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Submission Guidelines

The festival programme is selected via an international open call. We welcome single-channel film and video works from within the fields of artists' moving image and media art, short narrative films, documentaries, experimental and essay films, animation and video collage.

The BF Artist Film Festival selects its programme through an international open call, welcoming single-channel film and video works from artists working with moving image and media art. Alongside those practices, the festival considers short narrative films, documentaries, experimental and essay films, animation, and video collage. Submissions are open to early and mid-career artists, giving emerging voices a screening context alongside established figures, and the call is circulated so that applicants from different regions can take part without needing an existing connection to the festival scene.

Screenings at the festival take place in London, including shared arts spaces that host audiences for curated programmes of selected work. Because the festival's curatorial team reviews entries in the fields of artists' moving image, narrative, documentary, essay, animation and collage, the selection spans both established categories and hybrid forms. Short durations are favoured, with works under six minutes preferred and longer pieces considered, reflecting a programming format built around concise, tightly made pieces that suit gallery-style projection and attentive festival audiences.

The festival is positioned as a critical platform for artists working with moving image, offering screening opportunities to early and mid-career artists both nationally and internationally. By placing selected works alongside related events, talks and collaborative projects, the programme builds connections between artists, audiences and wider cultural institutions. Editors and curators are encouraged to submit work that engages with contemporary media practice, whether that means time-based installation concerns, documentary enquiry or purely formal experiment in image and sound.

Applying is straightforward: prospective participants read the submission guidelines, prepare their entries according to the accepted formats and duration guidance, and submit before the published deadline. Entries are reviewed on a rolling basis by the festival's curatorial team, and successful works are programmed into the following edition of screenings and related events. Artists are welcome to submit a single channel work, and those with questions about eligibility, formats or deadlines can find further detail on the festival's application pages and associated announcements.