Call for work: 12th International Video Poetry Festival
The 12th International Video Poetry Festival will take place in Athens at Fri. 11 and Sat. 12 April 2025. The festival attempts to create an open public space for the creative expression of all tendencies and streams of contemporary visual poetry. The IVPF has been around since 2011. It is one of the largest international platforms for video poetry. Every year, it offers poets, film directors, video artists and festival makers from all over the world a platform for creative exchange, brainstorming and meeting with a broad audience. Poetry readings, live performances, concerts, retrospectives, exhibitions, performances, workshops and lectures showcase the diversity of the genres of video poetry and spoken-word music.
The International Video Poetry Festival happens in two different zones. The first day is the Show Room Video Poetry, a unique cinema hall zone that will include video poems, visual poems, short film poems and cinematic poetry and performances by artists from all over the world (America, Asia, Europe, Africa). The second day is the Live Performance Zone with multimedia poetry readings, concerts of experimental music, workshops and spoken word lives.
Poets, filmmakers, video and digital artists, media and performance artists are called to submit creative works to the 12th Annual International Video Poetry Festival in Athens, Greece. The festival celebrates and will screen a large scope of video projects developed through the medium of poetry. The International Video Poetry Festival will also host a series of panels, guest speakers, workshops, and public dialogues regarding film and video poetry. In addition to the screenings, programmers also curate a video art exhibition.
There are no restrictions regarding when the film was produced or if the film has premiered regionally or internationally. There are no restrictions on subject matter, theme, topic, or the language of origin. The International Video Poetry Festival will accept submissions of poetry films, filmpoems, digital-poetry, poetry video, Cin(E)-Poetry, spoken word films, videopoema, visual poetry, choreopoems, poetrinca, media poetry, and all films and videos that are driven visually by text or voice.
Live performances, video mapping, installation proposals, and grand-scale video art presentations that contain strong aspects of poetry are encouraged. The IVPF also calls for experimental film and video work that explores poetry or literature whether it be oral, written, visual, or symbolic. This includes non-narrative work and the avant-garde.
The IVPF strongly considers artwork that examines and challenges traditional visual communication methods while continuing to function as a tool for exploring poetry. The International Video Poetry Festival will consider documentaries that focus on poets, poems, poetry, poetic technique, literary movements, and historical events within these realms. The documentaries must have English or Greek subtitles.
The IVPF also calls for video work that explores poetry and literature whether it be oral, written, visual, or symbolic. This includes the film essay or cinematic essay, non-narrative work, and the avant-guard. We will also strongly consider work that challenges traditional and current visual communication methods while continuing to function as a mode for exploring narrative and personal expression.
Organizer and promoter of the International Video Poetry Festival are the Institute for Experimental Arts in co-operation with Void Network.
Awards & Prizes
Every year the committee of the Institute for Experimental Arts the 10 most outstanding video poems of the annual festival. Τhe committee is composed of the official member of the nonprofit cultural society Institute for Experimental Arts.
Rules & Terms
Deadline: All submissions must be submitted, emailed, or postmarked no later than 15 February, 2025.
One project title per submission form is allowed. All languages are allowed (including English or Greek subtitles)
Artwork based on poems and not longer than 20 minutes can be submitted. All languages are allowed.
From the submissions, a program committee makes the artwork selection for the festival program. A jury made up of representatives from the fields of poetry, film and media will select the video poems. The 12th International Video Poetry Festival will not offer notes or feedback on any submitted films or projects. No revisions will be accepted once an entry has been received. Once payment has been processed, IVPF will not provide a refund. All decisions made by the committee will be final, and no refund of the submission fee will be provided.
ALL ENTRIES must be subtitled in English or in Greek. In the event that the submitted project is accepted for inclusion within the 12th International Video Poetry Festival the submitter agrees to provide each of the following rights to The 12th International Video Poetry Festival without reservations, conditions, or qualifications:
(a) the right to use footage, stills, and information from or relating to the project for promotional purposes
(b) the right to issue and authorize publicity concerning the filmmakers and the project and to use all associated names, likenesses and biographical information.
The IVPF will announce the 2024 program selection in April 2025. The 12th International Video Poetry Festival will take place on April 11-12.
The International Video Poetry Festival is a project of the Institute for Experimental Arts in cooperation with Void Network in Athens / Greece. If you have any questions : theinstitutecontact(at)gmail.com
Process Submission Fee
Deadline for all submissions is February 15, 2025.
The submission fee is 8 euros per video or media project.
12th International Video Poetry Festival proudly accepts entries on FilmFreeway, the world’s #1 way to enter film festivals and creative contests: https://filmfreeway.com/InternationalVideoPoetryFestivalAthens
If you want to propose us a performance, lecture or any other idea, you are very welcome to send them to the following email: videopoetryfestival [@] gmail.com
For more photos from previous festivals, see our website.
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Sissy Doutsiou is an international multidisciplinary artist residing in Athens, Greece. Sissy is an actress, spoken word artist, curator, educator, artivist and host. She has hosted and produced numerous intergenerational poetry, spoken word events as well as performed at festivals; including 1st Biennale in Athens, Sardam Literature Festival in Cyprus, Weimar Poetry Award and Vienna Art and Poetry Video Festival. She co-founded and curated the annually International Video Poetry Festival since 2011 and the International Experimental Film Festival since 2023. Sissy was a featured artist for 2019 in Financial Consequences: an International Poetry Festival in London School of Economics and Political Sciences. Sissy will be releasing her first LP, “Insult of Public Modesty” in the Fall of 2025. Sissy’s work examines her personal life experiences, social justice issues, and healing through trauma utilizing art as the medium.
