ABOUT
Ugo Petronin (b.1985, Aix-en-Provence, FR) is a filmmaker and visual artist. His experimental films, known for their poetic language and innovative techniques, delve into themes of fluidity, regeneration, and human-non-human interactions.
After earning a BA in Anthropology and Cinema from Aix-Marseille University, he pursued a master's degree at the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam, where he focused his research on fluidity in cinematography. During this time, he developed a shutterless cinematographic technique, which he employed in his experimental debut, Abiding (2019). The film received a special mention at Ji.hlava’s Fascination and was selected for the Eye On Art program at the Eye Film Museum in Amsterdam.
Since 2023, Ugo has been exploring the connections between imagination and the biophysical world, with a particular interest in how water beings influence myths, sciences, and collective imaginations. His latest film, Ninfa Fluida (2024), explores the notion of regeneration by weaving poetic metaphors with scientific model organisms, creating an unconventional dialogue between nymphs and flatworms, art and science.
Supported by institutions like the Mondriaan Fonds, Netherlands Film Fonds, and CBK Rotterdam, his work has been showcased at film festivals and institutions worldwide. These include IFFR, Oberhausen, Kasseler Dokfest, Ji.hlava, Go Short, and IndieLisboa, as well as institutions such as the EYE Film Museum, V2_Lab, Goethe Institute, MACA, HKU, Yale University, Yamagata University, and Boston University.
Ugo is a member of Time Window and Labocine-Science New Wave. You can visit him in his studio near Rotterdam Centraal station.
DISTRIBUTION
SEE NL International, Eye Film Museum, Amsterdam, NL
Doc Alliance Film, dafilms.com, CZ
Blink Video, DE
EDUCATION
MA Fine Arts & Design: Lens-Based Media, Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam, NL
BA Film Theory & Practice (honours), Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, FR
DipHE Sociology & Anthropology, Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, FR
SCREENINGS, EXHIBITIONS, RESIDENCIES
Upcoming 2024-2025
PROSPECTS, Rotterdam Art Week, Mondriaan Fonds, Rotterdam, NL
Seoul Animal Film Festival, Short Competition, Seoul, SK
2024
Labocine - Science New Wave, October Issue, Online
Metropolis Festival x IFFR, RTM Program, Rotterdam, NL
International Film Festival Rotterdam, World Premiere of Ninfa Fluida, Rotterdam, NL
2023
Hydromedia: Seeing with Water, Symposium, HKU, Utrecht, NL
Campsite Residency, Time Window residency program at TENT, Rotterdam, NL
2022
Kasseler Dokfest, Dutch Program SEE NL, Kassel, DE
TETEM Development Week, Research Residency Program, Enschede, NL
2021
67th Oberhausen Film Festival, Distributors’s program, Oberhausen, DE
Performing The Lens, Collective Exhibition, V2_ Lab, Rotterdam, NL
2020
Yale Student Film Festival, Yale College of Art & Yale film Alliance, New Haven, USA
IndieLisboa Festival Internacional de Cinema, International Competition, Lisbon, PT
GoShort International Film Festival, Best Dutch Short Film Competition, Nijmegen, NL
International Film Festival Rotterdam x Rauwkost Collectiv, Installation, Rotterdam, NL
Eye Research Labs, Eye Film Museum, Amsterdam, NL
Revolution Per Minute Festival, Slice The Eye ! at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, USA
2019
Eye on Art Selected Artist 2019, Eye Film Museum, Amsterdam, NL
Op de Grens van Landschap en Abstractie, Exhibition, KUUB Gallery, Utrecht, NL
Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival, Fascinations Competition, Ji.hlava, CZ
Museum Nacht @ M.A.C.A, Installation, NDSM Werf, Amsterdam, NL
Maquette, Collective Exhibition, Hilton Hotel, Rotterdam, NL
Yamagata University, Department of Film and Media Arts, Yagamata, JP
Pleinbioscoop, En Plein Public 2019, Rotterdam, NL
The Unseen Festival, Counterpath, Denver, USA
Expanding Bauhaus, Screening Series #03, Goethe Institute & Blink Video, Rotterdam, NL
MIASMA II, Screening, Piet Zwart Institute + Royal College of Art, London, UK
MIASMA I, Screening, Royal College of Art + Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam, NL
2018
The Drift, Selected film script for realisation, Graduation Film, Aix-Marseille University, FR
GRANTS
2024
CBK Rotterdam, I&V Grant, for Benevolence, Experimental Fiction, NL
2023
CBK Rotterdam, Praktijkbijdrage, for Ninfa Fluida, NL
Mondriaan Fonds, Kunstenaar Start Grant 2023-2024, NL
2022
Netherlands Film Fonds, VR Research & Development Grant, for Becoming Soma, NL
Stichting Droom en Daad, Film Production Grant, Ninfa Fluida, Documentary, Rotterdam, NL
PPO, Professional Development Grant, for Anthropology Summer School, VU, Amsterdam, NL
2019
Stichting Bekker-la-Bastide-Fonds, Scholarship, for Master in Fine Art and Design, Piet Zwart Institute, NL
AWARDS
2020
Best Experimental Film, Abiding, Yale Student Film Festival, Yale University, New Haven, USA
2019
Special Mention Fascinations, Abiding, Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival, Jihlava, CZ
Best Original Work, Abiding, EYE Museum Research Labs 2019, Amsterdam, NL
2013
Winner International Photography Competition, Dazed & Confused x NOKIA, London, UK
SELECTED COMMISSIONS
2023
Film Director, Sharing Stories on Contested Histories, International Training Program, RCE & Reinwardt Academy, NL
Film Editor, Care & Resilience: Ukrainian Museums in Times of War, DutchCulture Amsterdam, NL
Film Director, Auric, Live Music, London,UK
Location Manager, IDFA 2023, Felix-Meritis, Amsterdam, NL
Theatre Technician, Yellow Horizon by Annemijn Rijk, NL
Theatre Technician, Woman’s Work by Annemijn Rijk, NL
2022-2018
Film Director, Mozart Sonata, Live Performance, Maassilo, Rotterdam, NL
Visual Artist, Prison with Songbirds, Short Fiction, Dir. Ewan MacBeth, Eye Film, Mondriaan Fonds, NL
Location Manager, IDFA 2022, Felix-Meritis, Amsterdam, NL
Film Director, Mozart Sonata, Live Performance, Gotrian Steinweg, Braunschweig, DE
Location Manager, IDFA 2021, DocLab, A-Lab / Tolhuistuin, Amsterdam, NL
Guest Speaker, Round Talk: Fill in The Blanks, Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam, NL
Visual Designer, An Odyssey: Circe by the Orang Collective, Omnibus Theatre, London
Visual Researcher, XY Chelsea, UK/USA, Feature Documentary, Directed by Tim Travers Hawkins, UK
COMPLEMENTARY TRAININGS
Creating the Short: Scriptwriting, NFTS, London, UK
Anthropology & Storytelling Summer School, Vrij Universiteit, Amsterdam, NL
Contemporary Photography Theory, The Photographer’s Gallery, by Jonathan P. Watts, London, UK
Storytelling for Filmmaking, Goldsmiths University, by Mark Aitken, London, UK