Cinekid Festival - Programme 2026

Party together at the Cinekid MediaLab 2026!

It's Cinekid's birthday, and we're turning 40! And we're celebrating together in the MediaLab. We're throwing one seriously cosy party, making an interactive birthday card, slipping into the skin of an algorithm, creating a 3D drawing of our favourite birthday snacks, and busting some moves on the dance floor! Everyone is welcome, from aliens to robots.

So light the candles and party in the MediaLab's digital playground. 🥳

Interactive art, VR, AR, AI, games & workshops with technology

Amarte x Cinekid Open Call MediaLab 2026

Circuit City

VRrobotslevel 2

Those at the controls see one thing, those with the VR headset see another. Work together to fill the city with new robots! Welcome to Circuit City, a playful robot world that keeps growing, and you can help build it! Half the kids are at the controls, while the other half wear VR headsets. You’ll each see something different, but by communicating and working together, you can fill the city with new robots! Winners Cinekid x Amarte MediaLab 2026 Open Call: Lucas Dekker & Maryam de Vries Made possible by the Amarte Fund ❤️

Luma Loop

installationmusiclevel 1

Welcome to a magical music playground where you can dance, jump, and make music together! Step on the stones to add or remove sounds and create an ever-changing song! Luma Loop is a magical music playground where you can jump, dance, and make music together! Colorful, glowing stepping stones are arranged in a big circle. When you step on a stone, it lights up and adds a new sound to the music, maybe a drumbeat, a melody, or a funny sound effect. Step on it again, and the sound disappears! By turning different stones on and off, you and the other kids can mix sounds and create your own ever-changing song as a team. Winners Cinekid x Amarte MediaLab 2026 Open Call: Studio Apvis Made possible by the Amarte Fund ❤️

The MediaLab has three levels! Where will your adventure begin?

Level 1: Make a 3D drawing of your favourite party food and feed it to The Everything Eaters, chat with an alien in Area 67, play the newest games and craft your very own music video in ReMake!

Level 2: Build the robot city of Circuit City, create and play your own party game at the Tactile Game Lab, and travel to a spectacular paint party on a colourful planet through The PlanetPortal!

Level 3: Game on the big screen in the cinema room, turn the tables and step into a world where sign language is the norm (Dovenland and Eddie & I), and slip into the skin of an algorithm that wants to sell collectable figurines!

Innovative technology: experiment with AR, VR and AI

Collective Body

vrdancinglevel 3

What kind of dancer are you? Wild as fire, graceful as stars, or flowing like water? In Collective Body, you’ll dance with a VR headset and see the other dancers too. Together, you create a colorful dance floor. Your moves shape the dance. Will you dance with a partner or go solo? Follow someone else or lead the way? Let’s dance together! Created by Sarah Silverblatt-Buser - Diversion

More about Sarah Silverblatt-Buser

The Planet Portal

vrspacetravellevel 2

Step aboard Dr. Flux’s spaceship. She’s a brilliant but messy scientist. Together with five other kids, you’ll put on a VR headset and travel through her latest invention, The Planet Portal, to a colorful planet above the clouds. There, you’ll meet strange creatures, uncover an ancient story, and find yourself in the middle of a spectacular paint party. Press the buttons, help Dr. Flux with her mission, and show that Earthlings are ready for an adventure full of science, color, and fun! Created by the amazing team of XR Lab, Grafisch Lyceum & HKU - Game Design, Game Develop, Spacial Design students of Mediacollege

What is your favorite party snack?

The Everything Eater

The Everything Eaters invite you to their birthday party! What’s your favorite party snack? Sushi, spekkoek, barra’s, johnny cakes, cake, kroketten, or maybe even a cake made of kroketten? Here, you can design it all yourself, so let your imagination run wild! Draw it on the screen and watch your 2D drawing turn into a 3D animation. Feed it to the fantasy creatures, specially invited for Cinekid’s 40th birthday. Press the button, and the creatures will open their mouths and start munching!

By Niels van der Donk / YONK, Victoria Young / YONK
Read more about YONK.

Artist duo YONK was asked by Cinekid to create The Everything Eater. In their work, the duo blends elements of animation and puppet theatre, resulting in a playful interactive installation.

Deaf Land

vrbeing deaflevel 3

If talking doesn't work, how do you introduce yourself, or order a cup of coffee? Are you allowed to just tap anyone on the shoulder to get their attention? Put on the VR headset and discover the answers in Dovenland (Deaf Land), a place where deaf people feel at home and you, as a hearing visitor, are warmly welcomed. In this land, two languages are spoken. Dutch Sign Language comes first, and Dutch for everything else that still needs to be said. This is how you experience the world the way deaf people do!

STICKERS

installationmemeslevel 2

Make digital stickers from your own photos or drawings, of your best friend, your cat, or your grandma, for example. These stickers get projected onto a huge wall. Together with fragments from 40 years of Cinekid and the stickers made by other players, they form an interactive collage: a large artwork that keeps changing and growing throughout the festival.

