Up close, the world looks different.

A forest in Bucharest, a lover created by artificial intelligence, a shepherdess defending her mountain, and 80 journalists who refuse to remain silent: even if it doesn’t seem like the beginning of the same story, all of these are part of the story of Astra Film Festival 2026. The 12 thematic sections of this year’s edition (17–25 October, Sibiu) bring together films that look at the world from very different angles, ranging from family, memory and the places we live in to war, technology and power. All these perspectives help us to see the world up close, in a different light. The screenings are followed by debates and Q&A sessions. Details about the thematic sections of AFF2026 can be found on the website: https://astrafilm.ro/festival/program/thematic.

When injustice is the system

An urban forest can become a case study in how institutions operate. In *There Was Once a Forest* (Valentin Anghel, 2026), the fight for IOR Park becomes the story of a community trying to defend a place dear to the people of Bucharest. ‘Spies Among Us’ (Jamie Coughlin Silverman, Gabriel Silverman, 2025) shows how the reach of the Stasi’s surveillance apparatus extends into the heart of a family, whilst ‘The Secret Sale of Romania’s Jews’ (Pierre Goetschel, 2025) reconstructs the mechanism through which the Romanian communist state secretly negotiated the emigration of its own citizens. ‘Children of the Network’ (Olivier Ballande, 2026) takes the story of institutional abuse as far as child trafficking on a European scale. Four films, four situations in which injustice is part of the very system that is supposed to protect us.

Places that shape us, places that erase our traces

Did you know that in the coldest city on Earth, the crime rate rises as temperatures fall? Or that a flat can, when viewed through the succession of people who visit it, become a portrait of an entire society? The films ‘Dream Flat’ (Gabriela Isabel Gómez de Arteche Núñez, Alejandra Llorens, Daniel Pérez Valderrama, Camila de Lucas, Jaime Marqués Cordero, 2025), ‘The Dark Blizzard’ (Mira Erkenova, 2025), ‘Forever’ (Sebastian Molina Ruiz, 2025) and ‘Where Silence Is Heard’ (Gabriela Pena, Picho García, 2026) each explore, in their own way, the relationship between people and the places where they live. Because places, too, leave their mark on people.

Through the eyes of sisters

Who else but a sister can observe a brother’s life so closely? “If Pigeons Turned to Gold” (Pepa Lubojacki, 2026) follows a young woman trying to save her brother from drug addiction. “The Golden Swan” (Anette Ostrø, 2026) transforms cinema into a form of mourning, whilst “From Dawn to Dawn” (Xisi Sofia Ye Chen, 2026) seeks to see the human being behind a crime.

War beneath the surface

War is not fought only on the front line. In *Traces* (Alisa Kovalenko, Marysia Nikitiuk, 2026) and *Here, Elsewhere* (Comes Chahbazian, 2026), the body becomes one of the targets of war, and autonomy over one’s own life is called into question. Meanwhile, the film “The Birds of War” (Janay Boulos, Abd Alkader Habak, 2026) presents a story one would not expect to find in a section on war: two journalists covering the conflict in Syria end up falling in love and getting married. Even in the midst of war, people continue to live, to love and to imagine a future.

Change your perspective!

What is the world like for someone who cannot hear? How might animals see us? What would it be like to live, as an adult, in a treehouse? ‘Signs from the Depths’ (Maude Vuillez, 2025), ‘Amma, Do Giraffes Cry?’ (Kartikeya Saxena, 2026), ‘IMAGO’ (Déni Oumar Pitsaev, 2025) and ‘Dream Flat’ (Spain, 2025) ask us to take a step back and look at the world from a place we’ve never been before. Sometimes, to see things differently, you don’t need to learn something new; you just need to change the angle from which you look.

Some protest, others roll up their sleeves and make a change…

What do you do when something isn’t working? You can protest. But you can also roll up your sleeves and make a change. In *Lenin’s Pawn* (Dragoș Turea, 2026), an actor from the Republic of Moldova literally dismantles the remnants of Soviet ideology. In *Power on the Roof* (Daniel Edelstyn, Hilary Powell, 2026), a British couple transform their street into a solar-powered community. And *80 Angry Journalists* (András Földes, Anna Kis, 2026) follows dozens of independent journalists in Hungary who are defending their profession and refusing to become tools of propaganda. These are stories about people trying to change the world, even if only a little.

Fathers and Sons

‘Confessions of a Swedish Man’ (Hampus Linder, 2026) follows a single father, a self-proclaimed feminist, who attends an anti-feminist camp to understand the anger and loneliness behind the men’s rights movement. In “Just as You Are” (Frank de Rooij, 2026), a psychiatrist convinced that running can heal trauma is confronted with his own difficulty in accepting his overweight son. Two films that shift the discussion about ‘what it means to be a man’ from the realm of slogans into the far more complex world of the family.

Can transgenerational trauma be healed?

