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Digital Cultures is a festival celebrating audiovisual culture, highlighting topics related to digital art.
DIGITAL CULTURES 2026 - COLLECTIVE RESONANCE
In an era defined by algorithmic fragmentation and digital isolation, the 2026 edition of Digital Cultures serves as a radical laboratory for Collective Resonance. We are moving beyond the tradition of solitary immersion to explore the digital as a relational field, a space where technology no longer acts as a screen between us, but as the very fabric that binds us together.
This year, the festival investigates the concept of the technology of togetherness. We shift our focus from the "individual user" to the "collective organism," asking how immersive systems can foster empathy, mutual responsibility, and shared breath. We treat code not as a set of commands, but as a social score: a choreography that invites us to move, think, and feel in unison with others and the environment.
Digital Cultures 2026 is an assembly. It is an invitation to inhabit the in-between spaces of our digital lives and transform them into common ground. We are here to prove that in the hands of the collective, technology becomes an instrument of care, a vessel for resonance, and a tool for building a more interconnected world.
Festival sections
(panel discussions and meet-ups are held in English)
Lectures and panels by international experts dedicated to contemporary industry challenges
23-24 SEPTEMBER
Collaborative industry meet-ups designed for creators, curators, and cultural professionals to explore international production logic and the future of digital arts, bridging the gap between local innovation and the global creative market.
MAY-AUGUST
BEST OF POLAND 2026
How do you create work that drives real social change? The Digital Cultures festival returns with this year's theme "Collective Resonance" - a programme dedicated to projects that use technology to build genuine human connection rather than deepen division.
We invite Polish artists and creators to submit to Best of Poland, an international showcase for work at the intersection of art and technology. This year, we are looking for projects made with the intention of contributing to change in today's sociopolitical landscape.
The call is open to anyone working creatively in digital media - artists, filmmakers, game developers, UX designers, programmers, curators, students, and more. We welcome VR, AR, interactive film, games, net art, cross-media work, and other forms exploring the potential of new technologies in culture. Both finished works and works in progress are eligible.
Selected projects will be presented as 7-minute live pitches (in English) on 24 September 2026 in Warsaw, before an international jury and industry decision-makers. Up to 10 creators will receive one-on-one pitch coaching with festival director Anna Szylar, expert feedback, and visibility through the Digital Cultures publication reaching partners worldwide.
The jury's top pick receives the Best of Poland Pitch Award - a career development grant of up to 5,000 PLN, funded by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, to support participation in a European industry event of your choice.
Deadline: 1 August 2026
Questions: opencall@monstermind.studio
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Online Consultations
To support our community of visionaries, we are launching exclusive 1:1 consultations with Anna Szylar - free, online sessions designed for creators working at the intersection of art and technology. Whether your project is at the concept stage or already in production, these conversations offer a dedicated space to think through what comes next. Do you have an XR project and don't know where to take it? Let's talk! Sessions can cover whatever is most useful to you: festival strategy and how to navigate the international circuit, funding and co-production models, creative and production development, or exhibition formats for new media art. The sessions are informal but focused - think of them as a conversation with someone who has navigated this landscape from multiple angles.
Anna Szylar is a curator, producer, and cultural strategist with over twelve years of experience in immersive media and digital culture, and the founder of Monster Mind Studio. She guides projects from early strategy and fundraising through production and international distribution, and has collaborated with platforms including Venice Biennale College Cinema Immersive, SXSW, Tribeca Film Festival, and Sheffield Doc Fest. She has served on juries and advisory boards at IDFA DocLab and One World International Human Rights Festival.Previously, Anna built and led the Digital Culture programme at the Adam Mickiewicz Institute and led global distribution strategy at vnLab, placing Polish XR projects at Venice, IDFA DocLab, and Art VR Prague. Current and recent work includes producing Channelers (Biennale College Cinema Immersive) and her own mixed reality installation Nothing is Ever Really Lost. She is the founder and artistic director of the Digital Cultures festival.
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Team
Anna Szylar
Founder of Monster Mind Studio, curator, and a cultural manager with over a decade of experience in international collaboration within the immersive media field. She initiated and curated the Digital Cultures festival and has been a propagator and promoter of Polish art, building its recognition through collaborations with festivals such as SXSW, MUTEK, Tribeca Film Festival, and Sheffield Doc Fest. From 2014 to 2021, she was associated with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, and later with the Visual Narratives Laboratory (vnLab), where she was responsible for VR distribution and international relations. She is a frequent speaker and moderator at international industry conferences. Anna Szylar also serves as a program advisor for IDFA DocLab, one of the world's leading festivals dedicated to interactive and immersive documentary. Her curatorial work includes exhibitions such as "Ground Control" during the Venice Film Festival (2023), Mixer Festival (2024) and MDAG Vision (2025). She is also an alumna of the prestigious Biennale College Cinema Immersive program, through which her Monster Mind Studio is producing the VR piece "Channelers" (2025), directed by Jakub Wróblewski. Her past and present partners include the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, vnLab, IDFA DocLab, Millennium Docs Against Gravity Festival, Biennale di Venezia, the Korea Foundation, the panGenerator collective, and numerous cultural festivals and institutions in Poland and abroad.
Pola Komarowa
Multimedia artist, born in Belarus, PhD student at the Doctoral School of the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. She creates in Warsaw, combining photographic practices, photogrammetry, point clouds and digital scans. Author of video works, photography and VR experiences that explore identity, oppression, trauma and memory space.
Past editions
