51st Ann Arbor Film Festival
Official Deadline: October 8, 2012

The Ann Arbor Film Festival is now accepting submissions for its 51st season. We are seeking recent independent and experimental works (films completed no earlier than 2011) that advance the art form of film. We consider all genres, lengths, styles and formats, including 16mm, 35mm, Super-8mm, video and HD video.

The early deadline for the 51st Ann Arbor Film Festival is approaching -postmarked by August 20th.
The final deadline is November 8th (postmarked).
The festival will take place March 19 - March 24, 2013. All lengths considered and accepted for works made in 2011 or after. Exhibition formats include Super 8mm, 16mm, 35mm and various video formats.

Please contact us directly at Esta dirección de correo electrónico está siendo protegida contra los robots de spam. Necesita tener JavaScript habilitado para poder verlo. with proposals for non-standard exhibition forms such as multiple projector works, moving-image performance pieces, etc.

The 51st AAFF will provide at least $18,000 in cash awards to more than 20 filmmakers and provides touring opportunities for select films.

The 50th Ann Arbor Film Festival is proud to announce this year's award winning films as chosen the jury: Michael Robinson, Kathy Geritz and Peter Rose.

Ken Burns Award for Best of the Festival: Lack of Evidence (Manque de Preuves) by Hayoun Kwon

The Stan Brakhage Film at Wit's End Award: Voluptuous Sleep by Betzy Bromberg

Lawrence Kasdan Award for Best Narrative Film: Palaces of Pity by Daniel Schmidt & Gabriel Abrantes

Michael Moore Award for Best Documentary Film: Guañape Sur by János Richter

Award for Best International Film: Untitled by Neil Beloufa

Peter Wilde Award for Most Technically Innovative Film: Vexed by Telcosystems

FILM Award for Best LGBT Film: The Evil Eyes by Bobby Abate

Award for Best Sound Design: Remote by Jesse McLean

Kodak/Colorlab Award for Best Cinematography: Undergrowth by Robert Todd and  Within by Robert Todd

The No Violence Award: If the War Continues by Jonathan Schwartz

Gus Van Sant Award for Best Experimental Film: Sounding Glass by Sylvia Schedelbauer

Chris Frayne Award for Best Animated Film: It's such a beautiful day by Don Hertzfeldt and Traces by Scott Stark

The Barbara Aronofsky Latham Award for Emerging Experimental Video Artist: Ceibas: The Epilogue - The Well of Representation by Evan Meaney

Prix DeVarti for Funniest Film: Walt Disney's 'Taxi Driver' by Bryan Boyce, Shadow Cuts by Martin Arnold and Pluto Declaration by Travis Wilkerson

Tom Berman Award for Most Promising Filmmaker: The Strawberry Tree by Simone Rapisarda Casanova

George Manupelli Founder's Spirit Award: By Foot-Candle Light by Mary Helena Clark

Art & Science Award: 20Hz by Semiconductor

The Eileen Maitland Award: Irma by Charles Fairbanks

Award for Best Music Video: Go Outside by Cults by Isaiah Seret

Jury awards:

- As Above, So Below by Sarah J. Christman
- Tin Pressed by Dani Leventhal
- Curious Light by Charlotte Pryce
- Landfill 16 by Jennifer Reeves
- August Song by Jodie Mack, Emily Kuehn
- A Lax Riddle Unit by Laida Lertxundi
- Quest (Cautare) by Ionut Piturescu
- The House (Das Haus) by David Buob
- Envelop by Julianna Barwick by Cam Archer

The veteran Ann Arbor Film Festival reaches its 50th edition (March 27-April 1) and they have set to celebrate it with an impressive programme of over 200 experimental and independent films, artist talks, round tables... Among the many highlights, the special presence of Bruce Baillie, who is the protagonist of a three-programme retrospecive, including the screening of a newly-restored copy of Quick Billy; a programme of LGBT films selected by Barbara Hammer and monographical programmes dedicated to the films of Robert Nelson, Paul Clipson, Omar Amiralay and Phil solomon. This year's jurors, Peter Rose, Michael Robinson and Kathy Geritz will also present a programme of their works (or, in the case of Geritz, a programme curated by her with films screened over the AAFF's 50 years of history). The AAFF as always will also serve as a meeting point with many filmmakers in attendance, including (apart from those rpeviously named) Craig Baldwin, Leighton Pierce, Tomonari Nishikawa, Irina Leimbacher, Scott MacDonald, Mark Toscano and many others.

The AAFF also recently published the fourth volume in its annual compilation series with a selection of films from its 49th edition, available at their store.

Click on the link to see the AAFF's extensive full programme.

The Ann Arbor Film Festival (AAFF) announces the awards jury and special programs for its 50th season. Independent filmmakers and artists will present a vast body of work, March 27 - April 1, 2012, including films from the past 50 years of AAFF history.

