Professional network of film festivals on Art
Who are we?
Films on Art Network is a worldwide network for professionals working in festivals of films on art.
Currently, the network is composed of 12 founding members from countries in North America, South America, and Europe, and its purpose is to enable exchanges of knowledge and practices. It is actively involved in creating deeper connections between art and film, and in the production and circulation of films on art.
Our mission
Films on Art Network falls within an artistic dynamic of innovation and collaboration in the field of art and experimental films. It provides experts in the field with a space for discussing their experiences and good practices.
This initiative makes it possible to broaden networks of contacts and develop shared strategies for reflection and audience development.
Sharing
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Expertise to support the organization of festivals of art and experimental films
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A shared database
Promotion
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Calls for films, publications, productions, and events within the network
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Films on art programmed in partner festivals
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​Getting filmmakers, production houses, and distributors together
Encouragement
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Encounters among filmmakers, production houses, distributors, and other industry professionals
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Workshops, debates, and research on the issues in the industry
This dynamic is conveyed through an international presence.
FESTIVALS
Architecture and Design Film Festival
New York - United States
The Architecture and Design Film Festival (ADFF) celebrates the creative spirit behind some of the world's most remarkable architecture and design while reflecting on their intersection with cinematography. Typically held in various cities, the festival showcases a diverse range of documentary films, shorts, and features that explore architectural themes, design innovation, and the built environment. It showcases film screenings, panels, networking events and multiple workshops. As a cosmopolitan Festival, multiple editions are held in Chicago, Toronto, Vancouver, Los Angeles and Mumbai.
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BAFF, Brussels Art Film Festival
Brussels, Belgium
Every year, the Brussels Art Film Festival (BAFF) highlights documentaries on art creation in the broadest sense (painting, music, literature, sculpture, architecture, film) in collaboration with the Institut Supérieur pour l’Etude du Langage Plastique.
Every November, BAFF organizes an event that features the latest documentaries on art from all over the world, as well as a competition for films from Belgium, where more than 100 films on art are produced every year. An international jury awards three prizes with a total value of €4,500. BAFF also encourages creativity by offering a writing grant of €2,500 to filmmakers under 30. Hosted by the most prestigious movie theatres in Brussels (Bozar, CINEMATEK), BAFF also has screenings for audiences in regional cities in Flanders and Wallonia.
DART Festival
Santiago - Chile
Dart is an international festival in Spain and Latin America leading the way in programming documentary films on contemporary art since 2017 in Barcelona, Spain, and since 2020 in Santiago, Chile.
The Dart Chile festival focuses on distribution of documentaries on art and creative processes, selecting the best in international film and concentrating on preserving the audiovisual works of Latin American artists. Since 2022, its website, www.dart-play.com, has provided a platform specializing in art content for all of South America.
FOTOGENIA
Mexico City - Mexique
Fotogenia is the first international festival of films on poetry and alternative narratives in Mexico. The festival celebrates poems, video art, and avant-garde and experimental films, as well as all forms that explore the frontiers and outer edges of film. Fotogenia takes place in various Mexico City districts in order to offer audiences original experiences of images through screenings, lectures, performances, and workshops. The festival is open to all audiovisual creators who don’t fit within traditional film festivals and wish to have an innovative and critical dialogue with the public.
Festival International du Film sur l'Art
Montreal - Canada
The International Festival of Films on Art (Le FIFA) is dedicated to the international promotion and distribution of films on art and media arts. For four decades, it has presented an event every March that brings audiences the latest documentaries on art, as well as a selection of interactive and virtual reality works. With programming and different activities all through the year, Le FIFA is committed to increasing the knowledge and appreciation of art among the public, promoting the work of artists in the fields of film, video, and visual arts, and encouraging the production and distribution of films on art. In 2021, Le FIFA launched ARTS.FILM, a virtual art centre that makes films on art available across Canada, anytime, all year.
