OPEN CALLS FILM COMPETITIONS 2023    

ART VISUAL & POETRY FILM FESTIVAL
NOVEMBER 14-17, 2023 | KÜNSTLERHAUS VIENNA

 

 

 

 

The Art Visuals & Poetry Film Festival in Vienna is currently the second largest poetry film festival worldwide. We support productions from German-speaking countries through the main competition. Since many high-quality films are produced outside the border triangle of Switzerland, Austria, Germany, we have created a new competition in 2023: the international Poetry Performance Film Award. With this, we acknowledge the overall quality and importance of international filmmaking for our festival!

 

 

TEXT & POETRY FILMS FROM AUSTRIA, GERMANY AND SWITZERLAND

The text or poetry film is a hybrid art film genre between literature and film. Poetry films encompass narrative shorts, written films, animated films and experimental films. The openness and creative experimental space make it exciting for many artists to create poetry films. Just like the last times, we are looking for experimental, deeply thought-provoking, or humorous text films in our calls for submissions. In short: literary short films that move the audience and have a lasting effect on the viewer. The main competition is open to filmmakers from Switzerland, Austria and Germany. In addition, a second competition will be announced, aiming at the filming of a festival poem. A new competition curated by Katharina Wenty stages poetry performance for the camera. Winners will be selected from the competition submissions by an independent jury.

One of the big main prizes of the festival - the Audience Award - will be awarded by the audience in the cinema hall on site!

 

TO THE DEFINITION: WHAT IS A POETRY FILM?

Whether abstract, classical, with animation, narrative or cinematographic: the genre of poetry film presents itself internationally colorful and diverse. Just as many definitions exist. Scottish photographer and filmmaker Alastair Cook recently described poetry film as  "a single entwined entity, a melting, a cleaving together of words, sound and vision. It is an attempt to take a poem and present it through a medium that will create a new artwork, separate from the original poem."
In contrast to the Anglo-American world, the Vienna Poetry Film Festival defines the term poem very broadly: Everything is allowed that lives up to the predicate "literary": from abstract sound poems, script films and poetic prose to political theater and performance spoken word texts or philosophical texts that appear in the film context under the term essay film.

 

 

AWARD GERMAN SPEAKING COUNTRIES - DEADLINE JUNE 30, 2023 | FILM LENGTH UP TO 20 MIN

The main competition is announced transnationally for the entire German-speaking area. German language is desired, as we do not want to permanently drag the predominantly German-speaking audience into subtitle reading. In exceptional cases, we also accept foreign language films with German or English subtitles in the main competition. With the Award German Speaking Countries we basically address all those filmmakers who either reside in Austria, Switzerland and Germany or have Austrian, German or Swiss citizenship. The films selected for the competition will be presented in late autumn at the Art Visuals & Poetry Film Festival in Vienna. The winner will be announced during the festival.

POETRY PERFORMANCE FILM AWARD - DEADLINE JUNE 30, 2023 | FILM LENGTH UP TO 7 MIN

Poetry performed for the camera. The camera as stage and audience at the same time. The lyrical moment, captured behind the lens. The performance of the poetic is embalmed in time with light, experienced by the audience through film. The challenge here is not just to film a performance, but rather to think of the medium of film as part of the performance, so that the poetry develops a life of its own through the carefully constructed interplay of text/body, image and sound. The new International Poetry Performance Film Prize is curated and designed by Katharina Wenty. The competition will be international and will include poetry films with dance, poetry films with performance/acting, as well as performance poetry films from the visual arts, spoken word and poetry slam.

SPECIAL AWARD ABOUT THE FESTIVAL POEM LA LUNA - DEADLINE AUGUST 31, 2023 | 
FILM LENGTH UP TO 20 MIN

The international competition, the SPECIAL AWARD is dedicated to a predefined festival poem. In this competition, filmmakers from all countries of the world can participate. This time Manfred Chobot's poem "la luna" was chosen as the festival poem. It is obligatory to use this poem for the film adaptation.  The festival poem "la luna" is available as a soundtrack read-in for the poetry film competition. It will be read by the actor Christian Reiner. An English translation is also available under license. If you do not wish to use the sound recording, it is permissible to re-record the poem for the competition in the original German. We attach great importance to the original text in the filmic realization. Ingenious exceptions, experiments and written films will be included on a discretionary basis.

