The 17th Mostra Internacional de Cinema Periférico, taking place in A Coruña from 2nd to 7th June, includes 161 films and will host around 80 artists, professionals, and students from all over the world.
The inaugural session will be a double bill, with the programme “The Cosmic Shutter” dedicated to the firmament and an original proposal from Jeanne Liotta, who will create a cinematic eclipse live
Marcos Pérez, Bettina Kohlhaas, Carmen Jiménez, Avia Veira, Gonzalo Castro, Ángel Rueda, Dolores Meijomín and Ana Domínguez, at the presentation of the (S8) image at the Domus | PHOTOS: Andrea R. and A. Morandeira
In the first week of June 2026, A Coruña will once again become the international capital of avant-garde cinema by holding the 17th (S8) Peripheral Film Festival, which this year is dedicating its image and inaugural session to eclipses. This city happens to be one of the best places in the world to observe this year’s solar eclipse, so (S8) intends to celebrate this unique opportunity and include cinema in this global conversation about light and contemplation, which are inherent in experiencing cinema. The festival will take place from 2nd to 7th June at five venues: the Filmoteca de Galicia, Cantones Cines, the Domus, the Luis Seoane Foundation, and La Atalaya, where a professional gathering will be held.
This year’s design for the image of the Mostra is a symbolic reference to the phenomenon of an eclipse, with two animals inspired by the shapes created in the sky by the meeting of heavenly bodies, in this case representing the Sun and the Moon in a dance where they hide from and seek each other. That phenomenon is what the photographer José Sellier immortalised in Galicia in 1912 in a sequence of twelve photographs depicting a total solar eclipse with a clear cinematic inclination that will also be part of the festival’s image.
Eclipses will also be the focal point of the Mostra’s opening session with a double bill. The opening programme for (S8) at the Filmoteca de Galicia will be “The Cosmic Shutter”, which includes films from 1907 to 2019 by filmmakers such as Larry Jordan, Georges Méliès and Bill Morrison, taking us on a journey through the different perspectives for experiencing an eclipse. Next up, at the Domus, the New York filmmaker Jeanne Liotta will invite us to imagine our own eclipse, with her work Path of Totality, a film performance emulating an eclipse by means of live handling of different cinematic devices.
La imagen del (S8) de esta edición se inspira en los eclipses.
PRESENTATION IN A CORUÑA
All the details of the 17th Mostra Internacional de Cinema Periférico were presented by its co-directors, Ana Dominguez and Ángel Rueda, in an event held at the Domus in A Coruña. They were accompanied by A Coruña City Council’s Head of Culture and Tourism, Gonzalo Castro, the Axencia Galega das Industrias Culturais’ coordinator of audiovisual policy, Dolores Meijomín, the A Coruña provincial assembly member, Avia Veira, and the programme director of Acción Cultural Española (AC/E), Inmaculada Ballesteros. Also attending the event was the director of the Luis Seoane Foundation, Carmen Jiménez, as well as Marcos Pérez, director of the Scientific Museums of A Coruña.
Gonzalo Castro | Dolores Meijomín
Inmaculada Ballesteros | Avia Veira
Inmaculada Ballestero, who announced the opening of the period to submit projects for the BAICC artistic residencies 2026–27, promoted by (S8) with the support of Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) and the Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto (LIFT). This international residency scholarship for film creation is in its tenth year, and Ballesteros particularly praised the quality and quantity of proposals received every year, demonstrating “that analogue cinema and artistic creativity in our country are experiencing one of their best moments”.
Avia Veira, the provincial congresswoman, celebrated the theme chosen by the Mostra, recalling the cultural significance of eclipses: «Unknowns are the best material for making art. Today, thanks to science, we know that what ancient civilisations thought about eclipses was not true, but the phenomenon is undoubtedly a beautiful bridge between science and art». Representing the Axencia Galega das Industrias Culturais (AGADIC), Dolores Meijomín highlighted the excellence of the proposal by (S8) and the significant presence of creators from Galicia at the festival, who are not appearing alone, but together with proposals from all over Spain, Portugal and also Latin America.
Ángel Rueda, co-director of (S8), began his speech by showing an animation made by the festival from the sequence of photographs taken by Sellier during the 1912 eclipse, as a tribute “to that gift from the pioneering photographer, which connects with the spirit of this festival and makes us reflect on how the skies were perhaps humanity’s first movie screen”. After reviewing the Mostra’s programme, Rueda concluded by pointing out that we are experiencing a true analogue revolution encouraging language and thought, which “will give rise to a new generation of artists”.
