Courtesy of Film at Lincoln Center / Photo by Arin Sang-urai
VITAE
Tenzin Phuntsog
Artist & Filmmaker
Tenzin Phuntsog is an artist and filmmaker whose practice spans narrative film, moving image installation, and archive. Working across deep time, shooting on 35mm, their work navigates the space between what is lost and what persists — through surrogate landscapes, language, the karmic weight of lives, and a singular diasporic gaze. In 2010, they founded the Tibet Film Archive, restoring over 100 hours of rare Tibetan celluloid now digitized and accessible through the Eye Filmmuseum, Amsterdam. Their debut feature Next Life won two awards at FID Marseille 2025, was selected for New Directors/New Films 2026 at MoMA and Film at Lincoln Center, and reviewed in The New Yorker. Their second feature, Sentient Beings, is in development with SFFILM FilmHouse Residency, San Francisco. Their solo exhibitions at Microscope Gallery, New York include Pure Land and The Last Dream at the End of the World, an Artforum Must-See, reviewed in Screen Slate. Their films have screened at the Berlinale Forum Expanded, Rotterdam, FID Marseille, Slamdance, Blackstar, New Directors New Films, El Foro Internacional de Cine Mexico, Message to Man Russia, Margaret Mead, Video Brasil, Loop Barcelona, The Flaherty, Redcat Los Angeles, Athnology Film Archives and many more. Recent exhibitions include Pure Land at Microscope Gallery, Berlinale Forum Expanded, Seoul Media City Biennale, and Gyatso at Haus für Medienkunst, Germany. Phuntsog also founded Stateless Cinema, a workshop platform for filmmakers and artists working outside state infrastructure. MFA in Visual Arts from Columbia University, New York. BFA in Media Arts at University of California, Los Angeles, California. They are a 2026 Guggenheim Fellow in Film and Creative Arts.
@tenzinprojects
Education
Masters of Fine Arts in Visual Arts
Columbia University, New York
Agnes Martin Fellow
Bachelors of Fine Arts in Media Arts
University of California, Los Angeles
Film Restoration Certificate
FIAF, Cineteca di Bologna, Italy
The Film Foundation Fellowship
RECENT
Solo Shows
The Last Dream at the End of the World
Microscope Gallery
New York City, NY
Feb 5 — March 7, 2026
Gyatso (Oceans)
The Haus Für Medienkunst
Oldenburg, DE
Sept 7 — Oct 27, 2024
Pure Land
Microscope Gallery
New York City, NY
March 3 — April 9, 2022
Group Shows
An Incomplete Assembly
EMAF, European Media Art Festival
Osnabrück, DE
April 22 — April 26, 2026
Forms of Awakening
Tang Museum
Skidmore, NY
Aug 19 — Dec 10, 2023
This Too is a Map
Seoul Media City Biennale
Seoul, KR
September 21 — November 19, 2023
Trembling Time
EMAF, European Media Art Festival
Osnabrück, DE
April 19 — April 23, 2023
An Atypical Orbit
Berlinale, Forum Expanded
Silent Green Betonhalle
Berlin, DE
Feb 15 — March 5, 2023
The State of the World
Galeria Municipais
Lisbon, PT
Sept 22, 2022 — Jan 15, 2023
Screenings & Talks & Resdencies
Guggenheim Fellowship 2026
SFFILM Film House Residency
San Fransisco, CA, 2026
Artist Workshop
The Image that Eludes the Consiouss Mind
William Greaves Film Seminar
Stanford University
Palo Alto, CA, 2026
CEMA Visiting Artist
Center for Ethnographic Media Arts
USC, School of Cinema
Los Angeles, CA, Sept 2025
The Cottonwood, Film Showcase
Livingston, MT, Sept 2025
Carnegie Mellon University
Constructing Cinema, The School of Art
Pennsylvania, PA, March 2025
SFFILM Film House Residency
San Fransisco, CA, 2025
Visiting Artist
First Person Cinema
Cinema Studies & Moving Image Arts
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO, Oct, 2024
The Haus Für Medienkunst
Media Arts Grant, and Artist in Residence
Oldenburg, DE, 2024
Redcat
Heeding (Land) / Roaming (Heart) / Grasping (Language)
Roy and Edna Disney Theater
Los Angeles, CA, Nov 2023
Artist Talk
Dunkerly Dialogues
Tang Museum
Saratoga Springs, NY, Oct 2023
Whole Grain
Tang Museum
Saratoga Springs, NY, Oct 2023
CALARTS Visiting Artist
Cinematic Voices, Film & Video
Los Angeles, CA, 2023
CALARTS Visiting Artist Workshop
MFA in Film Directing
Los Angeles, CA, 2021
NARS, Artist in Residence
Sunset Park, NY, 2021