All festivals, events and calls for work are mentioned by Moving Poems with our best efforts and in good faith. However, do check all details yourself as we cannot guarantee accuracy, and make your own judgements because we cannot verify the things that we share. Events may fail for a variety of genuine reasons, or may be a scam to elicit fees.
HOME is Manchester’s centre for contemporary theatre, film, art, music and more. FilmedUp is their regular quarterly night for filmmakers local to their area. They are looking for films of under 20 minutes of “all genre fiction, animation, documentary, artist film…all are welcome!” old or new. I think I would place poetry film firmly in that dot, dot, dot …
To be local to Home, the director, writer or producer must live in the North West region of England: which includes Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. Entry is free – which is lovely to discover once in a while!
More information and submissions https://homemcr.org/opportunity/want-your-short-film-screened-at-home/
The next deadline is 14 July for the event on 28 September, but submissions will continue on to the next quarterly event.
Also to be found on FilmFreeway.
The Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH) at the University of Cambridge are looking for submissions of “feature films, documentaries and experimental art films that engage with resistance to digital technology and ideas for alternatives to the current digital monopoly system”. This is a follow-up event to a successful festival held in 2021.
They say that they:
“… are keen to engage a broader audience in a dialogue about the neo-luddites, non-believers and critical minds that reject today’s technological fantasies to imagine a better world without the all-powerful techno monopolies that have privatised our communication, desires, and everyday lives. While most recent tech critique ends up with suggestions on regulation, in this film festival we would want to explore creatively two other modes of critical engagement with technology that sometimes go together with regulation but often go far beyond it: resistance and recoding.
What have been the key recent and not-so-recent thinkers and activist movements to resist computational capitalism? Who inspires neo-luddites, strike leaders, and free software champions? What are their principles? And equally importantly: how do they fight to achieve their goals? Is there an AI underground?”
Deadline is 15 July 2022. More information and submission details https://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/call-for-submissions-crassh-film-festival-2022/
Now entering its 4th year, FILMETRY is a festival in Michigan, USA. The organisers are inviting filmmakers to create a film of their choice from a collection of 32 poems on the theme of ‘Home’ from Michigan State University Short Edition Press into a film of five minutes or less. The poems to choose from (and full rules and details) are available via their website https://filmetry.org/
Submissions of films are open between 21st May and 27th August for the festival happening on 30th September. Submissions can be made via FilmFreeway.
Held in Spain since 2017, the Maldito Video Poetry Festival is open for submissions for 2022. The festival takes place in the city of Albacete (screening date yet to be determined).
The festival is organized by non-profit Association Cultural Maldito; formed by a small team of professionals from the film industry, poetry and culture in general. They explain their festival and their name:
“MALDITO seeks to vindicate video poetry as an art that connects people, transmits feelings and stimulates different ways to see the world. It is also a tiny contribution of enormous people to empower visual art, stopping it from being marginal and damned*.
* The Spanish word for damned is MALDITO.”
Poetry films must be 5 minutes or less, and films in languages other than Spanish must have Spanish subtitles. The deadline for entry is 25 September 2022, full details on submission is available on their website: https://malditofestival.com/registration-video-poetry-contest-medium-full-length-film/
Four possibilities for entry … two dedicated festivals, a festival that includes poetry film within a category, and something that doesn’t mention poetry film at all (but could have potential).
In Ireland there is the Ó Bhéal 10th Winter Warmer poetry festival. The festival will happen 25th-27th November 2022 in Cork and will include the 2022 Poetry Film Competition.
Submissions are open from now until 31st August and are free, and open to all for films of up to 10 minutes. Full guidelines on entry are available on their website: https://www.obheal.ie/blog/competition-poetry-film/
Meanwhile Arts + Literature Laboratory are running their third Midwest Video Poetry Fest on 7-8th October 2022 in Wisconsin, USA, and submissions to this event are open until 1st July for films of up to 7 minutes. More about the event and previous festivals are on their website: https://artlitlab.org/programs/literary-arts/midwest-video-poetry-fest
Full details and entry are on FilmFreeway.
MicroMania FilmFest exists for films of up to 5 minutes. This festival is not specifically aimed at poetry film but the freestyle category description includes poetry film as one of the areas of interest and has options for films under 2 minutes and 2-5 minutes. I could also imagine some films from our genre fitting into the experimental category too. The event will be in person and online from 3–24 September 2022. See FilmFreeway for more details and entry
And finally a more left-field possibility: Sensoria 2022. This is a festival of film, music and digital happening in Sheffield, UK from 30 September to 8th October 2022. The organisers say:
“The festival team are on the hunt for exciting new work in the realms of music, film and digital.
