The Longlist for the 2016 Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival is now up! In addition, finalists for the Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival are now up and public — these are the front-runners in this year’s poetry movie competition, the best of the best films submitted, and the finalists whose work will be screened at the 2016 Awards Ceremony and Viewing Party.

The Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival is a competition meant to highlight poetry and visual art at the intersection of film. The festival, due to take place in Worcester on October 22nd, 2016 focuses on short films that illustrate original poems, all of which are non-performance based (read: no footage of the poems being performed). This year Rabbit Heart received over 350 submissions from 39 countries, across 6 continents – and the top of the crop will be screened right here in Worcester, MA. The shortlists can be viewed at the Doublebunny website by choosing Shortlists 2016 from the dropdown menu for Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival.

Rabbit Heart will be awarding $800 prizes in seven categories this year: Best Overall Production, Best Animated, Best Music/Sound, Best Smartphone Production, Best Under 1 Minute, Best Valentine, and the Shoots! Youth Prize. The gala awards ceremony and viewing party will be at Nick’s Bar in Worcester, MA on the evening of October 22nd.

About Doublebunny Press:

Doublebunny Press is a small independent press that serves the New England area through poetry design, layout, and production of fine books and posters. Doublebunny also supported Omnivore Magazine, a poetry and arts monthly which, during its three-year run, published poetry and articles by over 150 authors, and carried a national subscription base.

Doublebunny has a history of great spoken word events in Worcester. They combined forces with The Worcester Poets’ Asylum to present V Day to the city in 2002 and 2003, and the Individual World Poetry Slam in 2005. In 2014, Doublebunny brought the inaugural Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival to the city, and in 2016 they plan an even more exciting show for Worcester, inviting the imagination of poets and filmmakers to once again take center stage.

About Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival:

Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival is the only outlet in North America for poetry on film in 2016, and the only festival that asks that the author of the poem participate in the making of the production. Rabbit Heart has attracted international attention over the last two years, including the honor of a showcase in the CYCLOP festival in Ukraine in 2014, and in 2015 and 2016 films from the festival have been featured at the pro.l.e series in Barcelona, Spain. This year Rabbit Heart received submissions from 41 countries over 6 continents, and the judges are currently in the thick of stellar work!

Once again Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival has been honored with a grant from the Worcester Arts Council (This program is administered by the Worcester Arts Council, for the Local Cultural Council – an agency supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency).

Save the date for Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival 2016: October 22nd. Tickets are now on sale online at http://doublebunnypress.storenvy.com/
Tickets for the 2014 and 2015 festival sold out very quickly – Doublebunny is expecting high demand again in 2016.

To learn more about this event, please go to www.doublebunnypress.com and click on the menu link to Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival. You can also visit Rabbit Heart on Facebook to check out news about poetry in film, and fun weekly featurettes like the 100 Delightful Things in Worcester Project.