[KineJapan] Call for Proposals: ACPAC Annual Conference 2026

[ACPAC]

Exploring the Decoloniality of Film Curation and Programming

Following the successful launch symposium of the Association for Curators
and Programmers of Asian Cinemas (ACPAC), hosted by the Asian Film Archive
in Singapore in 2025, ACPAC is pleased to announce its second Annual
Conference.

The conference will be hosted by the Thai Film Archive and will take place
on 19–20 June 2026.  ACPAC now invites proposals for this second
conference, which will explore the decoloniality of film curation and
programming, with a particular focus on Asian cinemas.

Although awareness of decolonisation in cinema has grown, it is still often
discussed in abstract terms, with limited attention to how it is enacted in
film practice and the film industry. Colonial legacies, market pressures,
and institutional hierarchies continue to shape which films are valued,
preserved, accessible, and circulated. These forces influence film
histories, canons, heritage practices, and circulation networks, often
reproducing exclusionary narratives and unequal access to cultural
resources.

ACPAC recognises that film curators and programmers play an irreplaceable
yet often unacknowledged role in the decolonisation of cinema. This
conference asks how film curation and programming can function as genuinely
decolonial practices. What kinds of knowledge, ways of watching, and
relationships can film programmes create when they challenge dominant
narratives and profit-driven cultural systems? Whose voices are amplified,
and whose remain marginal? How can everyday curatorial decisions resist
dominant frameworks in practice?

ACPAC does not treat decolonisation as a broad theme or buzzword. Instead,
we foreground the practical, lived work of film curators, programmers, and
those working in equivalent curatorial roles, operating within real
political, economic, and institutional constraints. Decolonial
practice emerges through everyday decisions about access, care,
collaboration, labour, and accountability. The long-standing policies of
post-colonial repatriation, advocated and called for by the Co-ordinating
Council of Audiovisual Archives Associations, should be examined and
questioned as to actually how successful attempts to repatriate have been
in enabling accessibility and the screening of materials in the Global
South.

We therefore invite contributions that reflect on concrete curatorial
practices, experiences, and strategies—including actions, negotiations, and
even failures—through which decolonial approaches are enacted, reimagined,
contested, or compromised in film curation and programming.

We aim to create a collective space to examine how cutting-edge,
experimental, and often unrecognised practices can be translated, shared,
and sustained across different contexts. Moving beyond isolated
initiatives, we invite contributors to consider how curatorial
interventions might generate long-term, systemic change across museums,
cinemas, festivals, archives, institutions, and cultural policy.

We welcome proposals that explore, but are not limited to the following
topics:

   - Creating viewing experiences that encourage reflection, dialogue, and
   collective learning


   - Programming for, about or with migrant, diasporic,
   local communities and underrepresented communities


   - challenging algorithm-driven and consumption-based viewing habits


   - Inequality faced by Asian and Asian diasporic curators and programmers


   - Power, language, and cultural capital within international film
   festivals and other institutions


   - Building fairer, more supportive, and more sustainable working
   environments


   - Ethical questions of voice, consent, and responsibility


   - Avoiding tokenism and extractive approaches to representation


   - Power imbalances within the international film festival circuit and
   heritage film circulation networks


   - How global film circuits shape the ways Asian cinemas are seen,
   understood, and valued


   - How funding structures, markets, and critical discourse shape what is
   selected and recognised


   - Strategies of negotiation, compromise, refusal, and resistance within
   dominant systems


   - Challenging national, regional, and cultural labels imposed by
   dominant systems


   - Roles and impact of universities and schools in decolonising film
   curation and education


   - Programming or curating across borders, languages, and diasporic
   contexts


   - Rethinking how Asian cinemas are framed for international audiences


   - Programming films that resist exoticisation or cultural branding


   - Programming films that are censored, restricted, or difficult to
   access


   - Curating around loss, absence, and archival gaps


   - Ethical refusal and decisions not to show or circulate certain works

We warmly encourage proposals from:

   - Film curators and programmers


   - Festival organisers and cine-club practitioners


   - Archivists and preservation workers


   - Artists and filmmakers engaged in curatorial work


   - Scholars, researchers, educators and students in film, media, cultural
   studies, and related fields


   - Early-career, independent, and institutionally unaffiliated
   practitioners

We invite proposals in the following formats:

   - Individual papers (15 minutes)


   - Pre-constituted panels (3–4 speakers)


   - Roundtables (3-4 speakers)

Submission Guidelines

Please submit:

   - For individual papers: An abstract of up to 300-words and a short bio
   (of approximately 100 words) including affiliation (if any)


   - For panels: one single document including all abstracts and bios.
   - For roundtables: one single document including one abstract and bios

Submission deadline: 5 April 2026
Submit to: contact at acpacnet.org
Conference format: in-person / hybrid
Conference dates: 19 – 20 June 2026

Registration details, including fees, will be announced when registration
opens in April. Please note that travel and accommodation expenses are the
responsibility of participants.
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