Charlotte Clermont selected for the LIFT Alumni Residency in Toronto autumn 2026
Charlotte Clermont, an experimental filmmaker and graduate of Uniarts Helsinki’s Academy of Fine Arts, has been awarded a three-month LIFT (Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto) Alumni Residency organised in partnership with the Saastamoinen Foundation. The residency will take place in Toronto in autumn 2026.
The residency is part of a long-term partnership between the Saastamoinen Foundation and Uniarts Helsinki’s Academy of Fine Arts, aimed at fostering dialogue between fine arts education and the international contemporary art field, while supporting the artistic development and professional networking of recent graduates.
Analogue image as tool and material
Clermont graduated from the Uniarts Academy of Fine Arts in December 2024 (MFA, Time and Space Arts). Her practice is grounded in experimental analogue filmmaking, where presence, sensation, affect, and transformation become workable, living material. Her images are shaped by time, light, chemistry, and touch.
Clermont’s recent project du soleil, que ça existe (2024–2025) constructs text-based structures, landscape, and distance through 16 mm film and photochemical intervention. The work has been presented in various contexts, and further expands the artist’s extensive exploration of analogue image processes through residencies and darkroom experimentation.
Jury composition and statement
The artist shortlist was selected by an international jury consisting of Terra Jean Long, Stanley Schtinter, Kerstin Schroedinger.
The LIFT residency jury described Clermont’s work as dynamic and poetic, noting that her range of analogue and textual techniques is well-suited to deeper exploration at LIFT’s facilities. The jury also suggested that a darkroom-focused residency could complement the sense of sleeplessness that resonates through Clermont’s projects. Based on the jury’s shortlist, LIFT selected Charlotte Clermont for the residency.
Terra Jean Long is a Canadian curator and writer focused on moving image, experimental film, and interdisciplinary artistic production.
Stanley Schtinter is a British artist, filmmaker, writer, and curator whose work centres on the moving image, exhibition-making, and the social experience of cinema.
Kerstin Schroedinger is a German artist, filmmaker, and researcher exploring intersections of moving image, labour, technology, and material histories. She currently works as a researcher at Uniarts Academy of Fine Arts and contributes to teaching in the field of moving image and artistic research.
About the Alumni Residency Programme
Established in 2015, the Saastamoinen Foundation and Uniarts Academy of Fine Arts Alumni Residency Programme offers fully funded residencies at renowned international organisations. An international three-member jury selects the shortlist of candidates, with the final decision made by the hosting residency organisation.
LIFT
LIFT (Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto) is an artist-run media arts production and education organisation dedicated to excellence in moving-image practices, with extensive facilities for analogue film, including optical printing, darkroom work, and multiple film formats.
For Clermont, this environment provides exactly the kind of sustained, process-driven working conditions her new monochrome optical printing project requires: time for rigorous testing, careful calibration, and the kind of learning that happens when technique and concept are allowed to evolve together.
Within the partnership programme, residencies are understood as concrete professional support, and as a platform for visibility and long-term connections. Well-executed residency periods can provide work experience, recognition, and relevant networks in the global art world.