Press Play
Digital Cultures is a festival celebrating audiovisual culture, highlighting topics related to digital art.
DIGITAL CULTURES 2025 - PRESS PLAY
This year's edition of Digital Cultures focuses on professionalization and strengthening the competitiveness of Polish digital art in the international arena.
The program will provide creators and producers with concrete tools and knowledge essential for effective operation in the global creative ecosystem. True to the festival's roots, which has always been a platform for meetings with the most important figures of the world scene, we have invited a group of international speakers who will share their many years of experience with participants.
The festival will be preceded by a series of three practical workshops on digital art criticism, aimed at curators, journalists, and cultural institution employees, led by experienced experts. The culmination will be a two-day conference, the first day of which will be entirely dedicated to key industry challenges: funding, distribution, and building sustainable cooperation ecosystems.
The second day, organized jointly with Mixer Festival, will be dedicated to the relationship between art and journalism. In a world where the line between reality and simulation is becoming increasingly blurred, and algorithms shape our perception of the world, we will ask ourselves: do we still possess our own agency, or are we increasingly becoming characters in someone else's game? This year, conversations and discussions will focus under the theme "Press Play."
Festival sections
(panel discussions and workshops are held in English)
Networking time!
Evening Networking at Regina Bar:
PRESS PLAY & Unwind!
Join us for an exclusive networking event at the vibrant Regina Bar (Koszykowa 1 Street)! This networking event creates an opportunity to connect, collaborate, and continue the inspiring conversations from the day in a relaxed, electrifying atmosphere. Mingle with fellow digital artists, industry leaders, curators, and journalists from around the globe. Share insights, spark new ideas, and forge valuable connections that could shape the future of your projects.
Let's raise a glass to digital cultures and the incredible community we're building!
The event is for festival participants only - don’t forget to take your badge!
Online Consultations
Do you have an XR project and don't know what's next? Let's talk! Digital Cultures curator Anna Szylar invites you to free online consultations.
Topics we can discuss include: Global distribution and festival strategy – how to plan your XR project's journey through the most important industry events worldwide? Fundraising and partnerships – where and how to look for funds for the development and production of innovative digital projects? Project development and production – how to turn a concept into a finished product and what to pay attention to at each stage? Exhibition organization – how to best present new media art in gallery spaces and beyond?
Consultations run from 28.07.2025 to 15.09.2025.
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
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