Digital Storytelling: Art and the New Machine
October 9, 2026 — Cinemateket Oslo
About this edition
Twenty years ago, Digital Storytelling brought together artists, filmmakers, and technologists in Oslo to explore what happens when creative ambition meets new tools. What began in 2006 as a single seminar at Cinemateket grew into eleven editions over a decade and a community that kept coming back.
Digital Storytelling 2010
For our 20th anniversary, we return to Cinemateket with a theme that feels more urgent than ever: Art and the New Machine. The ground is shifting again.
What makes this moment different is not just that the tools are changing; tools have always changed. It is that some of what is changing raises harder questions about what artists are for.
Artificial intelligence is making bold claims about the future of image-making, and not everyone is convinced. The tools are genuinely useful in places, oversold in others, and the gap between the promise and the craft is one of the sharpest debates in the industry right now.
Yet some of the most compelling work being made points in a different direction entirely: the tactile, handcrafted VFX of Ryan Coogler's Sinners; the real-world capture and physical reference behind the world of ARC Raiders; a renewed conviction that the closer you stay to the real, the physical, and the irreducibly human, the better the story. Whether that instinct is the future of the craft or a passing reaction is exactly the kind of question worth examining in the same room.
Join us on 9 October!
Speakers
DS20 brings together leading Norwegian and international voices across visual effects, animation, games, and immersive media — from Oscar-nominated supervisors to the creative directors shaping some of the most talked-about work of the moment.
Our eight confirmed speakers for DS20.
What to expect
Talks from the field
An afternoon of talks from Norwegian and international practitioners working across film, games, and immersive media — the craft behind landmark productions like Project Hail Mary, Sinners and ARC Raiders, the twenty-year arc of Norwegian VFX, and the harder questions the current moment raises. See the full programme for the running order and session details
Two anniversary showreels
Two exclusive reels mark the occasion, curated by the Norwegian VFX Association. The first revisits work presented at Digital Storytelling between 2006 and 2016; the second surveys Norwegian VFX across the decade since. Seen back to back, they show how far the industry has come and how firmly it now stands on the world stage.
The closing conversation
The tools keep changing, and they always have. "The Artist and the New Machine" takes the long view: what remains constant is the artist — the craft, the judgement, the creative decisions no tool makes for you. A moderated discussion and open audience Q&A to close the day. It is unlikely to be polite or one-sided.
Prize draw
Every paid ticket enters a prize draw for professional software licences. The headline prize is a one-year Houdini FX licence from SideFX. Chaos contribute a one-year V-Ray Premium and a one-year V-Ray Solo licence. Prizes are drawn at the reception, and you must be present to win.
Anniversary reception at Lemongrass
The seminar continues at Lemongrass, the restaurant on the ground floor of Cinemateket. Included with every ticket. This year the reception is also a 20th anniversary party — finger food, cake, a celebratory drink, and if past editions are anything to go by, the best conversations of the day. A cash bar runs through the evening.
Digital Storytelling 2011 Concept Art exhibition. Photo: Oda Bhar
Eleven editions. Eleven years.
Practical information
Date: Friday, October 9, 2026
Registration opens 11:30. Doors to the Tancred cinema open at 12:00, and the programme begins at 12:30. The seminar runs to 17:00, followed by the anniversary reception from 17:00 to 20:00
Venue: Cinemateket, Tancred cinema, Dronningens gate 16, Oslo
We recommend arriving in good time to collect your badge.
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