Submissions for the 9th edition of the Bucharest International Dance Film Festival are now open! Filmmakers, dance artists, animators, visual artists and digital art makers are invited to submit their works for the International and Romanian Short Film Competitions of the festival that will take place between September 7 – 10, 2023, under the theme of “clusters”.

Taking place during a period in which society is faced with hardships caused by war, financial crisis, social division and the rise of radical and extremist discourses, the ninth edition of BIDFF (September 7 - 10, 2023) aims to present productions dealing with topics interconnected with ecology, technology, body transformations and connections between past and future. Clusters, the theme of the festival, is based on W. V. O. Quine's premise that no individual belief can be confirmed or refuted in isolation, but must be evaluated within a larger network of beliefs. Thus, the festival aims to create a space for dialogue and exchange of experiences.

In preparation for its anniversary edition in 2024, BIDFF wants to bring together diverse artistic and community clusters that influence each other, offering an alternative to social disunity. For four days, dancers, choreographers, visual artists, filmmakers, virtual reality creators, theorists and producers will be engaged in over 20 artistic events, structured in five interconnected sections characterised by diversity, multiplicity and openness.

Bucharest International Dance Film Festival is a platform for exquisite films that use movement as their primary language or the body as their main subject. Faced with the camera lenses, the body becomes the primary focus of cutting-edge arthouse films that challenge the audience to a lively exchange of stances on challenging politics, extreme emotions, concealed interpretations, and oddly beautiful aesthetics.

BIDFF encourages syncretism and dialogue between movement and diverse forms of cinema, from the more traditional ones to experimental or futuristic hybrid works. Besides film screenings, BIDFF organizes a VR showcase, lectures, public presentations, and intensive short film workshops. Each year in September, the festival takes place in multiple locations from Bucharest, Romania.

HOW TO APPLY

  • The call opens on May 22. The deadlines for submissions are June 16 (regular) and July 14 (late).

  • Each director can submit a maximum of two films in the competition.

  • The films must be submitted through FilmFreeway. Before submitting, please check all the fees related to your category and deadline.

All applicants will be informed about the outcome of their submission by July 31, 2023.

RULES & TERMS

The competitional section is dedicated to short films only and is divided into International and Romanian. The board will take into consideration fiction, documentary and animation films that either use movement to explore an idea or speak about issues related to the body and the world of dance and performance. We also highly encourage you to apply if you have a short film that explores the future of art, questioning issues related to the ethics of collaboration, communication, and co-existence.

we are looking for:

  • Short dance films produced in the last two years that do not exceed 20 minutes in length and have a minimum quality of Full HD (1080p), that can be either live action or animation in genres of fiction, documentary or experimental.

we are not looking for:

  • Music videos, trailers or recordings of performances, films already submitted to previous editions of BIDFF, one-minute films, commercials.

WE offer:

  • Money awards for Best International Film (1000 Euros) and Best Romanian Film (500 Euros).

  • Free entry to all the events of the festival, excluding workshops that require a previous application.

 

The 9th edition of the festival is supported by Conceptual Lab by Theo Nissim and Goethe-Institut Rumänien.

The partners and hosts of the festival are the French Institute (Cinema Elvire Popesco), CREART - The Centre of Creation, Art, and Tradition of the Bucharest Municipality (The Film Garden – Cinema and More), Contemporary Art Space Association (/SAC @ MALMAISON), the National Center for Dance Bucharest, Linotip - Independent Choreographic Centre, ADO - The Association for Human Rights, Ferentari Association.