Ghent International Film Week 2026 Awards Its Standout Films

The Ghent International Film Week is a one-of-a-kind film event bringing bold and original cinema to the heart of Ghent. Taking place during Ghent Art Week, the festival presents a full week of challenging and innovative films from around the world, ranging from underground discoveries and experimental shorts to striking documentaries and daring feature films.

Formerly known as Obskuur, the festival has always focused on films that push boundaries. At its core is the belief that cinema should do more than entertain: it should provoke, inspire, challenge expectations, and spark conversation.

With an eclectic official selection comprising more than 40 films from across the globe, this year’s festival brought together an unusually broad range of forms, voices, and perspectives. The programme moved from the intimate emotional terrain of Alisa Kolosova’s I Spy With My Little Eye and the unsettling, sun-drenched dystopia of Helena Ganjalyan and Bartosz Szpak’s Glorious Summer, to the surreal visual language of Annamaria Pennazzi’s A Blink and A Whisper. Elsewhere, films such as Mykyta Lyskov’s animated Kyiv Cake, Anne Zinn-Justin’s apocalyptic family drama Bestiary, and Friedrich Ludmann’s 27-second stop-motion work Silhouette demonstrated the remarkable range of scale, technique, and storytelling represented in this year’s selection.

Festival curator and director Kris De Meester reflected on this year’s edition:

“What made me especially happy this year was seeing how strongly audiences responded to the different ways in which we presented the programme. Most of our evening screenings were fully booked, but it was equally exciting to see people engaging with the festival throughout the day. Our ‘Rabbit Holes’ programme—a video installation featuring five short films—ran continuously as part of Ghent Art Week and was seen by hundreds of visitors over the course of the week. It proved to be a very interesting format for us: people could encounter the films almost unexpectedly, spend time with them at their own pace, and discover cinema outside the traditional screening-room setting. Seeing both formats work so well alongside each other gives us a lot to build on.”

The Ghent International Film Week is proud to announce the winners of its 2026 awards, as determined by the jury:

Best Narrative Feature Film
I Spy With My Little Eye (Germany) by Alisa Kolosova

Best Documentary Feature Film
Prophet Town (United States) by Dan Howlett

Best Experimental Film
A Blink and A Whisper (United Kingdom) by Annamaria Pennazzi

Best Narrative Short Film
The Locker Room (Spain) by Miguel Bensadón Oliart

Best Documentary Short Film
To My Grandfather (Germany, Ukraine) by Sofia Samoylova

Best Underground Film
Glorious Summer (Poland) by Helena Ganjalyan and Bartosz Szpak

Best Cinematography
How to fall out of love (Poland, Ukraine) by Varvara Zarytska

Best Minimalist Film
Alzou (Belgium) by Ugo Woatzi

Best Installation Film
Mars (United Kingdom) by Shelley Hopkins

Best Animated Film
Kyiv Cake (Estonia, Ukraine) by Mykyta Lyskov

Best Music Video
Tulipomania: I've Been Told (United States) by Cheryl Gelover and Tom Murray

Best Dance Film
Something Has to Give (United States) by Allison Fan and Fred Midgley

Best Existential Film
Bestiary (France) by Anne Zinn-Justin

Best Connecting Cultures Film
Under the table (Georgia, Romania, Switzerland) by Mariam Bitsadze

Best Super Short Film
Silhouette (Germany) by Friedrich Ludmann

Best Belgian Film
Womb Space (Belgium) by Marisa Papen and Michael Chichi

Audience Choice Award
Portals (United States) by Kathi Hendrick, Benjamin Henretig, and Cornelia Hodges

Official Selection / winners of The Tarkovski Grant:

Mars (United Kingdom) by Shelley Hopkins

Franck (France) by Fabio Caldironi

Push The Machine (Australia, France, United Kingdom) by Max Ward

Alzou (Belgium) by Ugo Woatzi

The Nocturnes (France) by Siham Bel

Silhouette (Germany) by Friedrich Ludmann

I Spy With My Little Eye (Germany) by Alisa Kolosova

Tulipomania: I've Been Told (United States) by Cheryl Gelover, Tom Murray

Prophet Town (United States) by Dan Howlett

Figure in frame (United Kingdom) by Mel Steele

Glorious Summer (Poland) by Helena Ganjalyan, Bartosz Szpak

Loser (Taiwan) by Mali Chen

Under the table (Georgia, Romania, Switzerland) by Mariam Bitsadze

Frames (Australia) by Claire Marshall

To My Grandfather (Germany, Ukraine) by Sofia Samoylova

How to fall out of love (Poland, Ukraine) by Varvara Zarytska

Bestiary (France) by Anne Zinn-Justin

A Blink and A Whisper (United Kingdom) by Annamaria Pennazzi

Mascha (Germany) by Laura Engelhardt

Equal (United States) by Tom Bessoir

The Locker Room (Spain) by Miguel Bensadón Oliart

Something Has to Give (United States) by Allison Fan, Fred Midgley

Waiting for the End of the World (United States) by Jeffrey Hoyt

Womb Space (Belgium) by Marisa Papen, Michael Chichi

A Carcass (France) by Djimili Dimou

Kyiv Cake (Estonia, Ukraine) by Mykyta Lyskov

Baab (United Arab Emirates) by Nayla Al Khaja

Duos (Mexico) by Frank Rodríguez

Immram (Switzerland) by Jonathan Moratal, Arthur Deschamps

The Undergrowth (United States) by Griffin Roessler

Stuck (United States) by Josephine Harrison

Reel Selves (France) by Gabriel Chourrier

A Short Chronicle of Murder (Germany) by Jochen Isensee

60 Pounds of Home (Germany) by Michael Eibl

Ottilie Moore’s Protégé Charlotte Salomon (United States) by Dana Plays

Shucking Tradition (United States) by David Helfer Wells

Portals (United States) by Kathi Hendrick, Benjamin Henretig, Cornelia Hodges

Threshold (United States) by Jil Guyon

Dowsing (United States) by Tim Feeney

The Last Day (Italy) by Michael Fantauzzi