In the past, The SPECIAL AWARD met with great interest among established filmmakers in the poetry film scene. To compete internationally with other artists in a direct comparison proved to be an interesting challenge. One of our motives for creating the SPECIAL AWARD was actually to create a low-threshold entry to creating poetry film. This is possible again! A solid basis for a good poetry film is provided by the read-in poem as a soundtrack! So let your creativity run free. We will be excited about the results!

 

•      Link to the festival poem la luna by Manfred Chobot
•     Link to the English translation of the festival poem "la luna by Manfred Chobot
•     Download the festival poem by Manfred Chobot as soundtrack
•     Download the filming rights of the poem under Creative Commons  

 

JURY

As in the previous year, the winners and awards will be determined by an honorary jury.

PRIZES WITH PRIZE MONEY

We will award the prizes in coordination with our partners & sponsors. Final prize money amounts will be announced at a later date. Currently planned and secured are the prize money:
AWARD GERMAN SPEAKING COUNTRIES: € 1000.-
AUDIENCE AWARD (CURATED)                    € 1000.-
SPECIAL AWARD                                            €   500.-
POETRY PERFORMANCE FILM AWARD        € 250.-  

SCREENINGS

The selected films will be screened during the ART VISUALS & POETRY FILMFESTIVAL in mid-November 2023 in Vienna. The winners will be announced and awarded during the festival! In addition, we occasionally make poetry film screenings as part of ON TOUR with other organizers.

 

 

DEADLINES
are JUNI 30 and AUGUST 31, 2023.

Award German Speaking Countries/ Poetry Performance Film Award       Deadline  June 30, 2023
SPECIAL AWARD | after the poem "la luna" by Manfred Chobot               Deadline August 31, 2023

 

Submissions
 Submit either via Filmfreeway with a small fee or without any costs via this online form: here:
Link to the online form!

 

 

 

THE CONDITIONS OF PARTICIPATION

The following conditions must be met for successful participation:
- The submitted literary short film or poetry film has a length of 2 min  to max. 20 minutes and is based on a literary text. For the new Poetry Performance Award:  length up to 7 min.
-The text or poetry film is not older than 10 years (from the year of creation 2013).
- The film is submitted here for the first time: films submitted in previous years will not be considered.
- For the main competition: the director is from the German-speaking region or resides in one of the countries Austria, Switzerland, Germany. International collaborations within the team (composer / writer) are allowed.
- For the Special Award: The film is based on the poem "la luna" by Manfred Chobot. For the Chobot poem adaptation, a soundtrack is provided under Creative Commons (remixes are allowed) to be used. It is also permissible to re-record the poem in question in the original German version. An English translation will be provided free of charge for subtitles and further festival use under Creative Commons. Please name speaker Christian Reiner, translator Mark Kanak and Manfred Chobot as poet in the film credits.
- Art Visuals & Poetry receives the right to publicly present the films in the competition.
- Film submission will arrive in time. Deadline: June 30, 2023 Competition German speaking countries/Poetry Performance Film Award),  SPECIAL AWARD August 31,2023.
-SCREENING FORMAT: Films must be submitted by End of July 2023, (re SPECIAL AWARD ar latest until Sept 15, 2023) in one of the following formats: mov. or mp4 file, H264, sound 48 000 kHz, 16 bit.

We will do the sightings electronically via internet link, (vimeo/ Dropox) or via other via the FilmFreeway platform. Please do not send us any films for the time being!  Screening versions will be collected later on. The selected films must be available in screening quality by July 30 or September 30 (Special Award). Also, please send the additional information by e-mail to office@filmpoetry.com  only after the selection has been made. We would like: a brief artist biography (max. ½ page), a short synopsis, as well as a still from the film (300dpi).

 

Contact address for inquiries or further questions: office@filmpoetry.com 

 

We are looking forward to receiving many exciting film submissions!

 

 

Sigrun Höllrigl & Festival team