Open call for experimental films that hold joy either in the concept or production process. The film does not need to be about joy, rather - the film may bring about joy through watching, or the process of making the film held joy.

What is joy? Can we know joy without pain? As such, films that explore the complexity between joy and pain are also invited. Bittersweetness, or, films that somehow find or construct joy, despite existing in a societal and political system bent on destruction, are welcome. Films that experience joy as resistance, joy as connection, joy as a fleeting moment of pleasure. Joy as complicated. Joy as a method. These approaches are preferred over didactic films that perform or dance joy for an audience.

We invite films that gesture towards some good left in the world, or, that film can be a method of transmutating suffering into something otherwise.

Submission is free.
Deadline to submit: November 1, 2026.

Send you submissions via https://forms.gle/sH8vuV2KUg8fV7ux6

We will send notifications of acceptance with the curation date and venue. We are looking for single-channel films and do not have the capacity for expanded cinema performances or projecting analog films. Final files will need to be delivered via downloadable h264 file.