about

Burnt Experimental Video Art and Film Festival is an independent initiative started by two emerging experimental video artists and an art historian in 2017. We are committed to showcasing radical experimental video art and film, whether abstract, absurd, critical, queer or uncanny.

Burnt Festival would like to acknowledge

The land on which we gather and organize is the territory of the Kanienʼkehá꞉ka. Today, the meeting place of Montreal is home to many Indigenous peoples.

The Kanien’kehá:ka Nation is recognized as the custodians of the lands and waters on which we gather today. Tiohtià:ke/Montréal is historically known as a gathering place for many First Nations. Today, it is home to a diverse population of Indigenous and other peoples. We respect the continued connections with the past, present, and future in our ongoing relationships with Indigenous and other peoples within the Montreal community.

A territorial acknowledgement can demonstrate a coming to awareness, and provoke thought and reflection, all of which are essential in beginning to establish reciprocal relations. This acknowledgement should not function as closure, resignation, or acceptance of the structural conditions of settler colonialism that remain in effect today. Burnt Festival will continue to ask what it means for us to keep open a spirit of sustained inquiry into the complexities of our context and, as an international festival, invite you to consider your own frame of reference and circumstance with an open heart and mind.

Rules, regulations, and the lowdown:

We accept video art, experimental film, including works created using mixed techniques and genres. We are on FilmFreeway.

Only selected works will be screened.

We require a short statement / synopsis of each work, a short artist bio, and at least two stills with each application.

Burnt Fest reserves the right to share stills included in submissions on social media, attributing the artist. We love connecting artists with the growing Burnt Fest community.

Works must be submitted in English or French, or with English subtitles if the original language is neither French nor English.

Duration of each work must be a maximum of 30 minutes and a minimum of one second.

Artists can submit a maximum of three works, but each work must be submitted as a separate entry.

The submitted video or film must be your original work, plagiarism will not be tolerated.

It is your responsibility to make sure you hold the rights to the work you submit.

There are no restrictions on the date of completion, premiere status or whether your work has been made available online.

If your work is selected, you must provide a screening copy to the festival; selected artists grant us the right to screen their work.

Selected works will remain in the archive of the festival and may be used during screenings; details of screenings will be communicated to the artists prior to the event.

Due to the situation with COVID-19, the third edition will be presented in an online format (however, the live screening format is the preferred default).

The fee of $5 per application is non-refundable, even if your work is not selected or your link does not work at the time of selection process.

Funds accumulated through the application process will comprise the Audience Awards Prizes and cover the expenses related to the festival.

At this moment, the festival is unable to provide screening fees to all the selected artists (if you don’t agree we won’t be able to screen your work, sadly).

The third edition has an added feature of participating artist’s responses to each other’s screenings. Each screening will be accompanied by a response in any medium by an artist from another screening, creating a dialogue zigzagging the 12 screenings. Respondents will be modestly compensated for their work.

Before submitting, please make sure that your link works, the password is correct, and your work displays as you intend. The selection committee will not communicate if a work does not display because of technical issues.

If you have to change the password or link after submitting, please update the information on FilmFreeway ASAP, and, just in case, communicate the updated info by email, mentioning your name and title of your work to burn.t.fest@gmail.com.

By sending your work for consideration you automatically agree to all the above rules.

If you have any questions that were not answered above, or have any requests, please write to burn.t.fest@gmail.com before sending your application.

See you watching soon.