Circle, Onassis ONX Launch XR Program, Name Cizek Head of Studies

Circle, the training platform for women and gender-expansive filmmakers, is moving into XR and immersive media with a new international program developed alongside Onassis ONX. Emmy and Peabody Award-winning documentarian Katerina Cizek has been appointed head of studies for the initiative.

“Circle Expanded Orbit” will run Nov. 21–26, in Athens, bringing together creators working across XR, mixed reality, VR, AR, AI and game-based storytelling. Applications are open to filmmakers, artists and multidisciplinary storytellers working alone or in pairs; the deadline is July 23, with shortlisted candidates invited to interview in late August.

Onassis ONX – the Onassis Foundation’s platform for art and advanced technologies, with operations in Athens and New York – is co-organising the program. The partnership aligns Circle’s peer-driven talent development model with Onassis ONX’s focus on digital and immersive creative expression.

Cizek co-founded the Co-Creation Studio at MIT Open Documentary Lab, where she serves as artistic director. As head of studies, she will shape the program’s pedagogical and creative framework.

“I am honored to join Circle, and to expand the orbit of remarkable creators into the myriad of creative and critical possibilities of emergent tech and media. We are so honored to collaborate with Onassis ONX at this inaugural event, to bridge many worlds. The learnings in our circle will flow in all directions, as women and gender-expansive creators too bring urgent and important perspectives to this field,” Cizek said.

Founded in 2018, Circle has worked with more than 200 filmmakers across over 50 countries. “As storytelling is being transformed by immersive and other emergent media, we want to ensure that women and gender-expansive creators are not just participating in that transformation, but leading it. With Circle Expanded Orbit, and with Kat Cizek guiding our pedagogical and creative vision, we are opening a new creative space – one where we can explore new media and technology in service of authors and where the future of our art can be imagined collectively,” said Biljana Tutorov, the initiative’s founder and program director.

Prodromos Tsiavos, head of digital and innovation at the Onassis Foundation and Onassis ONX, added: “At Onassis ONX, we are interested not in technology as an end in itself, but as a means to expand artistic expression, critical thinking, and new forms of immersion. Through initiatives like Expanded Orbit, we connect local practices with global networks, opening pathways for artists to develop, circulate, and resonate internationally. In this context, supporting women and gender-expansive creators is essential to shaping a more inclusive and forward-looking field.”