Filmwerkplaats Rotterdam

Filmwerkplaats Rotterdam Artist run workspace dedicated to motion picture film as an artistic, expressive medium. Filmwerkplaats is WORM’s own artist-run film lab.

A workspace dedicated to DIY analogue practice, geared towards artists interested in film as an expressive, physical medium. Part of a larger network of artist-run labs in Europe, Filmwerkplaats functions as a centre for new experiments and debates around filmic creation. Our screening programme encompasses a wide range of subject matter, showing works by members and guest-filmmakers throughout th

e year. We believe in promoting the full potential of the medium, and always look to explore the possibilities of film as a performative, tactile material.

Today we celebrate the 60th birthday of our dearest Esther Urlus Esther Urlus and we want to thank her for being the hea...
24/06/2026

Today we celebrate the 60th birthday of our dearest Esther Urlus Esther Urlus and we want to thank her for being the heart and soul of the Filmwerkplaats ❤️

As we wrote in the text for the 25 years of the Filmwerkplaats, we want to express our gratitude for her unwavering commitment and extraordinary contribution to the field of experimental film.
Her essential role in the founding and development of Filmwerkplaats, and for generously sharing her knowledge, experience, and trust with generations of experimental filmmakers.
Through her remarkable ability to hold on to tools, machines, and materials—many of which demanded patience, care, and the occasional heroic repair—she ensured continued access to the equipment that made experimentation possible.
Her unique sense of order, often resembling a form of highly productive chaos 😜, created the flexibility and freedom in which creativity could truly thrive. Through determination, persistence, and a well-known (and much-admired) stubbornness in defense of artistic integrity, she has helped carve pathways for authentic, independent filmmaking—encouraging artists to find their own voices rather than follow established routes.
With deep gratitude for her vision, resilience, humor, and lasting impact on the experimental film community.
FWP

And tomorrow she is traveling to Naples for a retrospective screening of her work at Independent Film Show at Casa Morra. Archivi d’Arte Contemporanea, this Friday 26th from 21.00. Do not miss if you have a chance to be there🌞

A few pictures from the workshop "DIY matchbox pinhole camera for 16mm" run by Tetsuya Maruyama at the beginning of the ...
31/03/2026

A few pictures from the workshop "DIY matchbox pinhole camera for 16mm" run by Tetsuya Maruyama at the beginning of the month.

Tetsuya is founder of the artist-run film lab .film in Rio de Janeiro and was one of the filmmakers in focus at this year . During his workshop, each participant made their own DIY matchbox pinhole camera to capture images on 16mm film using modified 35mm photographic film canisters and vintage Japanese matchboxes. Participants then hand-processed their film and created negative and positive copies through simple contact printing to allow the freedom to work directly with the surface of the film with light, in the same way a painter leaves their gesture on a canvas.The first day was for construction of the camera, loading the film and shooting. Second day was for developing the film, print and project! During IFFR Tetsuya also shown one of his films made totally with his pinhole DIY camera.

Our Moving Picture Panorama is traveling for the first time to .be with a new work by Els van Riel.The 360° 16mm Moving ...
31/03/2026

Our Moving Picture Panorama is traveling for the first time to .be with a new work by Els van Riel.

The 360° 16mm Moving Picture Panorama is a visionary construction with 16 film projectors that project a film in a circle onto a projection screen set up around them. Linked to a central motor, the 16mm projectors project a film circularly, in a loop with no beginning and no end, like an installation. The film runs from one projector to the next, looping in and out of each of them successively. Film technician Nico Komen worked on this machine until his death in 2022. Artists and technicians from the Rotterdam-based, artist-run lab Filmwerkplaats then took charge of the installation, perfecting the first eight projectors and turning a working 180° panorama into a reality. During this process, several film artists were invited to develop a work and shed light on the machine’s possibilities.