We’d also love to hear from potential partners, co-promoters or anyone who wants to make a suggestion – do get in touch.”
If you explore the Sensoria website you will glean that the festival is heavily aimed towards music. But if your poetry film includes music in an exciting way, particularly if it has original music – then I think you may have what the organisers are looking for: “short films with innovative soundtracks or scores”. Read more about the event on their website: https://www.sensoria.org.uk/news/sensoria-2022-call-for-submissions/
I love to see poetry film crossing over into other worlds and while some opportunities may be long shots, the more that poetry filmmakers enter into wide-ranging events, the more we can hope to bring what we do to wider audiences. Selection for events can be less about the definition of a genre and more about the little thing that captures the imagination and excitement of the selector – and who knows which film might just do that …
The ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival is inviting entries for the 2022 International Poetry Film Competition. Entries open on 1st May.
The event is long-running and very big in the world of poetry film. The organisers describe this year’s event:
“The 13th ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival runs from 3rd to 6th of November 2022 in the Kino in der KulturBrauerei and in the Haus für Poesie. It is the largest international platform for poetry film worldwide. Since 2002 it offers poets, film and festival makers from all over the world a platform for creative exchange, brainstorming and meeting with a broad audience. With a competition, film programmes, poetry readings, retrospectives, exhibitions, performances, workshops, colloquia, lectures and a children’s programme, it presents in various sections the diversity of the genre of poetry film.”
For full details about the call out, please see: https://www.haus-fuer-poesie.org/en/zebra-poetry-film-festival/zebra-poetry-film-festival-2022/call-entries/
Or look out for them on FilmFreeway
FESTIVAL POEM
As well as the international competition open to all poetry, the event also has a ‘festival poem’ – this year THE HAIRCUT by Georg Leß. Filmmakers are invited to make an interpretation of this film for the festival. The three best film adaptations’ directors will be invited to Berlin, where they will be able to present their films and speak with the poet.
Travel and accommodation in Berlin for the three selected directors will be paid for by the Festival.
Italian festival La Punta Della Lingua (or in English ‘Tip of the Tongue’) announces their 2022 poetry film competition as part of their ‘total poetry festival’ …
The organisers say:
“La Poesia che si vede is an international competition for poetry films based in Ancona, Italy. It is the product of the collaboration between two important festivals: La Punta della Lingua International Poetry Festival and Corto Dorico Film Festival. The first edition of La Poesia che si vede was held in July 2021. Its second edition will take place in June 2022.
The competition’s mission is the challenge of researching, promoting and supporting new gazes, poetics, visions. From the kinetic text to the sound text, from the visual text to the cin(e)poetry up to the filmed performance, the videopoetry for La Poesia che si vedo is total poetry, without discrimination of genre or format.”
The FilmFreeway page for the competition is: https://filmfreeway.com/LaPoesiaCheSiVede where you will also find further details and rules for entry. Deadline for submissions: 18th of May 2022.
More information about the wider festival is at: https://www.lapuntadellalingua.it/
A festival of films exploring how people interacts with buildings and urban spaces in the public realm. We aim to screen short films/poetry film that investigates how we experience the build environment.
[LIVING WITH BUILDINGS is brought to you by the Disappear Here poetry film project]
We’re looking for work up to 5 mins in length, anything between the poetry-film, experimental, short-documentary strands of film-making. The project is rooted in the UK city of Coventry, famed for its ringroad, modernist architecture and reinvention as a city rising from the ashes and ruins of arial bombing in World War Two – we are happy to consider work from citizens all around the world.
The psychopathology of underpass and overground.
Floating towers holding up the sky.
Living With Buildings.
Finding our way(s) through the subterranean culture and dead roads with no ending.
Exploring internal tensions between regeneration and gentrification.Remaking and remodelling urban spaces as forces of commerce or gentle revolution take hold and fight for ownership.
Where does the citizen fit into these processes; and how do we interpret or express their experiences of the ground shifting beneath their feet.
