TIKTOK TO CINEMA: VERTICAL STORIES
MY WORLD, MY STORY
Real. Raw. Ridiculous. Whatever’s Yours.
From Phone Screen to Cinema Screen
During the 2026 edition of Black Soil Film Festival, LantarenVenster in Rotterdam becomes the stage for the grand finale of TikTok to Cinema: Vertical Stories, a new film competition celebrating the creativity and storytelling of a generation raised on social media.
Developed in collaboration with Cult North (Rotterdam) and Stichting Haags Hiphop Centrum (The Hague), the programme explores vertical storytelling as an emerging cinematic language, bringing stories originally created for smartphones onto the big screen.
Under the theme My World, My Story, young filmmakers, content creators and visual storytellers aged 16 to 30 were invited to create original short with length: 30–90 seconds, shot in the vertical 9:16 format.
The invitation was simple: tell your story, your way.
From personal experiences and everyday observations to comedy, fiction, documentary and visual experimentation, the competition celebrates originality, imagination and the freedom to create without traditional filmmaking conventions.
Ten Stories. One Big Screen.
During this special finale at LantarenVenster, ten selected films will be presented to a live cinema audience.
Each film offers a unique perspective on the world, reflecting the creativity, humour, identity and imagination of a new generation of storytellers.
What connects these films is not a shared genre or subject, but a willingness to explore new ways of telling stories through the vertical frame.
By bringing these works into the cinema, Black Soil challenges the boundaries between social media content and traditional filmmaking. What happens when stories designed for individual screens become part of a collective cinematic experience?
The Vertical Stories Awards
The evening culminates in the Vertical Stories Awards, celebrating the most compelling and original contributions.
Three prizes will be presented:
- 1st Prize — €1000
- 2nd Prize — €250
- 3rd Prize — €100
The awards will be determined through a combination of professional jury assessment and audience participation, recognising originality, storytelling and creative use of the vertical format.
A New Generation of Storytellers
Beyond the screenings and awards, TikTok to Cinema opens a conversation about the future of filmmaking.
Social media has transformed who can create, distribute and share moving images. A generation of creators is developing its own visual language, often outside traditional film institutions and with little more than a smartphone.
Through Vertical Stories, Black Soil brings these emerging voices into the cinema, creating space for new perspectives and artistic encounters between digital culture and the film industry.
The finale at LantarenVenster is both a celebration of young creative talent and an invitation to reconsider what cinema can be.
Your phone is a camera. Your feed is a language. Your story belongs on the big screen.
TikTok to Cinema: Vertical Stories is an initiative of Black Soil Film Festival, developed in collaboration with Cult North and Stichting Haags Hiphop Centrum.
MY WORLD, MY STORY
Real. Raw. Ridiculous. Whatever’s Yours.
From Phone Screen to Cinema Screen
During the 2026 edition of Black Soil Film Festival, LantarenVenster in Rotterdam becomes the stage for the grand finale of TikTok to Cinema: Vertical Stories, a new film competition celebrating the creativity and storytelling of a generation raised on social media.
Developed in collaboration with Cult North (Rotterdam) and Stichting Haags Hiphop Centrum (The Hague), the programme explores vertical storytelling as an emerging cinematic language, bringing stories originally created for smartphones onto the big screen.
Under the theme My World, My Story, young filmmakers, content creators and visual storytellers aged 16 to 30 were invited to create original short with length: 30–90 seconds, shot in the vertical 9:16 format.
The invitation was simple: tell your story, your way.
From personal experiences and everyday observations to comedy, fiction, documentary and visual experimentation, the competition celebrates originality, imagination and the freedom to create without traditional filmmaking conventions.
Ten Stories. One Big Screen.
During this special finale at LantarenVenster, ten selected films will be presented to a live cinema audience.
Each film offers a unique perspective on the world, reflecting the creativity, humour, identity and imagination of a new generation of storytellers.
What connects these films is not a shared genre or subject, but a willingness to explore new ways of telling stories through the vertical frame.
By bringing these works into the cinema, Black Soil challenges the boundaries between social media content and traditional filmmaking. What happens when stories designed for individual screens become part of a collective cinematic experience?
The Vertical Stories Awards
The evening culminates in the Vertical Stories Awards, celebrating the most compelling and original contributions.
Three prizes will be presented:
- 1st Prize — €1000
- 2nd Prize — €250
- 3rd Prize — €100
The awards will be determined through a combination of professional jury assessment and audience participation, recognising originality, storytelling and creative use of the vertical format.
A New Generation of Storytellers
Beyond the screenings and awards, TikTok to Cinema opens a conversation about the future of filmmaking.
Social media has transformed who can create, distribute and share moving images. A generation of creators is developing its own visual language, often outside traditional film institutions and with little more than a smartphone.
Through Vertical Stories, Black Soil brings these emerging voices into the cinema, creating space for new perspectives and artistic encounters between digital culture and the film industry.
The finale at LantarenVenster is both a celebration of young creative talent and an invitation to reconsider what cinema can be.
Your phone is a camera. Your feed is a language. Your story belongs on the big screen.
TikTok to Cinema: Vertical Stories is an initiative of Black Soil Film Festival, developed in collaboration with Cult North and Stichting Haags Hiphop Centrum.
Short
2026
2026
2027
1
Lantaren Venster
/
Rotterdam
Friday, 11 December 2026
-
19:00
-
(Hosted by Cult North, Stichting Haags Hiphop Centrum.)