ABOUT
Ugo Petronin (born 1985, Aix-en-Provence, FR) is a filmmaker and artist using cinema to bridge abstract ideas and lived phenomena. He focuses particularly on themes of Fluidity, Confusion, Regeneration, and Benevolence, and uses experimental cinematography to transform these ideas into aesthetic experiences and narrative forms.
His work explores diverse subjects such as train travel, rivers, flatworms, and digital video signals. By developing unique visual and technical approaches for each project, Ugo invites viewers to see, feel, and sense differently. His films create space to question established narratives and interpretative frames, encouraging a deeper awareness of the world’s ambiguity, sensitivity, and complexity.
He is a 2025 Nouveau Grand Tour Fellow at NIAS-KNAW, where he is conducting research on the concept of Benevolence. He is also co-founder of the Rotterdam-based production company Rods & Cones Film.
His work have been presented internationally at festivals and venues such as IFFR, Oberhausen, Kasseler Dokfest, GoShort, IndieLisboa, Ji.hlava, Goethe Institute, V2_Lab, Yamagata, Boston and Yale Universities, among others.
His artistic research has been made possible thanks to the support of the Mondriaan Fonds, CBK Rotterdam, Netherlands Film Fonds, NIAS, and Institut Français NL.
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
GRANTS, RESIDENCIES
2025
NIAS-KNAW & Institut Francais, Nouveau Grand Tour Fellowship, for Benevolences, NL
2024
CBK Rotterdam, I&V Grant, for Benevolence, Experimental Film, NL
Mondriaan Fonds, Development Voucher, 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
2024
Special Mention, Ninfa Fluida, Seoul Animal Film Festival, Seoul, KR
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, Amsterdam, NL
2013
Winner International Photography Competition, Dazed & Confused x NOKIA, London, UK
SCREENINGS, EXHIBITIONS
Upcoming 2025
PROSPECTS 2025, Rotterdam Art Week, Mondriaan Fonds, Rotterdam, NL
2024
R(a/u)pture 2, Program #1, Academie SLAC, Leuven, BE
Seoul Animal Film Festival, Short Competition, Seoul, SK
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
SELECTED COMMISSIONS
2024
Location Manager, IDFA Industry, Felix Meritis, Amsterdam, NL
Technician, Yellow Horizon by Annemijn Rijk, NL
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 Industry, Felix-Meritis, Amsterdam, NL
Technician, Yellow Horizon by Annemijn Rijk, NL
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 Industry, Felix-Meritis, Amsterdam, NL
Film Director, Mozart Sonata, Live Performance, Gotrian Steinweg, Braunschweig, DE
Location Manager, IDFA 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 TRAINING
Creating the Short: Scriptwriting, NFTS, London, UK
Anthropology & Storytelling Summer School, Vrije 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