Eurocine Symposium 2026 Preview – AI Mini Summit, ACES Update, and 50+ Sessions Land in Budapest This Week

Ahead of its Friday opening on the Hungexpo Exhibition Center in Budapest, the Eurocine Symposium 2026 has unveiled a two-day program with greater than 50 periods spanning AI, shade science, lighting, digital manufacturing, and on-set wellbeing. Headline occasions embody an AI mini summit moderated by Henning Rädlein, an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences session titled “Launches ACES”, technical deep dives from Charles Poynton PhD and David Stump ASC, and case research on The Brutalist and KALEVALA.

Eurocine, previously Euro Cine Expo, runs on Friday and Saturday this week, marking the present’s fifth edition and its first in Budapest after relocating from Munich. CineD is one an official media associate of the occasion, and entry is free with pre-registration through the official Eurocine website. Friday hours are 10:00 to 18:00, Saturday 10:00 to 17:00. The symposium runs in parallel with the trade-show ground throughout a number of rooms (F1 by way of F8, plus the plenary corridor and workshop areas G7/G8), with periods delivered in shut cooperation with the IMAGO Technical Committee, the Hungarian Cinematographers Association (HCA), and companions together with ARRI Rental, Nanlux, FilmLight, Aputure, Hollyland, Schneider-Kreuznach, Leitz, Canon, and the National Film Institute Hungary (NFI).

AI takes heart stage on Friday afternoon

The most formidable technical session of the weekend is the AI ​​Mini Summit titled “Checking in on AI in 2026 – what can it do for us?”, operating from 14:30 to 17:00 in room F1. Henning Rädlein, who spent over twenty years working at ARRI, moderates a panel that features FilmLight picture engineer Daniele Siragusano (ITC), Kommer Kleijn SBC ITC, senior colorist Christian Wieberg-Nielsen FNF (Storyline), David Stump ASC BVK AIP ITC, Dr. Sándor Takó, and cinematographer Roberto Schaefer ASC AIC ITC becoming a member of on-line. Several of those names shall be acquainted to anybody who adopted our protection of the IMAGO Oslo Digital Cinema Conference in Novemberthe place AI was additionally a major focus.

Beyond the mini summit, AI surfaces throughout this system in narrower, application-specific contexts. Ferenc Koscsó presents “Do we need cameras in the AI ​​age?”, specializing in AI and automation in Canon Cinema and PTZ workflows. A separate Saturday morning panel asks “How can Cinematographers survive in the era of AI?” with Nic Sadler, Dr. Cristina Busch, and Anna McKean. The breadth of programming displays how AI has moved from a single agenda merchandise into a number of corners of the manufacturing pipeline, from on-set seize to put up.

Color science will get the IMAGO Technical Committee remedy

For working colorists and cinematographers who care concerning the math behind their photographs, Eurocine 2026 is unusually deep on shade science. Charles Poynton PhD opens Friday morning at 10:30 in room F1 with a session on gamma and log coding for D-cinema, then returns at 16:15 in room F2 to interrupt down noise efficiency of recent cinema cameras. Poynton’s quantitative, marketing-skeptical strategy is the form of evaluation that working professionals depend on when evaluating sensors in opposition to vendor claims.

Saturday’s color-grading programming is equally substantial. Daniele Siragusano presents “Beyond LUTs: Architecting Robust Looks with Chromogen” in room F2 from 12:00 to 13:00, strolling by way of FilmLight’s Chromogen toolset and the way it differs from typical LUT-based workflows. Henning Rädlein moderates a 15:30 session titled “Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Launches ACES”, with Steve Tobenkin becoming a member of on-line and Christian Wieberg-Nielsen FNF on the panel. The session title is considerably ambiguous provided that ACES has existed in production-ready kind since 2014; The probably focus is the rollout of ACES 2.0 (launched at NAB 2025) and the framework’s August 2025 transition into the Academy Software Foundation. For readers who need a primer on the framework earlier than they attend, our long-running explainer on the ACES workflow stays a stable place to begin.

David Stump ASC BVK AIP ITC delivers a metadata replace at 13:30 Friday in room F2 masking OpenTrackIO, OpenLensIO, CamDKit (described in this system as “The Rosetta Stone”), and the Common LUT Format (CLF). For productions wrestling with digital manufacturing handoffs and on-set information continuity, this is among the most virtually helpful periods on the schedule.