Can we inherit things we haven’t experienced ourselves? “So Familiar” (Rachel Taparjan, 2026) explores the origins of behavioural patterns that are passed down from one generation to the next. ‘Grandmother’s Last Letters’ (Olga Lucovnicova, 2025) revisits a family history to understand difficulties which, without this background, seemed inexplicable. And ‘If Pigeons Turned to Gold’ (Pepa Lubojacki, 2026) shows how a brother’s addiction can also become the story of the sister who tries to understand, to mend things and to save him.

No Guide to Adult Life

Is there a handbook for adult life that we’ve all missed out on? The six films in this section seem to suggest not. In *From Dawn to Dawn* (Xisi Sofia Ye Chen, 2026), a young Chinese immigrant in Spain tries to build a normal life, but his past holds him back. In *The Golden Swan* (Anette Ostrø, 2026), a young Norwegian artist sets off for India with big dreams and ends up being killed in Kashmir. *IMAGO* (Déni Oumar Pitsaev, 2025) and *Confessions of a Mole* (Mo Tan, 2025) juxtapose the ideas of maturity held by filmmakers trained in the West with the expectations of their families in the Caucasus and China. Meanwhile, “A Fire in the Distance” (Marlene Edoyan, 2026) follows three friends caught between the life they have inherited and the future they imagine for themselves.

The Living Mountain

Did you know that pastoral life can tell a story about the future of food and the way we inhabit the earth? The Living Mountain is a thematic section that poses the question: who will still be able to live on the mountain, and what must remain possible for this way of life to continue? ‘Grass: The Struggle for a Nation’ (Merian C. Cooper, Ernest Schoedsack, 1925) takes us to the mountains of Persia, whilst ‘The Mountain’ (Biljana Tutorov, Petar Glomazić, 2026) follows a shepherdess from Montenegro who defends her pastures against their conversion into a military firing range, whilst “On the Road” (Dumitru Budrala, 1997) and “The Milk Trail” (Dumitru Budrala, 2026) introduce us to the lives of Romanian shepherd families. In *Iarbă dulce*, shepherds from Montana set off on one of their last journeys to the mountains, whilst *Lână om oaie* (Walter Aigner, 2026) asks why tonnes of wool end up as waste and how it can be turned back into a resource.

Women keep the world going

Some of the toughest battles of our time are being fought in places where, until recently, women were not even expected to be. Alongside the heroine of *The Mountain* (Biljana Tutorov, Petar Glomazić, 2026), in *Steps in Silence* (Fariz Ahmadov, 2026) we meet women from Karabakh who defuse mines, whilst in *Technodiplomacy* (Susanne Kovács, 2026) we see a confrontation with the tech giants. Three films about work, territory, technology, power and women who do not wait for space to be made for them.

AI Invasion

What would it be like to have a partner created by artificial intelligence? In ‘Replica’ (Chouwa Liang, 2026), three young women explore just how real a virtual romantic relationship can become. But AI has long since moved beyond the realm of science fiction: ‘Everything We Tell Each Other’ (Anton Augsten, Lea El Attal, 2026) asks what happens when an AI-based therapist tries to untangle our problems, whilst *How to Talk to Lydia* (Rusudan Gaprindashvili, 2025) imagines a relationship with an AI boss. In “Elon Musk Unveiled” (Andreas Pichler, 2025), errors in Tesla’s autopilot systems are linked to the training of artificial intelligence.

You
can purchase the Astra Pass 10 subscription as part of the Early Bird offer, which provides ten tickets to any event within AFF2026. Details: https://astrafilm.ro/festival/tickets

About Astra Film Festival

Founded in 1993, Astra Film Festival is Romania’s longest-running documentary film festival and one of the most important events dedicated to non-fiction cinema in Europe. The festival is included by the European Film Academy on the list of festivals entitled to make direct nominations for the European Film Awards. Astra Film Festival is a strategic cultural project of the Ministry of Culture, organised by Astra Film, CNM Astra and the Astra Film Foundation. The festival is held under the High Patronage of the President of Romania, is co-funded by Sibiu City Council and supported by Sibiu County Council.

Institutional partners: CNC, ICR, UNATC, UCIN, Sibiu State Philharmonic, DRRM, Dacin Sara  

Special partner: VOYO

Main sponsor: ING

Sponsors: Unimat, Simpa, Zizin, Cotnari, Ursus

Main media partner: DIGI 24

Recommended by: Europa FM

Media partners: Radio România Cultural, HotNews, G4Media, Spotmedia, Edupedu, Scena9, PressHub, LiterNet, MovieNews, Cinefan, IQads, Totul despre mame, Tribuna, Turnul sfatului, Sibiu 100, Ora de Sibiu, Mesagerul de Sibiu, Sibiu independent, Sibiul azi, Știri de Sibiu, Hermannstädter Zeitug, Nine O’Clock, Cineuropa, Film New Europe

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