This year's AAFF jurors are avant-garde filmmaking legend Peter Rose, Whitney Biennial artist Michael Robinson and renowned curator and scholar Kathy Geritz.

Peter Rose has made over thirty films, tapes, performances and installations since 1968, many of which have screened at the Ann Arbor Film Festival over the past four decades. His works raise questions about the nature of time, space, light, perceptionand language. Rose has been widely exhibited, both nationally and internationally, having been included in shows at the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Biennial, the Centre Pompidou, the Rotterdam International Film Festival and many more. As part of his free juror screening (all juror screenings are free to the public) Rose will show new work in addition to earlier works including Secondary currents, which played in 1983 at the 21st AAFF.

As the winner of the Most Promising Filmmaker award at the 45th AAFF, Michael Robinson has garnered critical acclaim for his work and most recently he's been chosen as one of this year's Whitney Biennial artists. Robinson's work strives to cultivate new resonances between seemingly disparate elements, harnessing the surface connotations of specific landscapes, television shows, texts, songs and sounds as psychological triggers, ripe for reconfiguration. His work has been discussed in publications such as Cinema Scope, Artforum, and Art Papers, and he was listed as one of the top ten avant-garde filmmakers of the 2000's by Film Comment magazine.

AAFF 50th: Retrospective Screening #4
January 25th, 2012, 19:30h
Michigan Theater, Ann Arbor, MI
Tickets: $5 - $10

Portraits, the fourth Retrospective Screening, curated by Toronto filmmaker, critic and author Mike Hoolboom, features three past AAFF award winners. Films programmed include: Asparagus; Suzan Pitt's celebrated cult animation, a moving meditation on art and the cost of reproduction, Meditations on Revolution Part One: Lonely Planet; Robert Fenz's stunning silent poetic vision of Cuba and Al Neil: A Portrait; David Rimmer's exquisite depiction of jazz iconoclast Al Neil- poet, recluse and shaman.

Ann Arbor Film Festival 50th: Retrospective Screening #2
Space exploration
curated by Mark Toscano (in person)
Thursday, October 20th, 19:30h
Michigan Theater
603 East Liberty Street, Ann Arbor, 48104 Michigan

The AAFF 50th: Retrospective Screening Series continues with a program of short archival films selected and presented by guest curator Mark Toscano. Film preservationist for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Toscano curates a selection of rare and influential films from the Ann Arbor Film Festival's 50 years of exhibition history, including recently restored works from the Academy Film Archive.

Films in the program include:
- Dialectic definitions (Dana Hodgdon, 1977, 8 min.)
- Grain graphics (Dana Plays, 1978, 6 min.)
- Iota (Carolyn Faber, 1998, 6 min.)
- Roseblood (Sharon Couzin, 1974, 8 min.)
- Xfilm (John Schofill, 1968, 14 min.)
- What ignites me, extinguishes me (François Miron, 1990, 9 min.)
- The man who could not see far enough (Peter Rose, 1981, 33 min)

The Ann Arbor Film Festival launches its 50th season in September with a five-part Retrospective Screening Series, which  presents influential and rare films from its five decades of ground breaking exhibition.

• September 22 - The first retrospective screening includes films by Alice Anne Parker (a.k.a. Anne Severson), including her 1971 film Near the Big Chakra, an influential feminist film that provoked a riot during its screening at the Ann Arbor Film Festival in 1972. Severson will be in attendance and will be interviewed by artist and UM Art & Design professor Holly Hughes following the screening.

• October 20 – The AAFF 50th: Retrospective Screening Series continues with a program of short archival films selected and presented by guest curator Mark Toscano, film preservationist for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

• November 30 - David Gatten selects and introduces influential films from AAFF’s exhibition history. Gatten’s been attending AAFF for more than two decades as a filmmaker, visiting professor and 2007 festival juror.

• January 25, 2012 - Toronto filmmaker and 37th AAFF juror, Mike Hoolboom, visits Ann Arbor to present a program of significant films curated from the AAFF’s rich history.

50th Ann Arbor Film Festival - Call For Entries now open

Standard Deadline - October 3, 2011

The Ann Arbor Film Festival is now accepting submissions for its 50th season. We are seeking recent independent and experimental works (films completed no earlier than 2010) that advance the art form of film. We consider all genres, lengths, styles and formats, including 16mm, 35mm, Super-8mm, video and HD video.

The 50th AAFF will provide at least $18,000 in cash awards to more than 20 filmmakers, serves as a qualifying festival for Academy Award® nomimation in the short film category and provides touring opportunities for select filmmakers. The 50th Festival takes place March 27 - April 1, 2012 in downtown Ann Arbor, MI.