Film & Audiovisual Media - University of Groningen

02/06/2026

Join us next Tuesday for a special event in the ICOG research colloquium series ‘Film and Contemporary Audiovisual Media’! 🎬 We’re delighted to welcome Todd Berliner and Carl Plantinga, two leading cognitive film scholars from the US, for a double bill of talks. Come along for an afternoon of thought-provoking discussions on narrative film, audience expectations, and feel-good cinema.

📅 Tuesday, June 9 at 16:00
📍 Exhibition Room, Harmonie Building

Todd Berliner (University of North Carolina Wilmington), will talk about the cognitive mechanics of expectations in narrative film and the pleasures that attend their fulfilment, while Carl Plantinga (Calvin University) will present his research on the psychological effects of (generative engagement with) the ‘ethical feel-good film.’

29/05/2026

Next in our Cinematic Beauty series at the Forum Groningen: Ang Lee’s enchanting martial arts film that is a compelling story about love, honor, and desire, wrapped in a visually breathtaking world full of movement and stillness. Do not miss this chance to see the wuxia classic Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon on a big screen – this Sunday, May 31st, with an introduction by Julian Hanich. As always, at 8pm.

22/05/2026

This Sunday in our Cinematic Beauty series at the Forum Groningen: Sergei Parajanov's hypnotic masterpiece The Color of the Pomegranates, a sensory and enigmatic depiction of the life of the Armenian poet Sayat-Nova, in which imagery replaces traditional narrative.

Restored by Cineteca di Bologna / L'Immagine Ritrovata laboratory and The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project, in association with the Cinema Foundation of Armenia and Gosfilmofond of Russia. Restoration funded by the Material World Foundation.

See it this coming Sunday, May24th, at 8pm - with an introduction by Jakob Boer!

21/05/2026

A unique opportunity! Arts Culture and Media’s film track and the Groningen Forum are proud to announce a special live event with Oscar-winning Dutch animator Michael Dudok de Wit on Wednesday 27 May 2026 at 19:30. Our colleague Cristina Formenti will interview him about his career, creative process and the ecological dimension of his work. During the discussion his short films The Monk and the Fish (1994), Father and Daughter (2000) and The Aroma of Tea (2006) as well as special behind-the-scenes materials will be screened.

And if you have missed his acclaimed feature-length film, The Red Turtle (2016), you can watch it always on May 27 at Forum at 16:30 with an introduction by Dudok de Wit himself!

During this special evening, Dudok de Wit takes the audience through his impressive oeuvre.

20/05/2026

CINEMA TIP 🎥
CinemAsia Film Festival is going on tour! The festival brings four completely different stories from Asia and its diaspora to Forum Groningen to enhance the visibility and empowerment of Asian communities in Dutch culture and media. The festival aims for an inclusive society by enriching the societal dialogue about Asian culture, and combines Asian cinema with popular media and community building.

Note: all films are subtitled in English.

18/05/2026

On Wednesday May 20th, our colleague Sergio Rigoletto will hold a doctoral lecture at the University of Bologna titled "Anna Magnani in a Minor Key: A Materialist Approach to the Study of the Sciantosa". The lecture draws on their ongoing research on actress Magnani and the fascist cinematic imaginary of the early 1940s. The sciantosa is a particular kind of character - associated with the variety theater - that Magnani played during these years.

17/05/2026

Tonight in our Cinematic Beauty series at the Forum Groningen: Charles Laughton’s only directorial effort, a dark and fairytale-like thriller that oscillates between nightmare and poetry, carried by a chilling performance from Robert Mitchum as the false preacher Harry Powell, The Night of the Hunter.

See it on the big screen with an introduction by Jakob Boer. As always, at 8pm.

13/05/2026

Discover the research of our wonderful colleague Dan Leberg, who studies film acting and empathy! In this video, he explains how no two actors work in the exact same way, but all of them share the same three connections: the relationship with the character, with the other actors, and the way they offer that to the audience.

1 like. "See the world from someone else’s perspective - with Dan Leberg"

08/05/2026

Don't miss Margot Benacerraf's brilliant Araya, a hybrid documentary that is a milestone of poetic cinema, showing in our Cinematic Beauty series at Forum Groningen.

Regarded as a precursor to Latin American feminist film, Araya captures the lives of three families of salt miners and their arduous labor in breathtaking imagery in a wondrous black-and-white film marinated in sun, salt, and sweat.

See this new restoration - on Sunday, May 10th, with an introduction by Jakob Boer. As always, at 8pm.

07/05/2026

From today onwards Forum Groningen is hosting the animation festival FRAMED, which will include the unmissable screening of Lotte Reiniger’s The Adventures of Prince Achmed. This year marks the 100th anniversary since this film was created and to celebrate it, it will be screened with a live musical accompaniment on Saturday, May 9 at 19.30!

Be sure also not to miss the talk “The Current State of AI in Animation” by our colleague Dr Cristina Formenti, which she will give as part of FRAMED’s Industry Day later today, at 13.50.

Last but not least, make sure not to miss the screening of Jan Svankmajer’s Alice on Friday, May 8 at 20.10 as well as the screening of Don Hertzfeldt’s It’s Such a Beautiful Day on Sunday, May 10 at 16.15, which are both part of this year’s retrospective on animation and surrealism and will be introduced respectively by Dr Formenti and Dr Dan Leberg!