A few years ago, Esther Perel spontaneously took the UNFINISHED stage with her husband for a public conversation, just because she felt like it. Brigitte Lacombe photographed dozens of participants and launched a newspaper mid-festival. Manolo Lopez came a week early and crafted a menu that birthed a new festival pillar: Taste. Jason Silva has returned year after year, losing himself in the garden of Casa Universitarilor. Daniel Jones, the editor behind Modern Love at The New York Times, kept coming back with new love stories.
These are just a few of the memorable moments from a decade of UNFINISHED. The festival celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, ten years of courage, of questions, of encounters. A decade that, as founder Cristian Movilă says, has been less about building an event and more about nurturing a community of “unfinished” humans. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
The theme for this anniversary edition is LEAP, and Cristian announces that it’s time for a new leap forward for the movement he’s built together with artistic director Capucine Gros and their team.
“UNFINISHED can no longer be just what it’s been. Nor do we want it to be. But the next direction isn’t something we’ll decide alone, in an office. We want to discover it together. So at this anniversary edition, one of the most important questions we’ll be asking is: What’s next for you?” — Cristian Movilă
We talk next to Cristian Movilă about UNFINISHED, which will take place between 26-28 September.
10 years of UNFINISHED
Ten years of UNFINISHED means ten years of courage, of unanswered questions, and unforgettable encounters. We didn’t build an event, we built a living community, where plans are invitations and vulnerability is the currency of exchange.
And there have been so many beautiful moments. Without exaggeration, every edition brought moments of serendipity that added to that unmistakable feeling that, at UNFINISHED, anything is possible. Like the time Esther Perel stepped on stage for an unscheduled conversation with her husband. Because she felt it was the right space, to be vulnerable, to step outside her comfort zone. Or how Brigitte Lacombe captured portraits of participants and launched a pop-up newspaper. Or Manolo Lopez creating the Taste pillar after showing up a week early to craft a menu.
In 2023, we danced and walked through the night in Bucharest with hundreds of people and Taraf de Caliu, while Ben Okri chose to travel not by plane, but by eight trains over 64 hours, because sometimes the way you arrive says something about who you are.
UNFINISHED has always been a leap. And each leap brought us closer together.
Looking Back. How the festival has evolved
In the beginning, UNFINISHED was more of an idea than a format. We had a space, a bunch of ideas, and a few generous guests who came mostly out of trust rather than a clear understanding of the concept. Everything felt experimental: what happens if you bring very different people into the same space and ask them not to perform, but to be honest?
Things grew organically. A key moment was when we eliminated tickets altogether and introduced “paying with your time” through an app. It was risky, but necessary. We weren’t interested in how much someone was willing to pay, but in how involved they were willing to be.
Then came the pandemic, another turning point. Instead of pausing, we built FLOW OS, a digital platform designed with the same care as the physical experience. It became, for a while, a social lab. That’s when we realized something essential: UNFINISHED isn’t about a place. It’s about relationships.
Now, ten years in, we feel it’s time for another leap. UNFINISHED is no longer just an annual festival, it’s a living network of ideas, formats, questions, and connections that extend far beyond three days in September.
The team behind UNFINISHED. What holds you together
We’re a very small team. Capucine Gros, our artistic director, and I are at the core, surrounded by a handful of exceptional people who are here not for a salary or a title, but because they feel they’re part of something alive.
We’re bonded by trust, real friendship, and a stubborn desire to do things well. It’s not always easy, burnout, frustration, fatigue, but we always return to one question: Why are we doing this? And when the answer is clear, we keep going.
The UNFINISHED community over the years
The community is the heart of UNFINISHED. It’s not an audience. It’s a co-creator. It’s grown from 500 to thousands of people from over 70 countries.
The challenge has been: how do you preserve intimacy and depth while growing? How do you avoid becoming a “cool” event that people just check off their list?
We’ve learned that if you want vulnerability, you have to offer it first.
Who are the people who come to UNFINISHED
Curious, attentive, diverse people. From tech, the arts, education, entrepreneurship—but also from government, media, and completely unexpected fields.
What unites them is a thirst for meaning. A desire to be exposed to ideas and people who shift their perspective.
They keep coming back because UNFINISHED is never the same. Because here, no one asks them to perform—but to be. And that, for many, is a rare gift.
Back in time. How the idea of UNFINISHED was born
It started as a reaction. Or maybe a revelation. I felt everything—people, ideas, conversations, was becoming more and more siloed. Art spoke only to art, tech to tech, entrepreneurs to entrepreneurs. And that felt not just sad—but dangerous. Because the best ideas often emerge at the intersection of fields.