Arcadans

arcadeprogramminglevel 1

You decide what the monster looks like! Place the colorful magnets in different patterns, spin the wheel, and watch the creature on the screen change. One moment it’s a blue koala with antlers, the next it’s a three-eyed cat with a mustache. The possibilities are endless. Just move one magnet, and everything changes! Playfully discover programming with Arcadans.

Eddie & I

VRsign languagelevel 3

How do you deal with the unknown? Eight-year-old deaf Ron is scared before his first camping trip. His mother tries to comfort him with a story about "Eddie the Camper," a friendly forest monster, but it doesn't work. Ron stays scared. After he falls asleep, he wakes up in a strange forest and meets you, as Eddie. Together you go on an adventure, but there's a challenge: Ron can't hear and only speaks sign language. In this 22-minute VR experience, you set off with Ron, learn to communicate, and explore the forest together.

Let's celebrate life

We Are Dead Animals

Bring animals back to life in a virtual paradise! Creator Maarten 3D-scanned all the dead animals he encountered in his neighborhood and placed their remains in paradise, from a deer shot by hunters to a hedgehog run over by a car, so you can explore, collect, and even create new animals. And don’t forget to eat, or you’ll end up dead too!

Read more about the maker Tote Tiere Maarten and the project at wearedeadanimals.com
Collaboration with Frank Bosma, Michal Krajczok, Richard Valk, Evelyn Brancard en Menetekel Film

Wij Zijn Dode Dieren ("We Are Dead Animals") invites you to pause and reflect on life and death, without it feeling scary or heavy. Instead, it lets you celebrate life. With an impressive display of branches, moss and taxidermy animals, you step right into the experience. Take a moment to relax, put on the VR headset and step, quite literally, into another world.

Area 67

installationalienslevel 1

Two players: one alien, one human. They must find a shared language to understand everything about life on Earth. But how do you describe emotions, objects, or animals without words? With your body, of course! Strike the right pose to make your meaning clear. The more words you manage to bring across, the higher your score! Created by the Interactive Media Design Students of KABK Audrey Ljubenovic, Tijmen Luisman, Yan Abadijev. In collaboration with KABK Beeld by: © Les Adu

If This Then Confetti

aipartylevel 3

Can you ring the doorbell when you're standing in front of my virtual house? Someone's bound to answer, even if I'm not there myself. If the garlands are already hung, there's nothing left for you to do. Then you can go ahead and party, exactly the way you like best. At AlsDanSlingers (IfThenGarlands), you throw a party your way, as long as you can put it into if/then rules, for example: if you come in, you get a party hat put on. Created by Sander Veenhof

SAMPLES

installationmusiclevel 1

You don't need instruments! Your body is all you need to make music. In front of you, there are coloured panels that react to your presence. Every panel holds a different sound. Dance, jump and move however you want to make the music louder or quieter, faster or slower, higher or lower. Listen to eachother and mix all the sounds together into amazing music! Created by My Name is Fuzzie - made possible by Pro Helvetia Arts Counsel in Switzerland ❤️

Games

Which games are the hottest of the year? Every year, Cinekid teams up with a professional jury and the Junior Crew to hunt down the top 10 coolest new games for kids. These are games that tell stories in special ways, encourage teamwork and use technology creatively, but above all... that are seriously fun to play! Are you curious which 10 games are the hottest of 2026? Try out all the contenders yourself at the festival. From these, our Junior Crew will pick a winner, who takes home the Cinekid Game Award 2026! The winner of the Game Award will be announced on October 13, 2026. Read more about the Game Award here.

Poco

gamecute clownlevel 2

In this point & click adventure you play as Poco, a two-inch high clown. Discover the underworld: a place where everything that falls down from the worlds above, ends up. Find objects and play minigames to help the locals build a rocketship.

Maker: Whalefall

Pigeon: A Love Story

gamepigeonlevel 2

Pause for a moment with this meditative game in which you play as a pigeon. Fly around in the city in search of your soulmate. Coo your way through thousands of other pigeons, who give you hints towards finding your soulmate.

Makers: Wristwork

Lost Twins 2

gametwinslevel 2

The twins in this story have been transported to a magic world that has been shattered to pieces. By solving puzzles, working together and moving the fragments of yhe world it is up to you to return balance to the forces of magic.

Maker: Playdew

The Knightling

gameridderlevel 2

As sir Lionstone's squite, it is up to you to protect the city of Clesseia. Sir Lionstone hasn't returned from his most recent adventure so you're all by yourself. With his legendary shield you have to prove to the world, and to yourself, that you are worthy of knighthood!

Maker: Twirlbound

Kitiklop

gamehorseslevel 2

You're a horse and you get to hang out with other horses. Walk, gallop or strut. Run in a field of flowers, chase clouds and pick apples from trees. Can you, together with your horse-friends, find all the secrets of this world?

Maker: Dorian Beaugrande

Being Gregor

gamecockroachlevel 3

Step into the body of Gregor Samsa, a simple door-to-door salesman, until suddenly fate strikes. Gregor transforms into a cockroach! Experience this shape-changing adventure in this VR-game. Note: This vr-game is playable for kids aged 12+

Maker: Camiel Schouwenaar & HappyShip (read more about the game)

Dobbel Dungeon

gamedicelevel 2

Gather your party and end a powerful curse that rests on the land. You play this game by rolling the dice. Whether you choose a sword or a magic spell, the dice decides your success!

