The festival history begins in 2013 at Petersplatz in the heart of Vienna. In the first three years, the Vienna Poetry Film Festival was still held annually. But in Austria, the 2016 film festival funding was restructured and two-day events were suddenly no longer eligible for funding. Due to the new requirements - at least 46 short films were to be shown on three days - the festival had to change its concept. As a consequence the rhythm of events was set at 2 years. Since then the festival has been held bi-annually and on three days. The festival became much larger too. With about 80-100 short films, it became suddenly the second largest poetry film festival world-wide in 2017. The next edition took place middle of November 2019. The sixth art Visuals & Poetry Film Festival was realized Nov 9-13 at Künstlerhaus Vienna.

The focus has always been on the German-speaking countries competition, which strongly promotes German-language films. The competition is also intended to provide special support for domestic production in German-speaking countries. In contrast to the ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival, films that can be classified as literary short films or essay films are also admitted in Vienna. Beside that, a second, international competition is usually announced after an Austrian festival poem. In parallel, the Art Visuals & Poetry Film Festival offers a strong, international supporting programme. The international programme is curated and has been continuously expanded in recent years. The international exchange of artists has also become an increasingly important topic with the help of the embassies. Since there are not so many Poetry Film Festivals and Vienna holds an excellent reputation as an attractive art metropolis, the interest in travelling to Vienna is great!