Els van Riel’s work reveals the basic elements of the medium of film: 16mm film material, time and light. In her encounters with the panorama, she gradually developed her own understanding of its possibilities and limitations: eight different moments of the film appear simultaneously and continuously. Like a standing wave, the film remains visibly present at the beginning, middle and end as long as the machine continues to run. This unique form of projection views time as a circle rather than as a line, with an arrow pointing in a direction. It questions the time that once began, or didn’t, and the time that will end, or won’t. It examines a space that explores boundaries affected by time. A film with a single camera movement across mirrors in a landscape closes the circle.

Moving Picture Panorama is a project by Filmwerkplaats Rotterdam
Created by Nico Komen
Project coordination: Esther Urlus, Erwin van ’t Hart
Technical production: Erwin van ’t Hart, Els van Riel, WORM/Filmwerkplaats Rotterdam
Films by: Lichun Tseng (2017), Ieke Trinks (2017), Esther Urlus (2021), Richard Tuohy & Dianna Barrie (2023), Nan Wang (2024), Luis Macias (2025), Els van Riel (2026)

It's a wrap 🔥First documentation pictures from our 25 years anniversary programme shot by FWP member .troshkova Thanks t...
09/02/2026

It's a wrap 🔥
First documentation pictures from our 25 years anniversary programme shot by FWP member .troshkova
Thanks to all the people that came to celebrate with us.

25 YEARS OF FILMWERKPLAATS03.02.2026Film Programme 216mm & 35mm film program of short films from past and current Filmwe...
09/02/2026

25 YEARS OF FILMWERKPLAATS
03.02.2026

Film Programme 2
16mm & 35mm film program of short films from past and current Filmwerkplaats members
H. 15:30 - 16:45, Cinema

Interlude - Joost van Veen (2005, 16mm, 3 min, sound)
The film shows a group of 'Look-Downs' (fish) that swim through chemical layers of high-contrast black and white film-stock. The inspiration for this short film was the music track Interlude by the British band Manyfingers, a project by Chris Cole. Joost met him in 2003 while passing through the city of Dresden.

Rode Molen - Esther Urlus (2012, 16mm,5 min, sound)
A research into motion picture printing techniques. Starting point and inspiration for the film are the mill paintings of Piet Mondriaan, especially Rode Molen. In the film color is created by multiple exposures through different masks during printing. Depending what developing process is used the colors mix in two ways: additive or subtractive.

Colour writing me out - Christelle Gualdi (2006, 16mm, 6 min, sound)
A film about joining somebody on a personal trip and leaving open the direction of this journey. Its outcome is different every time.

still - Tim Leyendekker (2005, 16mm, 5 min, sound)
1989: Two kids make their first date through a telephone dating line. We see the bench and the park as silent witnesses to their encounter. A short film about desire and memory, made during a workshop with Norwegian filmmaker Inger Lise Hansen

Presente! - Ana Bravo-Pérez (2023, 16mm, 4 min, sound)
In front of the International Criminal Court, women from Abya Yala diasporas gather in ritual. Through movement and remembrance, they honor Colombian women social leaders killed defending land and Indigenous and Afro-descendant life. Ancestral memory crosses borders, turning the ritual into mourning and resistance.

[Caption continued in comments]

25 YEARS OF FILMWERKPLAATS03.02.2026Film Programme 116mm & 35mm film program of short films from past and current Filmwe...
09/02/2026

25 YEARS OF FILMWERKPLAATS
03.02.2026

Film Programme 1
16mm & 35mm film program of short films from past and current Filmwerkplaats members
H. 15:30 - 16:45, Cinema

Monologue Exterieur - Francien van Everdingen (2008, 16mm,3 min, no sound)
A dazzling puzzle, a mysterious interior, and something is about to happen

Harrachov - Joost van Veen & Matt Hulse (2006, 35mm, 10 min, sound)
Combining live action, stop-frame animation and chemical processing techniques, the film explores the working of an arcane power which, like a black hole or immensely powerful electromagnet, exerts a far-reaching and irresistible force upon certain objects and materials.

Roosje's Athleet 35133 - Pim Zwier(2005, 16mm, 6 min, sound)
Personal representation of the registration of cows. A combination of archive footage of Frisian bovine champions and dramatised childhood memories, made on orthochromatic film, which accentuates its black and white qualities.