Cinematography case research and craft periods

Three case-study periods stand out for anybody in how current productions truly obtained made. HCA hosts a grading case examine on Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist on Saturday at 10:30 in room F8, moderated by Péter Lehr Juhász with colorist Máté Ternyik. Rauno Ronkainen FSC ITC presents a deep dive on KALEVALA, the current feature-film adaptation of Finland’s nationwide epic directed by Antti J. Jokinen, throughout each days, operating 12:00 to fifteen:30 Friday in rooms F4 and F5, then once more Saturday 13:15 to 14:45 in room F2. London-based cinematographer Rick Joaquim SASC presents “Bad Influencer: Crafting Visuals Under Constraints” on Friday at 13:30 in room F8, breaking down a Netflix sequence that reached the worldwide Top 5 and analyzing how the look was constructed inside actual manufacturing limitations utilizing instruments like Sidus Link Pro and Sidus One.

Tim Kang, ASC affiliate member, takes a extra hands-on strategy with two periods: a dwell demo on Friday afternoon titled “Ground Your Vision: Use a Visual Ground to Guide Color Decisions,” and an extended 90-minute “Mastering Light & Color” workshop with Aputure on Friday night. Saturday afternoon, Xiangna (Nana) Zheng joins David Stump ASC for a 90-minute session on succeeding as a girl cinematographer in China. Per Eurocine’s speaker supplies, her work spans high-intensity motion, wildlife, and extreme-location filming, together with large-scale stunt work in the Gobi Desert and advanced drone-based cinematography throughout each outside and managed stage environments. Leitz Cine hosts “Hot Takes DoP Interview” Saturday afternoon with Markus Forderer, Andac Karabeyoglu, Flora Fecske, and Vika Safrigina.

Lighting, digital manufacturing, and wi-fi workflows

Bill Bennett ASC anchors Friday morning’s lighting programming with a three-hour session on automotive lighting, offered in affiliation with Nanlux and ARRI Rental. Henrik Moseid (Softlight) and gaffer Rasto Gore deal with “How to Build a Real Flame” Saturday morning. Sarah Thomas Moffat presents “Virtual Production for Storytellers”, specializing in integrating VP workflows into established filmmaking apply reasonably than treating them as a separate self-discipline.

Munich-based cinematographer Micky Graeter (BVK), just lately off his first function Der Verlorene Mann, presents a Hollyland-backed session on wi-fi communication for small-crew and solo-shooter workflows. On Saturday afternoon, Henning Rädlein moderates an “Expert Talk: The Art of Using Filters” with Schneider-Kreuznach Cine product supervisor Claudia Baier, János Vecsernyés HCA, Philippe Ros AFC, and Aleksey Berkovic.

Wellbeing, sustainability, and the Hungarian business

Eurocine 2026 dedicates vital program time to 2 subjects which have moved firmly into mainstream business dialog: on-set wellbeing and sustainable manufacturing. Producer and SPARKS Kft. CEO Judit Romwalter, who launched a “Wellbeing on Set” initiative in 2025 throughout manufacturing of Stamped, seems throughout a number of panels. Sarah McCaffrey of Solas Mind, whose purchasers embody the productions of Adolescence and Baby Reindeer, joins Friday’s “Perspectives on Wellbeing” panel.

Birgit Heidsiek of Green Film Shooting moderates Saturday periods on eco-friendly vitality provide and on procurement and provide chains, with two additional Green Film Shooting periods masking “Going Green without Greenwashing” and “Restore, Redesign, Reuse.” NFI hosts a closing session on inexperienced filming in Hungary that includes Romwalter once more. The Friday morning plenary, offered by Alinda Veiszer, launches the Hungarian Film Industry “White Paper”, a unified coverage doc addressed to Hungary’s new cultural management by main skilled associations. A sequence of shorter Saturday periods covers money rebates and co-production packages throughout Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, Italy, and South America, all moderated by Gergő Borbás.

Practical particulars and the way to attend

Eurocine Symposium 2026 takes place on the Hungexpo Exhibition Center in Budapest, with the trade-show ground operating alongside the symposium throughout each days. Pre-registration is free through the official Eurocine websitethe place the full schedule particulars room assignments and timings for all 50-plus periods. Saturday features a particular screening of Dorka Vermes’ debut function Árni in room F4, sponsored by Nanlux and moderated by HCA members.

The Hungarian Cinematographers Association (HCA) brings a powerful home contingent, and the IMAGO Technical Committee delivers a considerable run of color-science and metadata programming throughout the 2 days. Educators and rising cinematographers might also wish to test our constantly up to date MZed library of cinematography and color-grading courseswhich covers lots of the identical fundamentals mentioned throughout the symposium program.

Will you be going to Budapest this Friday or Saturday? Don’t hesitate to tell us in the feedback beneath!