Journées Internationales du Film sur l'Art
Paris - France
Every January since 2007, in the auditorium of the Louvre, Les Journées Internationales du Film sur l’Art has explored the unique connections between film and other arts. Each edition offers a rendez-vous with an artist or a filmmaker, to delve into his or her connections and relationship with the arts through screenings, encounters, a master class, an installation, a performance; a selection of recent films around specific themes, with a discussion between the filmmaker and the audience after the screening; homages to departed figures; and retrospectives that provoke questions about the evolution of the filmic gaze on pre-existing or contemporary art practices and reconstruct a history of the “film about art,” a genre unto itself.
https://www.louvre.fr/en-ce-moment/evenements-activites/journees-internationales-du-film-sur-l-art
Painting with Light : Festival of International Films on Art
Painting with Light: Festival of International Films on Art is a signature programme presented by National Gallery Singapore, a visual arts institution which oversees the world’s largest public collection of Singapore and Southeast Asian modern art. In line with the Gallery’s aims to create dialogues between the art of Singapore, Southeast Asia and the world, Painting with Light features moving image programming that speaks to the art in ongoing exhibitions drawn from private, national and international collections, and explores artistic practices and moments in art history that continue to resonate in the present. With a focus on artmaking in Southeast Asia, the festival encourages the production and exhibition of moving image works from this region, regularly premiering films commissioned and restored by the Gallery.
Painting with Light returned for its 5th edition in 2022 with over 55 titles, and continues as a biennial festival that takes place in July, with a wide range of offerings that includes post-screening dialogues, talks, performances, and curator tours.
Singapour
ARCA International Festival of Films on Arts
Manantiales - Uruguay
ARCA explores and promotes the relationship between film and art. Stimulating the production and distribution of a wide spectrum of films – fiction, documentary, and animation –ARCA is a competition festival that takes place every January at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Atchugarry in Punta del Este, Manantiales, Uruguay. The ARCA Prize, a magnificent sculpture by the artist Pablo Atchugarry with an estimated value of €60,000, is awarded every year to the best film in the competition. With its program of new and impressive films, ARCA wishes to expand audiences’ awareness and knowledge of art and artists through film – and at the same time to celebrate the multicultural diversity that defines our times.
BAFF, Beirut Art Film Festival
Beirut - Lebanon
The first edition of the Beirut Art Film Festival took place in November 2015. Since then, and despite all the tragedy that Lebanon has seen, the festival perseveres, continuing to offer a varied selection of films on art (documentaries, art films, and fiction) from all over the world, as well as lectures, roundtables, and performances. In universities, cultural centres, schools, and online, the festival reaches out to its audiences of all ages, in all regions, to celebrate artistic and cinematographic creativity, defying the authorities who want to destroy the country’s culture, economy, and society. Because, as Gilles Deleuze has said, “Art is what resists: it resists death, slavery, infamy, shame,” BAFF will remain a cultural platform committed to the preservation of freedom, dignity, and tolerance.
DART Festival
Barcelona - Spain
Dart Barcelona is the first Spanish international film festival focused specifically on contemporary visual arts. Founded in 2017, the festival takes place in Barcelona’s movie theatres, museums and cultural centres. Dart’s program delves deep into the biographies and creations of artists who are essential for an understanding of local, national, and international art of our times. The festival program focuses on documentaries and on educational and informative activities involving contemporary art, targeting audiences interested in visual arts, photography, architecture, design, and fashion.
EPOS Festival
Tel Aviv - Israel
EPOS, the international festival of films about art and culture, takes place every year in the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. It is the first of its kind in Israel. Since it was created, in 2009, the festival has become a unique venue dedicated exclusively to presenting culture and art films to Israeli audiences.
The festival is for amateurs and professionals in the art field, filmmakers, and culture lovers. EPOS also encourages the production of films devoted to arts and artists in Israel. Aside from screening films, it contributes to exhibitions at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art and organizes music shows, competitions, and encounters with artists and filmmakers.
The program includes about 50 international and Israeli documentaries, feature-length films, and experimental films, most being screened for the first time in Israel. In addition to screenings in Tel Aviv, some of the festival’s films travel to theatres and cultural centres around the country.
Film and Architecture
Prague - Czech Republic
The Czech Film and Architecture Festival takes place as part of the national Day of Architecture festival, which celebrates World Architecture Day in October of each year. It is organized by Kruh, an NGO. Although the festival is based in Prague, it takes place throughout the Czech Republic and Slovakia (with satellite events in Berlin and in other Czech communities in Europe) The festival took place for the first time in 2002. Despite a few interruptions over the years, it became an independent platform in 2015. Screening documentaries, experimental films, and features, the festival aims to promote contemporary architectural approaches to the general public and to present architecture as an important apart of daily life that must be appreciated and valued. Each year, the festival presents more than 20 films from all over the world, complemented by a rich parallel program of filmmaker roundtables and art performances. A major part of the activities of Architecture Day consists of production of thematic short films by young Czech filmmakers.
