Leeds International Architecture Film Festival 2026

Sarah Mills is an architect, researcher, Head of Leeds School of Architecture, Festival Chair of the Leeds International Architecture Film Festival, and Strategic Lead for Global Engagement at Leeds School of Arts. Her research explores the intersections of architecture and film in complex urban contexts through international collaborations, exhibitions and workshops. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Professional Examiner for RIBA Part 3 at The Bartlett and the Architectural Association. She studied at the Architectural Association and subsequently completed her Professional Practice in Architecture qualification at The Bartlett, UCL.

Hyun Jun Park is an architect, researcher, curator, Course Director of Postgraduate Architecture at Leeds School of Architecture, and Artistic Director of the Leeds International Architecture Film Festival. His research explores speculative architecture and spatial narratives through animation, visual effects, 3D scanning and time-based media. He co-founded CLEAR + PARK with Nic Clear to investigate relationships between architecture, film and installation. Park worked for nearly a decade at SAMOO Architects & Engineers in Seoul, where his roles included lead designer and project architect. He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and holds a Master of Architecture from the Bartlett, UCL, with UG and PG degrees from Hongik University, Seoul.

Ben Rivers is a London-based artist and experimental filmmaker whose practice moves between documentary and fiction, often imagining alternative existences in marginal or remote worlds. Working with analogue media and hand-developed 16mm film, he treats cinema’s material qualities as part of its narrative. His internationally exhibited films have received major honours, including the FIPRESCI International Critics Prize at the Venice Film Festival, the Baloise Art Prize, the EYE Art & Film Prize and two Tiger Awards at International Film Festival Rotterdam. His Urthworks trilogy, developed with writer Mark von Schlegell, imagines three stages of planetary life after environmental collapse through speculative landscapes, constructed environments and encounters between human society and nature. 

Dr. Doreen Bernath is an architect and theorist whose work spans architectural history, education, publishing and interdisciplinary research. She is Executive Editor of The Journal of Architecture, Head of AAVS Urbanity from the Ocean, Honorary Secretary of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain, and a co-founder of This Thing Called Theory, Translocality and Interjectures. At the Architectural Association, she is Director of Studies in the PhD programme, Lecturer in History and Theory Studies, and teaches across postgraduate programmes. She was a founder-director of DEZACT, led AAVS Uncommon Walks: Pedestric Radicals, and co-led the MArch Cinematic Commons course at Leeds School of Architecture. She trained at Cambridge and the AA.

Gaetano Drago is an architectural designer and academic working across queer theory, island studies, and film. His work examines the spatial politics of marginal territories and identities, whose power lies in unsettling where the center is assumed to lie, proposing a pluricentric approach to the built environment. He is an Associate Lecturer at the Royal College of Art and Norwich University of the Arts, and a Visiting Lecturer at Leeds Beckett University, teaching across Architecture and Interior Design. His writing has been published by Routledge, the AAE Charrette, Data Aided Design, and Prospettica. His recent work includes the design of The Land of Queer Cockaigne (2026), an installation and performative research project, and the organisation of the symposium Archipelagic Queerness (2026). His work has been presented at conferences including AHRA’s Body Matters (2024) and AAE’s Nurture (2025). Gaetano runs Dragoarch, a transdisciplinary design and film practice.

Dr Henrietta Williams is an artist and researcher whose practice spans moving-image and photographic installations, writing, walking and performance. Her work examines how cities are shaped by conflict and how security and surveillance transform the experience of the built environment. She is Associate Professor at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, where she teaches critical filmmaking across undergraduate and postgraduate programmes and serves as Director of Short Courses. Her work has been exhibited internationally at Het Nieuwe Instituut, Modern Art Oxford, the Bauhaus, the V&A and the Architectural Association. Williams holds a PhD in Architecture from the Bartlett, developed through spatial essays exploring the aerial gaze over London.

K.B. Izac Tsai is a doctor, designer, architect, artist, researcher, historian, theorist and media producer. He founded KBITA design studio and co-founded Translocality, a research collective developing multidisciplinary connections between art, architecture, design, research and media. His research examines the economic and maritime histories of cities in the Far East and Southeast Asia. He has presented internationally and taught at Leeds School of Architecture and Norwich University. Tsai completed RIBA Parts 1 and 2 at the Architectural Association, where he also undertook doctoral research, following earlier degrees in Mass Communications and Marketing from institutions in Canada and the United States.

Malve Lippmann is an artist, curator, and cultural manager. She is co-founder and artistic director of bi‘bak and SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA in Berlin where she was responsible for various programs, events and exhibitions such as the international symposium Cinema of Commoning (2022+2024+2026) and the documentary exhibition project Bitter Things – Narratives and Memories of Transnational Families (2018). Since 1999 she has been creating internationally designs of numerous performances, opera- and theater productions as a freelance stage and costume designer. Since 2025, she has been part of the jury for the residency programme Kulturakademie Tarabya and a member of the Berlin Council for the Arts.

Cinema of Commoning
Cinema of Commoning is initiated by SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA and various international partners. Grounded in the principles of the commons, CINEMA OF COMMONING brings together a network of alternative cinema spaces and practices from around the world to share knowledge and ideas. Emphasising accessibility, artistic freedom and financial sustainability, the programme spans talks, panels, screenings and workshops, where partner initiatives, film professionals and cinephiles gather to exchange ideas and develop strategies for a more inclusive and sustainable film culture.

Dr Merijn Royaards is an audiovisual artist, sound designer, composer, performer and artist-researcher whose practice explores relationships between sound, space, architecture, conflict and altered states of consciousness. He lectures at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, and works internationally across spatial audio, film, installation and live performance. Royaards is a founding member of the experimental improvisation group Deemer and has collaborated with Henrietta Williams on projects including Testing Ground. His doctoral research examined the transformative effects of sound, space and movement from the Russian avant-garde to contemporary clubs and raves. His multidisciplinary education spans music, fine art, urban design and architecture.

Dr. Oliver Bray is Dean of Leeds School of Arts at Leeds Beckett University. An internationally presented performance and live artist, his practice has toured to venues and festivals including the Sibiu International Theatre Festival in Romania, In Between Time in Bristol, and the National Review of Live Art in Glasgow. His research explores performance, contemporary art and the poetics of constraint. Oliver is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He is also a Board Director of Centre for Live Art Yorkshire and an Editorial Board member of Voice and Speech Review, published by Routledge.

Renee Tobe is Professor of Architecture at Leeds Beckett University. Her research explores relationships between architecture, film, literature, gender and cultural identity. She is the author of Film, Architecture and Spatial Imagination and Plato for Architects, and editor of Architecture and Justice. Tobe has lectured internationally and spoken at the British Film Institute, Architectural Association and Paul Mellon Centre. She trained at the Architectural Association, completed her doctorate at the University of Cambridge, and received awards from the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and the British School at Rome.