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02.03.2026

With Refresh and Reflections, Go Short explores current themes and new film forms

How is technology changing the way war is fought? What do algorithms do to our perception of reality? And how do social media and video games influence our film culture and the way we tell stories? During the upcoming edition of Go Short – International Short Film Festival Nijmegen, these questions take center stage in two programme sections: Reflections and Refresh. The selection includes work by renowned filmmakers such as Harun Farocki, Carolee Schneemann, Jafar Panahi, Gala Hernández López, Stefan Kruse, and the Ukrainian film collective Babylon'13.

In Refresh, we explore the future of film in a digital world

Within Refresh, Go Short – International Short Film Festival Nijmegen explores how digital developments are fundamentally changing the way we watch and make films. Across several programmes, our endless streaming culture is examined critically: what does permanent availability do to our attention spans and viewing habits? At the same time, today’s streaming culture has a harmful impact on the world. The filmmakers share their critical reflections on this and search for alternatives. For example, the programme features films about storing cinema on DNA, and presents ultra-compact films of just a few megabytes as a counter-response to increasingly heavy digital files (including Restore by Minoo Iranpour Mobarakeh). 

In addition, filmmaker-in-focus Gala Hernández López takes centre stage during a special edition of VPRO Cinema Live. Hernández López is a filmmaker, artist and researcher, known for her essay films in which she explores subcultures emerging from our hypercapitalist system. With a critical yet dreamlike gaze, she moves through worlds of cryopreservation, cryptocurrencies and influencers who promise manufactured success. During this evening, César Majorana joins her in delving into her work and sources of inspiration through film excerpts, conversations, and insights into her creative process.

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Crossover between films and video games 

Within Refresh, Go Short – International Short Film Festival Nijmegen also explicitly explores the cross-pollination between film and video games. In a live performance by Kara Güt set in the online world of Red Dead Redemption 2, the cinema becomes the playing field. Two audience members attempt to reach each other without weapons in a violent environment. As they are repeatedly shot and replaced by new participants, a vulnerable dialogue unfolds about intimacy in a digital world that offers little space for it. 

In addition, we dive deep into the culture of livestreaming, with films about streamers who film themselves while gaming, going about their daily lives, or even sleeping (Joy by Ezekiel Morgan). What does it mean to be constantly watched — or to be the one constantly watching? Beyond the cinema, Go Short – International Short Film Festival Nijmegen extends the theme of film and games into the freely accessible VR & Game Expo. This space features a selection of playable indie games and leading VR films that invite visitors to become part of the story themselves. 

Reflections onderzoekt moderne oorlogsvoering en de toekomst van democratie 

Schrijver en programmamaker Nienke ’s Gravemade is te gast tijdens Film & Talk: Social Media Democracy, waarin Go Short samen met Wintertuin onderzoekt hoe toekomstbestendig onze democratie is in een tijd van sociale media. Aan de hand van filmfragmenten en een verdiepend gesprek wordt de vraag gesteld wat algoritmes, platforms en permanente online aanwezigheid doen met ons publieke debat, en hoe onze democratische waarden zich verhouden tot een digitale werkelijkheid.  

Binnen Reflections worden deze vragen breder getrokken naar moderne oorlogsvoering en de manier waarop conflict zich vandaag de dag manifesteert. Oorlog speelt zich niet alleen af op het slagveld, maar ook via livestreams, surveillancetechnologie en sociale media. Zo volgt filmmaker Stefan Kruse op Malta de sporen van een militaire drone die dagelijks boven de Middellandse Zee de Europese grens bewaakt, terwijl andere films laten zien hoe geweld via telefoonschermen onze huiskamer binnenkomt, en wat dat betekent voor onze perceptie van waarheid en betrokkenheid.

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New perspectives through the annual Call for Curators

Within Reflections, four emerging curators — Aileen Ye, Edie Barnabas, Jason Todd, and Najrin Islam — are featured through the annual Call for Curators. Each brings their own perspective and explores, through short films, what resistance and imagination can look like in our time. The selected programmes range from queering history to sonic forms of freedom, from remembering military power to redefining visions of the future from the Global South. 

These programmes examine, among other things, how queer voices across the past, present, and future can be made visible through speculative historiography. Another programme explores how sound can function as a form of resistance and liberation. They also question what happens when soldiers themselves handle the camera: can film undermine power, or does it reinforce it? By exploring alternative visions of the future — such as a Palestinian astronaut on the moon (A Space Exodus by Larissa Sansour) — the dominant imagery surrounding the Global South is challenged. Together, these programmes demonstrate how short film can create space for new perspectives and different ways of seeing.

Overview programs: 

Refresh 
Hypercapitalist Dreams: Gala Hernández López 
VPRO Cinema Live: Gala Hernández López 
Digital Intimacy: Kara Güt 
My Desert Heart: A Performance in Red Dead Redemption 2 
Digital Takeover 
Feelings and Streamings 
Video Game & VR Expo 
We're Streaming Ourselves to Death 
Expanded Cinema: Inside Outside Around 
VPRO Dorst: Vertical Cinema 
Workshop: Animating on 35mm 
Workshop: Hybrid Puppeteering: Collaborative NPC Design to Build Immersive Playable Worlds 
 
Reflections 
Film & Talk: Social Media Democracy (i.s.m. Wintertuin en Nienke 's Gravemade) 
Livestreaming War 
Digital Warfare 
The Age of Disinformation 
Queering Time 
Sounds from the Underground 
War Art: Who Controls the Frame? 
Other Skies: Global South Futurisms 
Film & Talk: Utopia and Dystopia (ism Radboud Reflects) 
 
 

 
 

Goshort Yorifotografie 13