Bucharest Photofest

16/10/2026

The Siege of Mariupol. Free entry. RSVP > [email protected]
An event powered by SONY

A Ukrainian photojournalist working with the Associated Press, Evgeniy Maloletka has documented Ukraine’s recent history for more than a decade, from the Revolution of Dignity and the annexation of Crimea to Russia’s full-scale invasion. In the spring of 2022 he stayed inside besieged Mariupol with AP journalist Mstyslav Chernov and producer Vasilisa Stepanenko, documenting events from within the city. The images made there circulated worldwide and form the basis of the Oscar-winning documentary 20 Days in Mariupol. The coverage earned the AP team the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, and Maloletka the World Press Photo of the Year 2023. He has also received the Visa d’Or News Award and the National Taras Shevchenko Prize of Ukraine. He continues to document the civilian consequences of the war in Ukraine.

16/10/2026

16/10/2026

Meet the artist > Gailė Garnelytė
Film screening and Q/A - In Passing
17.10, Cinema Union

15/10/2026

Film screenings program at Cinema Union
1. Ernest Cole: Lost and Found + shorts

Four short films from ION 2026, followed by Raoul Peck’s documentary on South African photographer Ernest Cole and his rediscovered archive. ION 2026 is the official selection of the edition’s open call for film: work that engages deeply with photography as an art form.

Films of the evening:
• An Underground Bird (Maanalainen lintu) · Directed by Eero Tammi · Finland · 2026
• Forgetting · Directed by Antoni Orlof · Poland · 2023–2026 · 3 min · 16mm
• Finding the Landscape · Directed by Carlos Vin Lopes · Germany · 2026 · 14 min
• KIN · Directed by Ana Baer, Rocío Luna · ALEBRIJE · Mexico, USA · 2026
• Ernest Cole: Lost and Found · Directed by Raoul Peck · Written by Ernest Cole, Raoul Peck · Featuring LaKeith Stanfield · France, USA · 2024 · documentary · 106 min · in English · subtitles: RO · L’Œil d’Or, Cannes 2024

2. In Passing, film screning + Q/A with director Gailė Garnelytė

For more than a decade, photographer Artūras Morozovas has photographed people affected by the war in Ukraine and people living in social isolation in Lithuania. First of all, he sees a person, not a victim. The film explores the social problems the Soviet regime left behind in both countries.

Among the people in the film are Rita, a mother of three with a disability who lost her husband; Danutė, who lives alone in the forests; the soldiers Lisa and Jaška, killed by the Russians; and Ivan, whose home was recently destroyed by a bomb. Despite Morozovas’s wish to remain impartial, a close bond forms between him and the people he photographs. In Passing is Gailė Garnelytė’s first feature documentary, produced by Vilnius-based Artišokai.

Get your ticket > eventbook. ro

15/10/2026

Witness - to see, and not remain indifferent

📍 Opening | 15 October, 2 PM
ARCUB – Hanul Gabroveni, Studio Hall

The exhibition “In Plain Sight” brings children’s voices to the forefront, sending a clear message to adults: responsibility and involvement make a difference.
Created during two photography workshops organised in partnership with Save the Children Romania, the works offer an authentic glimpse into how children see and make sense of the world around them. Their images invite us to engage in dialogue and reflection, reminding us that when faced with difficult life experiences, children can show a level of courage, empathy and maturity that sometimes surpasses that of the adults around them.

Witness - să vezi și să nu rămâi indiferent.

Expoziția „În văzul tuturor” aduce în prim-plan vocile copiilor și transmite un mesaj clar către adulți: responsabilitatea și implicarea fac diferența.

Născute în urma a două ateliere de fotografie realizate în parteneriat cu Organizația Salvați Copiii, lucrările dezvăluie, prin perspectiva autentică a copiilor, felul în care aceștia văd și înțeleg lumea. Imaginile lor ne invită la dialog și reflecție și ne reamintesc că, în fața unor experiențe de viață dificile, copiii pot da dovadă de un curaj, o empatie și o maturitate care îi depășesc uneori pe adulții din jurul lor.

13/10/2026

nference ▪ miercuri, 14.10 ▪ ARCUB - Hanul Gabroveni, Sala Studio

WITNESS, tema din acest an, vorbește despre fotografie ca angajament de durată. Dar durata are nevoie de cineva care s-o susțină: spații, echipe, ani de muncă pe care publicul nu îi vede. Bucharest Photofest Conference e o după-amiază despre ce rămâne în afara cadrului.

Deschidem cu un scurtmetraj: „Fursecuri și Lapte”, scris și regizat de Andrei Tache-Codreanu, cu Liviu Chițu. Proiecție și discuție. Apoi, trei oameni din spatele unor spații și proiecte culturale, Adrian Șoaită (Kulturhaus), Andrei Mateescu (CAV Multimedia) și Sabina Suru (Marginal) vor discuta despre ce presupune, concret, să faci management cultural azi.

Intrarea e liberă.
—
WITNESS, this year’s theme, speaks of photography as a long-term commitment. But duration needs someone to sustain it: venues, teams, years of work the audience never sees. Bucharest Photofest Conference is an afternoon about what stays outside the frame.

We open with a short film: Fursecuri și Lapte, written and directed by Andrei Tache-Codreanu, with Liviu Chițu. Screening and talk. Then three people behind cultural spaces and projects, Adrian Șoaită (Kulturhaus), Andrei Mateescu (CAV Multimedia) and Sabina Suru (MARGINAL), on what running culture actually takes today.

