OPEN CALLS FILM COMPETITIONS 2025

ART VISUAL & POETRY FILM FESTIVAL
April 7-10, 2026 | 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. Camera.
This second main prizes of the festival will be awarded by the audience in the cinema hall on site!

 

• Shortcuts

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 DECEMBER, 15, 2025 | 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 DECEMBER 15, 2025 | 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 open for entries world-wide. The competition 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.

 

JURY

As in the previous year, the Award German Speaking Countries 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.-
POETRY PERFORMANCE FILM AWARD       € 1000.-  

SCREENINGS

The selected films will be screened during the ART VISUALS & POETRY FILMFESTIVAL April 7-10, 2025 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.

 

 

DEADLINE

Award German Speaking Countries/ Poetry Performance Film Award       Deadline December 15, 2025
 

 

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 2015).
- 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.
- Art Visuals & Poetry receives the right to publicly present the films in the competition.
- Film submission will arrive in time. Deadline: December 15, 2025 Competition German speaking countries/Poetry Performance Film Award)
-SCREENING FORMAT: Films must be submitted 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