Submit a circus short film to a programme that premieres in Cologne and then tours nine festival partners across Europe.
A film submission, not a performance call. You send a short film, and if it is selected it screens as part of one shorts programme at the CircusDanceFestival in Cologne and then travels the Circus & Film Network.
Be clear about what this pays before you spend time on it. EUR 50 per festival that presents the film, no travel, no accommodation. This is a distribution and visibility play, not income.
Five to seven films are picked for a single programme of shorts. The brief is what circus looks like through a camera and on a screen, and what new forms appear when contemporary circus meets film. Hybrid forms are welcome.
The fee is EUR 50 per presenting festival in the network. Nine partners currently make up the network, so what you earn depends on how many of them programme the selection after the Cologne launch rather than on a single flat figure.
The network is the reason this is worth more than one screening. It currently spans Dynamo Workspace and OFF Odense International Film Festival in Denmark, Dinamico Festival and FLIC Circus School in Italy, Circus Kolektiv in Croatia, Short Waves Film Festival and Carnaval Lublin in Poland, Circus City in the UK, and Moovy Dance Film Festival in Germany as an associate member.
Network members form the jury, and each can present the selected programme at their own festival after the Cologne premiere. They also get access to the full longlist of submissions, and can contact filmmakers directly about work they want to programme themselves. That second route is the real value here: it is a way for films that were not selected to still be seen by nine programmers.
CircusDanceFestival coordinates the network, organises the jury and premieres the selection each year.
- ·Anyone with a short film up to about 20 minutes. Contributions from the circus field specifically are what they are looking for; hybrid forms count.
- ·Films must be high quality or HD. They screen on a large-format LED or film screen, and in Cologne the audience listens on silent headphones.
- ·If language is an important part of the work, provide English subtitles.
- ·Not eligible: live-stream recordings of stage works, non-professional video or footage, and films focused exclusively on the COVID-19 pandemic or the lockdown period.
- ·Submissions from women, LGBTQIA+, BIPOC and people with a disability or a refugee or migration background are explicitly welcomed.
- ·No geographic restriction is stated on this call, unlike the festival's 360° call which focuses on Europe.