The presentation was brought to a close by Gonzalo Castro, Head of Culture and Tourism at the City Council of A Coruña, the main sponsor behind the festival, which he highlighted as an exemplary project in the city, essentially a transformative one with a social dimension. This, for Castro, is “the only way to understand culture,” with the inclusive value of (S8) being a fundamental side of it, and its way of making art more familiar to all audiences “without ever renouncing on excellence, both in the content and in the personalities in the programme”.
PROGRAMME SUMMARY
Jeanne Liotta, a key figure in US experimental cinema, is one of the big international names at (S8), which will also feature the Canadian John Porter, considered to be the King of Super 8, the Mexican Bruno Varela with a political, futuristic cinema, and the Belgian Els van Riel, whose films are an empirical investigation into light. There will be several retrospective sessions for all of them, giving a unique opportunity to see their films screened in their original analogue format, which in many cases will be their premiere in Spain. Polen negro (Black pollen, 2025), Bruno Varela’s latest film, will have its world premiere at the Mostra projected in 35 mm with live sound.
In addition to continuing its commitment to tracing the history of experimental cinema with well-established artists, (S8) is once again a meeting place for the latest avant-garde cinema—created over the last two years—in the Sinais and Sinais Latin America sections. The former is bringing together 33 artworks produced in Galicia, Spain and Portugal, while the latter is showing six films from Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, the Dominican Republic and Bolivia. This section has now become a regular in the festival, capturing the pulse of the Latin American avant-garde scene. Likewise, Sinais Desbordamientos (Overflows) is reaffirming its space reserved for expanded cinema made in Galicia and Spain this year, including a world premiere.
As usual, the film performances in Desbordamientos will be given at the Seoane Foundation, where three works by filmmakers from Colombia and Portugal will also be shown, united by a common theme: the transmission of cultural heritage among women. The female—and feminist—perspective is an essential aspect year, with more than one 70% of the works created by women. The last day of Desbordamientos will see the closing session with John Porter, who will be presenting some of his acclaimed film performances such as Scanning 8 (2016) and Shootout with Rebecca (1983). Porter himself has remarked that his attendance at (S8) is to be his farewell to the international scene.
Another of the festival’s special programmes will feature Kinothek Asta Nielsen, an organisation based in Frankfurt committed to preserving and disseminating films made by women and gay people. Its founders, Karola Gramann and Heide Schlüpmann, will be bringing a selection of works from their film library and giving a masterclass on their history.
The gathering of Fine Arts students known as Paraíso, as well as the INPUT project-mentoring space, the Xpresa social inclusion creative workshop, and the sessions for schools, are all contributing to this (S8) with record numbers. With 161 works exhibited, nearly 80 artists, professionals, specialist journalists and guest students, as well as 35 world premieres, the Mostra is proving once again the dynamism of the experimental film scene, which (S8) has been contributing to as a space for discovery and encounters, stimulating the creation and production of new films, especially in analogue formats.
(S8) in numbers:
- Number of works to be projected: 161.
- Filmmakers participating: 88.
- Films’ countries of origin: (16 countries) Galicia, Spain, Portugal, Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, USA, Mexico, Peru, Austria, France, Venezuela, Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, Dominican Republic.
- World premieres: 35.
- Pieces by Galician artists: 20.
- Film performances: 8.
- Guests: More than 80 people, including filmmakers, professionals, Fine Arts students and specialised press.
- 5 venues: Filmoteca de Galicia, Cantones Cines, Domus, Luis Seoane Foundation and Atalaya.
- Side activities: Three educational ones and two professional ones.
- Students participating in the educational screenings: Nearly 400 students from seven schools in the city of A Coruña and one in Carballo.
The 17th (S8) Mostra Internacional de Cinema Periférico is to be held in A Coruña between 2nd and 7th June, 2026. It is sponsored by the Concellería de Cultura e Turismo of the Concello da Coruña, and the support of the Deputación da Coruña, the Axencia Galega das Industrias Culturais (Agadic), Instituto da Cinematografía y de las Artes Audiovisuales (ICAA), Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) and the Fundación Luis Seoane.