Konrad & Kurfurst - Esther Urlus (2013,16mm, 7 min, sound)
The home-brewed emulsion is a fragile metaphor for the heroism of Konrad and his horse Kurfurst during the Olympic Games in Berlin, 1936. Falling from his horse, he became a national hero, only to become an anti-hero when overtaken by history. Made by consulting technical publications from early cinema and photographic experiments.

Sciopticon - Hanna van Asten (2004, 16mm, 6 min, sound)
A film shot with a Sciopticon. The magic lantern from the 19th century is equipped with
color filters and a cross-fading mechanism. Filming means capturing light. Images, outlines,
shapes. Everything is light, only by light it lives.

Fioritura - Raluca Croitoru (2023, 16mm 5 min, digital sound)
Fioritura is a visceral suspension of the everyday. The protagonists navigate fizzing emotions and internal contradictions; they use disgust and touch to transition from the superficial to the personally profound. As sweeping hands dream of manicure, messages attached to herbal tea bags become instant prophecies.

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Filmwerkplaats turned 25 years old and since its start maintains a well equipped 16mm film lab located in the basement o...
09/02/2026

Filmwerkplaats turned 25 years old and since its start maintains a well equipped 16mm film lab located in the basement of . We celebrate this milestone through a full-day program that acknowledges Filmwerkplaats’s collective effort and varied artistic expressions. Filmwerkplaats is an artist-run film collective dedicated to DIY analog practice, experiments and debates around filmic creation.

Tuesday 3rd of February 2026
WORM Rotterdam — partner
Boomgaardsstraat 71, Rotterdam

13:30-14:45 - PERFORMATIVE TALK (WORM Cinema) 18+ recommendation
15:30-16:45 - FILM PROGRAM-SHORTS 1 (WORM Cinema)
17:30-18:45 - FILM PROGRAM-SHORTS 2 (WORM Cinema)
20:00-21:30 - EXPANDED CINEMA (WORM UBIK)

Tickets are available via WORM website (https://worm.org/) and at the door. Free entrance to IFFR accreditation pass holders (door only - limited space)

Thanks to for making it possible!

Sweet memory from the last SPECTRAL meeting in our headquarter with our amazing project partners just after our B...
09/02/2026

Sweet memory from the last SPECTRAL meeting in our headquarter with our amazing project partners just after our Back to the Future Festival in September 💌

25 YEARS OF FILMWERKPLAATS03.02.2026Expanded Cinema PerformancesPerformance program featuring a re-enactment, an improv ...
09/02/2026

25 YEARS OF FILMWERKPLAATS
03.02.2026

Expanded Cinema Performances
Performance program featuring a re-enactment, an improv session and the premiere of a new piece.
H. 20:00-21:30, UBIK

highly infectious - Eric Lee (2025, 5 min, 16mm film image, digital + live sound)
“highly infectious” is derived from an article written by Dr P. K. Chew titled "How to handle hysterical factory workers". According to him, workers who are affected by Mass Psychogenic illness are to be isolated as they are considered to be “highly infectious”.

Horror Film I - re-enactment of Malcolm LeGrice's performance (1971) by Raluca Croitoru (2026, 15 min, 3x 16mm film + shadow performance)
In Horror Film 1, Le Grice performed with three overlapping coloured light 16mm projections, transforming his own shadow into image, surface, and interference pattern. This re-enactment of the film/shadow performance of Horror Film 1, was initiated by Cinzia Nistico and is performed by Filmwerkplaats member Raluca Croitoru.

Light Leaks #2 - Ji Youn Kang (sound) and a.o. Nan Wang, Lichun Tseng, Judith van der Made, Esther Urlus (2026, 35 min, 5x 16mm film looping + 2x diy slide projectors)
A live performance where light becomes both image and sound. A 16mm projector works alongside a handmade device, casting liquid and dust directly into the beam. Light-sensitive film is activated in real time, dissolving boundaries between light, colour, and sound.

A few picture more from our 25 years anniversary programmeDocumentation by FWP member
09/02/2026

A few picture more from our 25 years anniversary programme
Documentation by FWP member

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