So I thought: what if I created a space with no clear label? Not a conference, not a music festival, not an art show, but a space that’s all of those things. Where people from different worlds come together, united by curiosity and a willingness to be vulnerable. Not for image, but as a way to build something new.
And yes, there was a personal frustration too. I felt events I attended talked a lot, but said little. That’s how UNFINISHED was born: as a form of constructive protest.
Why you named it UNFINISHED and how you initially imagined the concept
The name “UNFINISHED” isn’t just branding. It comes from something deeply personal. Before the festival, I had done a photo project called Unfinished Dreams—a series of portraits and moments from Romanian hospitals, with terminally ill children. It was a painful project. But also transformative. It changed how I looked at life. At fragility. At what we leave undone, at dreams we don’t get to live. That word “unfinished” stayed with me.
It became a lens through which I started seeing everything. Because, honestly, nothing is ever complete. A great idea doesn’t end with a TED talk. A relationship, a project, an identity—these are all processes, not final products.
So the festival was never about “experts” giving answers. It was a space where it’s OK to show up with questions, with doubts, with half-formed thoughts. To put them on the table and let them mingle with others. To show up without a mask. That’s the power of the name: it’s an ongoing invitation to honesty, transformation, imperfection.
Rituals and formats that encourage vulnerability and connection
Every format is designed to help people open up. With intention. From the design, to the music, to the program. From breathwork sessions and tea rituals to shared meals, no-phone zones, and social experiments.
But above all, we have one principle: no one is “more important.” Everyone is a participant. That changes everything.
Organizational challenges. The toughest decisions and how you overcame them
The hardest, and most important, decision is to say “no.” To money, to sponsors who don’t understand us, to guests who come only for exposure. Because no matter how tempting fast growth might be, if you lose your essence, you lose everything.
We’ve learned to be radically transparent, to be creative and flexible, to sometimes do more with less. And above all, to not confuse scaling with success. For us, scaling means depth, not numbers. I like to think our growth is horizontal, not vertical. Our goal isn’t to grow in size, but in meaning. If we can keep the intimacy and depth, even with new formats or hundreds of people from dozens of countries, then we’re on the right path.
And the truth is, we couldn’t have done it without a few partners who understood, from the start, what we’re building. They stayed not just as sponsors, but as part of the community. People and organizations who saw that we don’t sell tickets—we offer time, presence, and attention. And they supported us because of that. We’ve been lucky. And we’re grateful. UNFINISHED belongs to them too.
UNFINISHED guests and their impact on festival’s visibility and identity
People come, some of them quite famous, because they feel there’s something real here. We don’t just invite them to give a speech. We invite them to be part of a process.
Invitations are personal. Sometimes handwritten. Sometimes it takes years to make something happen. But those who do say yes, usually stay. Marina Abramović opened up in a beautiful conversation. Jason Silva got lost in the garden and probably posted a record number of stories :). Esther Perel said she felt the deepest connection with an audience, here.
Yes, they bring visibility. But more importantly, they bring energy, depth, and new questions.
The anniversary edition and the theme: LEAP
LEAP is about that moment when you can’t postpone anymore. When you jump—not because you know where you’ll land, but because you know you have to leave where you are.
We’re designing a wide range of experiences that will pull you into your body, out of your head—and vice versa. Somatic workshops, provocative conversations, living installations, unforgettable encounters.
I hope each participant leaves not with a light “inspiration,” but with a real question and the courage to act. Even if it’s just a small step.
The 2025 Line-up
This year’s line-up is incredible. New voices, but also returning guests who had a strong impact on the community. People who embody the idea of “leap”: James Nestor, who redefined how we breathe, Tristan Gooley, who decodes every sign in nature, Alfredo Jaar, who uses art as resistance, Anca Damerell, who reimagines our relationship with nature from inside the system, Mila Morris, who rethinks how we age, heal, and live, Valeria Stoica, with her fragile, profound music
More to be announced soon, but more important than who’s coming is how they’re coming: not as VIPs, not as names on a poster, but as active participants in a collective conversation.
Looking ahead to the next ten years. The way you see the future and the new form of UNFINISHED
The truth is: we don’t yet know. And maybe that’s the beauty of it. What we do know is this: we’ve reached a point where we need to renew our commitment. To our community. To the partners who believed in us. And, maybe hardest of all, to ourselves.
UNFINISHED can no longer be just what it’s been. We don’t want that. But the next direction isn’t one we’ll define alone. We want to find it together. That’s why, at this anniversary edition, one of the most important questions we’ll ask is: What’s next for you?
Because only by understanding what’s next for each of us, individually, collectively, deeply, can we begin to shape what’s next for all of us. That’s the promise: we won’t move forward just any way, we’ll do it with care. And with you.