Find out more about the Disappear Here project – http://www.disappear-here.org
VENUE
LTB SHOWROOMS (above the Litten Tree pub) – COVENTRY – CV1 1EX – 1 Warwick Road
Rules & Terms
Atticus Review has published videopoetry in their Mixed Media section for over 10 years. The journal is currently calling for submissions of work for publication…
Atticus Review seeks all types of mixed media works for publication: videopoetry, short/experimental films, electronic/digital/interactive literature, visual artwork, animation, comics, audio soundscapes, sonic compositions, etc. If you like to push literary boundaries with alternative approaches, send us your best. We do accept previously published/screened work.
We potentially accept work with any theme, but upcoming themed issues are: The Internet (August 15th, 2022), Language (December 15th, 2022).
To submit, send an email with the subject “Mixed Media Submission” to mixedmedia@atticusreview.org. For video, audio, and interactive literature we prefer that you send links on Vimeo or YouTube or Soundcloud (or wherever the work is posted online) rather than send us files directly.
It looks as if I might’ve neglected to post the original call-out for the 6th Weimar Poetry Film Award. It’s here, but I’ll paste it in below as well:
Through the Weimar Poetry Film Award the Literary Society of Thuringia and the Weimar Animation Club are looking for innovative poetry films. Filmmakers from any nation and of any age are welcome to participate with up to three short films of up to 10:00 mins, which explore the relation between film and written poetry in an innovative, straightforward way. Films that are produced before 2018 will not be considered.
The competition »Weimar Poetry Film Award« is financed by Kulturstiftung des Freistaats Thüringen and the City of Weimar. The competition is part of the »International Poetry Film Festival of Thuringia«.
From all submitted films selected for the festival competition three Jury members will choose the winner of the main awards (Best Animation, 1200 €; Best Video, 1200 €). Moreover, an audience award of 250 € will be awarded.
Dates & Deadlines
Form for submissions [pdf] by e-mail to info [at] poetryfilm.de
The L.A.-based Film and Video Poetry Society’s 4th annual symposium is open for submissions from “Poets, Writers, filmmakers, animators, video and digital artists, media and performance artists.”
The symposium celebrates and will screen a large scope of film and video projects developed primarily through the medium of poetry. FVPS2021 will host a series of panels, guest speakers, workshops, and public dialogues regarding film and video poetry throughout the course of the symposium. In addition to the screenings programmers also curate a 30-day gallery exhibition.
There are no restrictions regarding total running time of films submitted. 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 language of origin.
The Film and Video Poetry Symposium calls for poetry films, filmpoems, digital-poetry, poetry video, Cin(E)-Poetry, spoken word films, videopoema, visual poetry, choreopoems, poetrinca, media poetry, and all films and video that are driven by onscreen text.
The Film and Video Poetry Symposium also excepts and supports experimental film and video work that explores language and/or literature whether it be oral, written, visual, or symbolic. This includes non-narrative work and the avant-guard. We strongly consider work that challenges traditional and current visual communication methods while continuing to function as a mode for exploring narrative forms and personal expression.
The Film and Video Poetry Symposium also calls for essay film, works of epistolary cinema, animation, choreopoems, performance art film and video, episodic content, oratorical works, documentary, video art, media art and installation, works created through immersive technologies, and episodic programming. Please see categories below for more details.
The deadline is September 4 and the submission fee is $20 per film, video, or media project. Click through for descriptions of each category and additional vital details, as well as the submission form and payment button.
Via their website:
Are you interested in the future of content publishing? Are you a writer, artist, technologist or researcher engaged in finding new ways to tell stories to new audiences? Are you keen to hear from people working across books, digital, sound, video, AR, VR, and games? MIX 2021 offers an opportunity to join us as we think about the future of content creation and publishing.
MIX is a four-day virtual conference that explores the intersection of writing and technology, bringing together people from around the world to make, think and talk. We are looking for writers, artists, practitioners, researchers and creative technologists to share their projects, research and practice through papers or presentations.
After the success of the last five MIX conferences, held across our Bath Spa University campuses, the conference returns in a fully virtual form with an increased focus on making alongside two of our other favourite activities, thinking and talking. We will be hosting two days of making on Saturday 3rd July and Sunday 4th July followed by two days of papers, presentations and discussions on Monday 5th July and Tues 6th July. This includes poetry film screenings on the theme of Amplified Voices curated by Adrian B Earle from Think/Write/Fly and Sarah Tremlett from Liberated Words.