– A total of 13 international screenwriters and ten fiction authors are taking part in the annual Greek-based retreat, which will run from 1-9 July in Messinia
Filmmakers Richard Linklater and Radu Jude at last year’s Oxbelly Retreat (© Vangelis Patsialos)
Oxbelly has announced the participants of the 2026 Oxbelly Retreat, taking place between 1 and 9 July in Costa Navarino in Messinia, Greece. This annual gathering of international storytellers focuses on exchanging ideas, developing attendees’ craft and broadening their artistic horizons through intercultural dialogue. The 2026 edition features programme tracks for writers in film and literary fiction, welcoming fellows from around the world. Oxbelly continues to foster creative exchange by bringing together fellows, advisors and special guests from across multiple disciplines, encouraging conversations which expand approaches to storytelling and strengthen connections between the film and literary worlds.
The Screenwriters programme, headed up by Romanian filmmaker Radu Jude, supports writer-directors who are developing their second feature films by focusing on consolidating their craft while pushing the boundaries of their distinctive cinematic voices. Jude reflected on this year’s fellows, enthusing that, “As a tutor, I must say that the fellows’ projects are better than I could ever hope to achieve, so my admiration is matched by a desire to learn from them — from these young filmmakers whose originality, audacity, intelligence, and depth are hard to match. I am sure they will enjoy the meetings in Oxbelly, and we will be able to congratulate ourselves for having briefly accompanied them in the making of their great films.”
The Fiction Writers programme, led for the fourth consecutive year by Nigerian author Chigozie Obioma (An Orchestra of Minorities), brings together ten emerging fiction writers whose projects span diverse cultures, languages and literary traditions, encouraging intercultural dialogue and the development of bold new voices. Obioma reflected on this year’s fellows and their work: “This year, we have ten fellows from seven countries whose interests range from experimental novels about the decay of corporate establishments in South Africa to stories about funereal traditions in Turkey. What struck us about this year’s fellows is how fearlessly their stories travel, across languages, cultures, and borders. These are writers whose work insists that the conversations fiction makes possible are the ones we urgently need. Together, their work highlights the importance of Oxbelly’s core mission: to provide a forum for the cultivation and development of international storytelling.”
The 2026 edition attracted more than 2,000 applications from writers representing 181 countries and 205 nationalities, marking the highest level of interest in the retreat to date. Alongside the daytime programmes, fellows, advisors and special guests come together for screenings, readings and conversations designed to encourage the exchange of ideas across artistic disciplines.
“What distinguishes this year’s cohort isn’t only the originality of their voices, but their willingness to wrestle with complexity and contradiction. The Oxbelly Retreat invites fellows, advisors and special guests into an environment where ideas move freely across borders, disciplines and experiences, generating conversations that often become as consequential as the work itself,” explained Oxbelly’s executive director, Caroline von Kühn. “The Retreat isn’t a place of instruction; it is a place of exchange – where perspectives broaden, creative risk-takers are emboldened, and artists leave with a deeper sense of possibility for their work and for one another.”
The 2026 Oxbelly advisors and special guests include a distinguished group of filmmakers, writers and cultural figures, among them Jin Auh, Maura Delpero, Avni Doshi, Eva HD, Tatjana Honegger, Sophie Hughes, Annemarie Jacir, Barry Jenkins, Radu Jude, Charlie Kaufman, Glenn Kiser, Katie Kitamura, Daniel Kraus, Eka Kurniawan, David Levine, Dennis Lim, Richard Linklater, Rebecca Makkai, Gonzalo Maza, Rafael Manuel Mendoza, Chigozie Obioma, Paweł Pawlikowski, Fiammetta Rocco, Taiye Selasi, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Lulu Wang, Gaby Wood, Łukasz Żal and Dennis Zhou.
Founded in 2015 by producer Christos V Konstantakopoulos, the Oxbelly Retreat is supported by founding partner Faliro House, hospitality partner Costa Navarino and the Captain Vassilis & Carmen Constantakopoulos Foundation. Additional support for the 2026 edition is provided by the Oxbelly Ambassadors programme, composed of Grace Lay (LinLay Productions), Greg Beauchamp (Bindery Films), Douglas Choi (Sons of Rigor Films) and other anonymous donors.
The 2026 Oxbelly Fellows are as follows:
Screenwriters
Mounia Akl (Lebanon) – Hold Me (If You Want)
Diego Céspedes (Chile) – The Case of the Boy Who Lost His Heart
Céline Devaux (France) – Memoria
Andrei Epure, Ana Gheorghe (Romania) – Beautiful Solids
Alexis Langlois, Charlotte Sanson (France) – Totally Scum
Janis Rafa (Greece), Mathieu Delaunay (France) – Giant Mothers
Saumyananda Sahi, Tanushree Das (India) – Working Title: Guruji
Dušan Zorić (Croatia/Serbia), Matija Gluščević (Serbia) – The Memory of Hair
Fiction
Çağla Arıbal (Germany/Turkey)
Valia Dimitrakopoulou (Greece/France)
William Hutton (UK)
Michaeljulius Y. Idani (USA)
Mariah Kreutter (USA)
Tony Lashden (Belarus/Sweden)
Vuyokazi Ngemntu (South Africa)
Jazz Sanchez (Jamaica/USA)
Maha Sidaoui (Australia)
Nnamdi Vin-Anuonye (Nigeria)
