2024 Edition

The curatorial theme for this year’s edition of the festival found its initial inspiration in a certain state of playfulness exulting from the films we discovered through our curatorial research — whether we’re talking about playfulness in a more jovial sense, as a characteristic of works rooted in fanciful or even campy approaches, or in a more general, sense, about filmmakers’ creative play with the ever expanding discursive possibilities of the cinematic medium. 

Still, underneath this playful enthusiasm that is most apparent on a formal level, there runs a somber undercurrent fueled by the filmmakers’ preoccupation with the seemingly inescapable state of crisis which has come to define our current reality. From addressing the pervasive ethical issues and inherent biases of artificial intelligence and other similar technologies, to raising concerns about the path to imminent extinction brought about by armed conflicts and extractivist practices, amongst other equally pressing and serious topics, the films included in our selection invite the spectator to engage in a conscious looking game that ultimately refutes its own playful premises: in fact, not all is fun and games in the world that surrounds us, as much as we might try to look the other way.

Presented under the title Serious Games, a direct reference both to Harun Farocki’s series of the same name and to an entire sub-genre of video games, the current edition of BIEFF, our 14th, also features a special addition to the festival agenda in the shape of an overarching focus program dedicated to machinima — an artistic practice that purposely misuses video games to create cinematic images, thus bringing our curatorial exploration to a full circle. Come play with us!

Oana Ghera – Artistic Director