ABOUT
Ugo Petronin (b. 1985, Aix-en-Provence) is a filmmaker based in Rotterdam. His multiform cinema combines poetic and technical experimentations to engage broad themes such as fluidity, regeneration and confusion. His films stand out for their unique aesthetics and conceptual playfulness, embracing cinema’s power to address complexity and the interconnectedness of ideas and phenomena.
His experimental debut Abiding (2019), received a special mention at Ji.hlava’s Fascination and was featured the Eye on Art’s program of the Eye Film Museum, while Ninfa Fluida premiered at IFFR 2024 and received a special mention at the Seoul Animal Film Festival. Supported by Mondriaan Fonds, Netherlands Film Fonds, and CBK Rotterdam, Ugo’s work has been showcased internationally at festivals and venues including IFFR, Oberhausen, Kasseler Dokfest, GoShort, IndieLisboa, Ji.hlava, Goethe Institute, V2_Lab, Yamagata, Boston and Yale Universities.
He holds a BA in Anthropology & Cinema from Aix-Marseille University and a Master of Fine Art & Design from the Piet Zwart Institute. Ugo’s current projects (2025-2027) investigate the notions of parasitism (supported by Mondriaan Fonds) and benevolence (supported by CBK Rotterdam).
Ugo lives in Rotterdam, NL. You can visit him in his studio near Rotterdam Central Station. He is a member of Time Window and Labocine-Science New Wave.
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
2024
CBK Rotterdam, I&V Grant, for Benevolence, Experimental Film, 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, RESIDENCIES
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