Focus

FOKUS 2026
EYES WIDE OPEN

In its 23rd edition, the festival explores the many layers of attention (Matters of Attention) under the motto EYES WIDE OPEN. How do we reflect on the attention economy in times of AI-generated content, brain rot and political disinformation? How does cinema direct our attention, historically and today, thematically and formally? And, not least, how do we turn towards one another and stay attentive to our being together and to forms of community? Nine programmes focus on these questions, offering nuanced and engaging responses.

In this year's Triangle Program, we’ve invited the Sarajevo Film Festival and the 25 FPS Festival from Zagreb to join us in exploring cinematic reflections on attention. Sarajevo’s program, Attention as Action, reflects on attention as an active cognitive process that triggers action. Dispersions from Zagreb, on the other hand, is dedicated to moments when attention resists and dissolves. The program Digital Attention Loops from Vienna focuses on digital forms and how they are translated into the medium of film.

Additionally, there is a collaboration with the collective Gewächshaus for the program Performed As Given, which gathers films that draw attention to the construction of reality. Things in Film shifts the focus to inanimate objects that otherwise remain unnoticed in the background, developing a poetry of the everyday. On Attending and Being Held shows how we can remain attentive to one another, creating a quiet space for care. Finally, there are three programs at Milieukino where attention is directed toward shifts of perspective, left-behind belongings and sound