Milan Machinima Festival MMXXVI

La nona edizione del festival di opere d’arte fatte coi videogames.

Comunicato stampa

The ninth edition of the MMF, REPLAY/RELOAD/RESPAWN, brings to Milan the most cutting edge works made with video games.

IULM University will host the ninth edition of the Milan Machinima Festival (MMF) from March 16–20, 2026, with a separate online-only screening program running from March 16–22.

Subtitled REPLAY/RELOAD/RESPAWN, the festival considers how game culture is shaped by the notion of the eternal return — replay, repetition, revision, resurrection — bringing together artists, filmmakers, and researchers working across video art, cinema, animation, and game culture.

This edition presents a dual-format program at IULM: drop-in video installations running throughout the week, alongside filmmaker-focused screenings designed as shared sessions, with introductions and discussion. Additionally, as in past editions, the festival will present an online-only screening program of selected works, enabling audiences outside Milan to engage with MMF remotely.

MMF MMXXVI presents thirty-two works from eighteen countries across eleven curated sections, onsite in Milan and online. The programme surveys current work in machinima, game-engine cinema, and moving-image practices produced within virtual environments. Essay film, speculative fiction, documentary, formal experiment, digital performance, and political image-making all appear here, though not as settled genres. The point is less classification than contact: the frictions that appear when inherited forms pass through synthetic space.

MMF 2026 features

continuous video installations (9 am–6 pm, March 16–20)
filmmaker-focused screenings with artist discussions (2–5 pm, March 18–19)
online-only screenings (March 16–22)

Please note: access to the Contemporary Exhibition Hall to view the installations does not require registration. Eventbrite registration is required for the seated screening sessions (March 18–19) due to capacity limits.