargis
Submission Coordinator
Masha Demyanova
Curator
Mark Petrovitsky
Curator
Kim Ji-hwan
Founder, Curator
Gevorg Galstian
© SAINT PETERSBURG INTERNATIONAL
EXPERIMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL 2026
EXPERIMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL 2026
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
