The call for films for our upcoming EASA2026 conference in Poznań is now closed. We have received 95 film proposals. Our Film Programme convenors will be diligently working over the next months to evaluate the proposals. All filmmakers will be notified of the results in April. We are grateful to all members who submitted their proposals!
Anthropological Visual Research: Possibilities in a Polarised World
For questions about the Film Festival at EASA2026, please write to films(at)easaonline.org.
Theme
We are pleased to announce the Call for Films (CFF) for the Film Programme of EASA2026 whose main theme is Anthropology: Possibilities in a Polarised World. The conference invites anthropologists, filmmakers, and visual researchers to reflect on how visual anthropology can respond to, challenge, or reimagine the polarising forces shaping our contemporary world.
We live in a moment marked by intensifying divisions. Political leaders and corporate interests continue to fracture communities, break apart solidarities, and impose authoritarian alignments. These trends, strengthening a world of stark oppositions, eroding possibilities for coexistence and mutual understanding. In contrast, anthropology has long worked to uncover entangled realities and foster relations grounded in equality, participation, and collaboration.
In this spirit, the EASA2026 Film Programme welcomes ethnographic films of the length up to 90 minutes (although we recommend the submission of short films), which engage critically, ethically, and reflexively with the theme of the conference. We are particularly interested in films that experiment with form while contributing meaningfully to discussions around anthropological knowledge-making in and through the moving image.
We invite submissions that interrogate, disrupt, or reimagine anthropology’s role in a polarised world. How can visual methods open up new spaces of dialogue, resistance, or care? What cinematic strategies might help us reveal or rebuild forms of interconnectedness? How do questions of representation, authorship, and collaboration shape the politics and ethics of ethnographic filmmaking today?
We encourage filmmakers to reflect, either implicitly or explicitly, on the aesthetic, ethical, methodological, and theoretical choices that guide their work. We are especially interested in films that consider the cinematic process itself (including filming, editing, and dissemination) as part of a broader anthropological inquiry or intervention.
Selected films will be screened during the EASA2026 conference, and the presence of the filmmaker(s) for the Q&A sessions following the screenings is expected. These sessions are intended to create a space for engaged dialogue, critical reflection, and exchange on the potentials and responsibilities of anthropological filmmaking.
The submission portal will be open from 10 November 2025 to 12 January 2026.
We look forward to receiving your films and to building a thought-provoking and inspiring Film Programme together.
Film Programme Convenors
- Zuzanna Nalepa (Adam Mickiewicz University), Chair
- Jan Lorenz (Adam Mickiewicz University)
- Christine Moderbacher (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology)
- Sławomir Sikora (University of Warsaw)
- Sophie Wagner (University of Bern)
- Franciszek Drąg (Adam Mickiewicz University/Curator of the Short Film Section at the Ale Kino! International Young Audience Film Festival in Poznań)
- Vlad Naumescu (Central European University)
Criteria for submission
Films completed after 1 January 2024
All films should be in original language(s) with English subtitles
Although all lengths accepted, the selection committee will give priority to short and medium films (30 minutes maximum).
How to submit your film?
First phase – selection process (submission until 12/01/2026):
- Please ensure you provide an adequate synopsis in English (approx. 300 words) and a link to a shareable online preview version (on Vimeo or YouTube). The link may be unlisted, or password protected (if the latter, please provide password in the form!). Please make sure the link remains valid at least until 15 April 2026. Please also send a director(s)’ short bio (no more than 150 words) and all credits and technical data (production year, country of origin, country of filming, language(s), previous screenings, awards).
- If you have any questions related to film submissions, please write to films(at)easaonline.org.
Second phase – only for selected films (April – 30 June 2026):
- Provide a screening copy link of the version in digital format suitable for public screening in high resolution.
- Along with the screening copy file, the authors and/or producers of the selected films should also send:
- Definitive Film Synopsis (no more than 300 words) with 2 still film frames (thumbnails for conference materials
- Definitive Director(s)’ short bio (no more than 150 words)
- Trailer of the film for the conference website
Authors are requested to confirm:
- Authorisation for the screening of the film at the 19th Conference of EASA, within the Anthropological Film Programme
- Authorisation for the use of promotional images by EASA in posters, on the congress website or in any other dissemination materials
- Confirmation of presence of the authors in the screening sessions
Policies and guidelines
Accessibility
We’d ask participants to ensure maximum accessibility wherever possible. See our guidelines.
Anti-harassment policy and how to report harassment
Reports of harassment can be made via electronic channels or made in person at the ‘purple point’ in the NomadIT office. See our guidelines.
On the Implementation Guidelines for the EASA Motion Concerning Collaborations with Israeli Academic Institutions
At the EASA2024 conference, a group of members presented a motion concerning collaborations with Israeli academic institutions in light of the ongoing systematic human rights violations in Palestine, Israeli war crimes, crimes against humanity and plausible genocide committed in the Gaza strip, calling on EASA to suspend collaborations with Israeli academic institutions, such as universities, colleges, research institutes, scholarly associations, think tanks, publications, and publishing houses. Following the public vote at EASA2024, where a high majority supported sending the motion to electoral vote, 1455 members voted in November 2024 (44.5% turnout), with 1137 (78%) voting in favour, 253 (17%) against, and 65 (4.5%) abstaining.
This means that panel proposers for EASA2026 should read and familiarise themselves with the implementation guidelines, and that selection of panels this year will take into account adherence to the guidelines.
Note:
The secretariat of the EASA film programme will confirm film submissions. In the absence of confirmation, please write to films(at)easaonline.org.
The authors and/or producers of the selected films will be informed individually about the selection results. The selection will appear on the conference website by 26 April 2026.
The authors and/or producers of the selected films must send the screening copy before 17 June 2026.