Maker: Gamepie

Reggie & His Cousin: Two Scientists and Most Likely the End of the World

gamegravitylevel 2

The fate of the world is in your hands. You play as Reggie, just a regular guy from tue 16.000th century who has no idea what he has to do. So step into this gravity-defying timetravel-adventure and stop a looming disaster of colossal proportions!

Maker: Degoma

Princess of the Water Lilies

gamekittenlevel 2

In this magical forest you play as a cat named Princess. She is found by a tribe of frogs and receives a magical collar, with which she can make the forest bloom when she purrs. It is up to you, as Princess, to save the animals trapped by the machines.

Maker: Why Knot Studio & Red Dunes Games

Workshops

Kids can join workshops where they create their own digital stories and artworks. The workshops are free to join all day with your MediaLab ticket.

Do you know what happens to your data?

Make your own Slopject

Ever think about how everything you do online is tracked? Every like, scroll, or second spent watching a video says something about you. All those little bits of information are called data. Algorithms use this data to predict what you’ll like, so you see more of that kind of content and ads. Convenient, maybe, but is it always fair?

In the Make your own Slopject workshop, you’ll step into the role of an algorithm. In exchange for your own data, you will receive a coin, that you can use to buy someone else's dataprofile. What does this person watch? What music do they listen to? What do they search for online?

Then, you’ll design collectible figurines that the owner of the dataprofile definitely won’t be able to resist!

Workshop created by The Hmm

Nowadays we leave data behind everywhere, from what you buy online to the videos you watch on YouTube. How long you look at something, whether you click a link, whether you scroll past quickly: everything is stored and traded. This workshop makes you think about what happens to your data. At the end, you make the choice: do you leave your data behind, or take it home with you? Knowing how data works and what happens to it is more important than ever, because everything you do creates data...

Worlds Longest Conga Line

workshopstop motionlevel 2

Hook your arms and party across the craziest places, together me make a polonaise without an end! Where does the polonaise (conga line) come by? An underwaterdisco, a jungleparty or the moon? Design your own background and imagine what you can see, experience and taste there. Then join in the queue for the greenscreen and become part of the worlds longest polonaise. Through stop-motion we melt the movement and the background together. This way you can see yourself dance by on the big screen!

Maker: Visueel Verteld

Tactile Game Lab

workshopgamedesignlevel 2

Put on your hard hat, step onto the construction site, and build your own game! Place platforms, coins, enemies, and more on the wall to design your level. Then it’s time to play your own game and everyone else’s too! In this workshop, you’ll step into the shoes of a game designer! Create your level using all kinds of elements -platforms, coins, enemies - by placing them on the wall. Then, you can play your own game! Will you make an easy level to earn points, or challenge yourself? Workshop created by Copotato - co-commissioned by NEMO Science Museum & Cinekid

ReMake, cut, paste, party

workshopvideocliplevel 1

Cinekid turns 40 and we're celebrating with a festive festivaltrailer. We have printed the stills of the video seperately, but they could do with some extra party-ness. So grab the markers, paint and stickers and go crazy on a videoframe. Glue a partyhat on the main character, throw confetti over the frame or make the background bright pink. If your drawing is finished, we will scan it. The computer pastes all the seperate images in a sequence and makes it into a smooth video. In this way, all of us work together on a big, full of energy party-video in which all your artworks flash across the screen!

Maker: Visueel Verteld

Unwrap!

workshop3D-modellevel 2

Ream up with Benny-Bot to fold the most beautiful gifts. Benny is an older robot who isn’t as fast as he used to be, and with the rise of AI, he’s about to lose his job as a gift-wrapping bot, that’s why he needs your help! By designing your own personal wrapping paper and letting Benny scan it, you’ll help him decorate and assemble digital gifts. As you design, Benny-Bot will explain how he turns your wrapping paper into a 3D gift. Then, you can fold your own gift and proudly say, ‘I designed this!’ Made by Jada de Bruijn, Immersive Film Academy intern at the MediaLab team.

Maker: Jada de Bruijn

Party together at the Cinekid MediaLab 2026!

Interactive art, VR, AR, AI, games & workshops with technology

Amarte x Cinekid Open Call MediaLab 2026

Circuit City

Luma Loop

Innovative technology: experiment with AR, VR and AI

Collective Body

The Planet Portal

What is your favorite party snack?

The Everything Eater

Deaf Land

STICKERS

Arcadans

Eddie & I

Let's celebrate life

We Are Dead Animals

Area 67

If This Then Confetti

SAMPLES

Games

Poco

Pigeon: A Love Story

Lost Twins 2

The Knightling

Kitiklop

Being Gregor

Dobbel Dungeon

Reggie & His Cousin: Two Scientists and Most Likely the End of the World

Princess of the Water Lilies

Workshops

Do you know what happens to your data?

Make your own Slopject

Worlds Longest Conga Line

Tactile Game Lab

ReMake, cut, paste, party

Unwrap!

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