Aesthetica Film Festival announces its most expansive programme to date, with York set to become a meeting point for the people shaping the future of film, television, art, sound, games and immersive media this November. The festival returns from 4–8 November, bringing more than 300 films alongside masterclasses, premieres, live music, games, virtual reality, podcasting, immersive art and one of the UK’s most substantial industry programmes. Across five days, more than 300 films will sit alongside masterclasses, premieres, live music, games, virtual reality, podcasting, immersive art and one of the UK’s most substantial industry programmes, bringing together filmmakers, artists, producers, commissioners, musicians, developers and creative businesses from more than 60 different countries around the world.
The festival’s 16th edition makes a compelling case for York as a place where Britain’s creative industries actively imagine what comes next. Representatives from Aardman, BBC, Film4, Framestore, ITV, Neal Street Productions and Ubisoft will be among those contributing to the programme, while the UK Production Summit brings together figures from Film4, Ridley Scott Associates, Sky and Warner Bros. With more than 6,500 people typically attending its industry sessions, Aesthetica has become considerably larger than a film festival: it is one of the UK’s key annual moments for the creative industries to meet.
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Aesthetica Film Festival 2026 is a moment when York becomes a stage for Britain’s creative future. Over 300 films, major industry figures, emerging artists, games, VR, music, podcasts and ambitious public artworks will converge across five days, creating a programme that is deliberately impossible to experience through a single medium. Radical Listening alone promises to alter the physical experience of the city, with 20 three-metre towers in King’s Square, an installation rising to the height of York Theatre Royal and Squidsoup’s field of light and sound in Exhibition Square – all free, all part of everyday public life. Add to that the global industry programme, the UK Production Summit, the Games Lab, VR Lab, masterclasses, premieres, live events and the exceptional range of people arriving from over 60 countries, and the festival becomes a rare centre of creative energy. Aesthetica’s success is not bringing the creative industries to York; it is creating the space for other worlds to meet and generate something new. From 4–8 November, York hosts conversations about where screen, media and art are heading – shaping what is next.
Aesthetica Film Festival 2026
November 4–8, 2026
Aesthetica
York, UK