Lo schermo dell'arte
Florence - Italie
Lo schermo dell’arte is an international project for exploring and promoting relations between film and contemporary art through a festival, training programs, exhibitions, artist residencies, and production, distribution, and education programs.
Initiated in Florence in 2008, the project collaborates with contemporary art centres, institutions, museums, academies, and universities in Italy and abroad. In recent years, more than 300 artists, directors, producers, and curators and more than 50 institutions from around the world have collaborated, confirming the project’s international role in uncovering new talents and deeper exploration of new expressive languages.
Rencontres du Film d'Art
Saint- Gaudens - France
Every January, since 2013, Les Rencontres du Film d'Art de Saint-Gaudens has offered a 4 day programme surrounding the world of art and artists. We invite viewers to immerse themselves in the fascinating world of creation and its various processes with a selection of thirty films, evening guests, an exhibition, a Bistrot; from 9:30am to 10pm in 5 of the Cinéma le Régent's rooms. Painting, Photography, Music, Sculpture, Architecture... From all artistic fields, nationalities, genres, and whatever their year of production, let's celebrate and discover the art film within this cinema box ! ​
https://www.lesrencontresdufilmdart.com/
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PLATFORMS
art21
New York - United States
Art21 is the world’s leading source to learn directly from the artists of our time. The mission of Art21 is to educate and expand access to contemporary art through the production of documentary films, resources, and public programs. In its signature style, Art21 captures the artist’s voice without narration through its flagship PBS-broadcast series, Art in the Twenty-First Century, and digital short film series’ Extended Play and New York Close Up. Viewed annually by millions of people across the globe, the entire library of Art21 films is available to stream for free online. Art21 serves educators and students by providing accessible, free materials and programs devoted to the exploration of contemporary art and artists. Additionally, Art21 offers public programs featuring artists, curators, educators, and more, and provides the tools for organizations all over the world to host community film screenings through Screening Society. Drawing connections between Art21-featured artists and the larger contexts in which they thrive, Art21’s READ section chronicles this landscape, post-by-post—posing broader, meditative questions about the place of art in our world.​
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Nowness
London - United Kingdom
A storytelling celebrating the extraordinary of every day. Launched in 2010, NOWNESS’ unique programming strategy has made it the go-to source of inspiration and influence across art, design, fashion, beauty, music, food, and travel. The movements’ curatorial expertise and award-winning approach to storytelling is unparalleled. Working with exceptional talent, including established and emerging filmmakers connects the audience to emotional and sensorial stories designed to provoke inspiration and debate.​ NOWNESS launched a Chinese-language site in 2012 and NOWNESS ASIA in 2020. Since 2013, videos are available in up to 10 languages—including English, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish and Russian.
Caixa Forum +
Barcelona - Spain
CaixaForum+ is a free VOD platform by ‘La Caixa’ Foundation. The content on the new platform, which specialises in cultural and scientific dissemination, includes series, podcasts, documentaries, films, digital art, popularisation programmes, interviews, concerts and opera and more. It currently has more than 1,500 selected pieces, mostly produced or co-produced by the platform itself and focused on nine themes: fine and visual art; the performing arts; music; literature; philosophy and history; cinema; architecture and design; life sciences; and physical sciences. CaixaForum+ is a multi-device platform: its content can be viewed from mobile phones, tablets, and other smart devices using the caixaforumplus.org website
ikonoTV
Berlin - Germany
​​​ikonoTV is the world's first 24/7 streaming platform dedicated to the visual arts, offering an immersive journey into the world of art. Focusing on a pure, commentary-free experience, ikonoTV presents its iconic productions including Slow Art - a silent exploration within masterpieces that allows viewers to engage purely visually with individual pieces in depth.
ikonoTV also collaborates with video artists, organizing the annual #ArtSpeaksOut call. The best video works from this initiative are broadcast at each COP (Conference of the Climate Parties), highlighting the intersection of art and environmental concerns.
In addition to its original content, ikonoTV aggregates interviews, documentaries and films focusing on art, architecture and design, transcending geographical and cultural boundaries. Its content covers both contemporary and classic art, with the aim of inspiring and democratizing access to art for all.
MARQUEE TV
London - United Kingdom
Marquee TV is the world’s leading arts streaming service and linear channel, showcasing the finest artists and performances from around the globe. We have curated a world-class selection of dance, opera, music, theatre and visual arts documentaries from the world’s premier arts organizations, and are available to audiences worldwide on all major devices and streaming platforms.
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