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Valentin Noujaïm wins the first Mediterranean video art scholarship from the Han Nefkens Foundation
The Franco-Lebanese artist will receive 25,000 euros to produce a new audiovisual work after being chosen from nine creators from the Mediterranean area.
The Han Nefkens Foundation in Barcelona has awarded the first edition of the Mediterranean Video Art Production Grant 2026 to the Franco-Lebanese filmmaker and artist Valentin Noujaïm, an initiative aimed at promoting the production of new audiovisual works by artists established in the countries of the Mediterranean basin.
The grant is endowed with 25,000 euros, an amount higher than that offered by other regional programs of the foundation. As a reference, this year's Southeast Asian call awarded 15,000 dollars to Bangkok artist Chantana Tiprachart, which demonstrates the desire to strengthen support for contemporary creation in the Mediterranean.
Born in 1991 and based between Paris and Athens, Valentin Noujaïm trained in screenwriting at La Fémis, one of the most prestigious film schools in France, from which he graduated in 2020. His artistic practice moves between documentary and fiction to analyze issues related to the erasure of memory, surveillance and marginalization, as well as the way these phenomena shape urban spaces and infrastructures.
A fundamental part of his career is the La Défense trilogy, made up of the films Pacific Club (2023), To Exist Under Permanent Suspicion (2024) and Demons to Diamonds (2025). This set of works has been presented in leading international institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York and the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London.
In recent years, Noujaïm has consolidated his international projection with participation in the Thessaloniki Biennial of Contemporary Art (2026) and the Istanbul Biennial (2025). In 2025 he also presented his first institutional solo exhibition, PANTHEON , at the Kunsthalle Basel.
The artist was chosen from a final selection of nine candidates. The jury highlighted his 'original contribution to the practices of the moving image' and his 'singular approach to the city and architecture', noting that his work expands the possibilities of the cinematic narrative and highlights a remarkable potential to continue developing new lines of artistic research.
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