Free entry. Bring your questions.

▪ 14:00 Screening & Talk ▪ „Fursecuri și Lapte”
▪ Talk ▪ Cultural Management: Challenges and Opportunities
ARCUB – Hanul Gabroveni, Sala Studio, Lipscani 84–90

© Paco Guillem

13/10/2026

Off the Paper ▪ sâmbătă, 17.10 ▪ OTOTO Station

O fotografie nu e doar un document. E și un obiect: poate fi transferată, alterată, pictată peste, scoasă din contextul ei și pusă în altul.

În atelierul coordonat de Andreea Oprișan, Ingrid Maschek și BMRE / SăFițiCuminți Crew, faci un fototransfer cu mediu special de transfer de imagine, apoi intervii cu acrilic și spray. Lucrezi între suport, imagine și gestul mâinii, la granița dintre fotografie și pictură.

Poți veni cu o fotografie personală, trimisă din timp pentru pregătire, sau poți lucra cu una dintre imaginile alese de echipă. Materialele sunt incluse, iar la final pleci cu lucrarea ta. Deschis și începătorilor.
oprisan
—

A photograph is not only a document. It is also an object: it can be transferred, altered, painted over, taken out of its context and placed in another.

In this workshop led by Andreea Oprișan, Ingrid Maschek and BMRE / SăFițiCuminți Crew, you make a photo transfer with a dedicated image-transfer medium, then work into it with acrylic and spray paint. Between support, image and the gesture of the hand, on the line where photography meets painting.

Bring a personal photograph, sent in advance for preparation, or work with one of the images selected by the team. All materials are included, and you leave with your finished piece. Beginners welcome.

▪ 17.10.2026 ▪ 12:00–15:00
OTOTO Station, Sfinții Voievozi 20–24 (indoors)
Max. 15 participanți / participants ▪ RO / EN

Bilete / Tickets:https://academia.f64.ro/cursuri/off-the-paper-workshop-de-foto-transfer-si-pictura-cu-safiticuminti-crew/

10/10/2026

Vineri seara, la POINT, s-a deschis cea de-a XI-a ediție Bucharest Photofest.

Trăim într-un exces de imagini și, în același timp, într-o scădere a capacității lor de a produce un răspuns. WITNESS, tema acestui an, pornește de aici: dacă aproape orice poate fi fotografiat, ce face ca o imagine să conteze?

Răspunsul primei seri a stat pe pereți. Witness: Images That Refuse to Forget, în colaborare cu UNHCR, Agenția ONU pentru Refugiați, reunește fotografii din arhiva agenției, la 75 de ani de la Convenția din 1951 privind statutul refugiaților. Oamenii au stat în fața lor, au vorbit, au rămas. Seara s-a încheiat cu Minamata, filmul despre fotografia care a făcut lumea să privească un oraș otrăvit.
—
On Friday evening, at POINT, the 11th Bucharest Photofest opened.

We live in an excess of images and, at the same time, in an erosion of their capacity to produce a response. WITNESS, this year’s theme, starts there: if almost anything can be photographed, what makes an image matter?

The first evening’s answer hung on the walls. Witness: Images That Refuse to Forget, with UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, brings together photographs from the agency’s archive, 75 years after the 1951 Refugee Convention. People stood before them, talked, stayed. The night closed with Minamata, the film about the photograph that made the world look at a poisoned town.

Photos: Adi Molnar, Andrei Mateescu, Emilija Kosic, Teodora Radak
Program · www.bucharestphotofest.ro/program

09/10/2026

Witnessing the War, Evgeniy Maloletka
Exhibition, Oct 18, !6:00 · Kulturhaus · Free Access

· RO ·
Mariupol, oraș care avea peste 430.000 de locuitori, rămâne sub ocupație rusă, iar dovezile a ceea ce s-a întâmplat în primăvara lui 2022 dispar sistematic. Witnessing the War prezintă fotografii din The Siege of Mariupol de Evgeniy Maloletka, realizate în primele douăzeci de zile ale invaziei ruse la scară largă, fiecare însoțită de dată, loc, context și poveștile oamenilor fotografiați.

· EN ·
Mariupol, once home to more than 430,000 people, remains under Russian occupation, and evidence of what happened there in spring 2022 is systematically disappearing. Witnessing the War presents photographs from Evgeniy Maloletka’s The Siege of Mariupol, made in the first twenty days of Russia’s full-scale invasion, each shown with its date, place, context and stories of the people in it.

10/01/2026

OPEN CALL - IPFA Award (International Photography Festivals Association) 🌍📷
Deadline > 12 January!

The IPFA Award invites photographers and artists worldwide to submit projects for an international curatorial review and exhibition platform dedicated to contemporary photographic practices.

With a single application, your work will be reviewed by 20 curators representing 20 photography festivals – expanding your visibility and international projection ✨

Selected projects may be developed as solo exhibitions across the IPFA festival network, while 50 finalists will be featured in a travelling collective exhibition, opening 19 March 2026 in Barcelona 🏛️

No fixed theme – documentary, social inquiry, urban and street, analogue processes, nature & wildlife, experimental and conceptual approaches are all welcome 🧪🌿

Projects will be evaluated for originality, visual coherence, narrative strength, innovation, and transnational relevance.

🎯 Submit your project and enter a global ecosystem of festivals, curators, and audiences.

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