The Australian Bush Poetry Film Festival is an event entirely devoted to the celebration and showcase of bush poetry film. Poetry film or video poetry is a fast-growing art form that combines poetry, moving images, sound and music. We would like to invite film-makers and poets of any age and backgrounds to participate in the first edition of the Festival which will take place in November 2023 in Guyra. In particular, we encourage the submission of innovative and eclectic takes on bush poetry film as a distinct media form.
The Festival will be held in conjunction with the “Poets on the Mountain Festival @Guyra” feature a poetry film competition, the ABPA: New South Wales Bush Poetry Championship, workshops, seminars, poetry performances and music and it will offer the opportunity to showcase the diversity of bush poetry film produced in Australia. The 2023 Australian Bush Poetry Film Festival is organised by The Australian Poetry Hall of Fame in Guyra.

Awards & Prizes

The 2023 Australian Bush Poetry Film Festival is inviting entries for two categories in the film competition:
- Best Australian Bush Poetry Film
- Best Student Bush Poetry Film (film-makers need to be enrolled in a secondary or tertiary education institution at the time of submission)
All films selected for competition will receive a festival laurel and the winners of each competition category will be awarded prize money.
The festival jury will comprise Australian award-winning film-makers, bush poets and academics.

Rules & Terms

Australian Bush Poetry has a number of defining characteristics which should be taken into consideration in selection of poem, these include, rhyme, meter, Australian Bush Themes, and story telling.

All poems must be the poet’s original work and include permission to reproduce the poem, or the poet must have died before 1953 and be out of copyright.

Film-makers assert, under their own liability, the complete right of use on copyrighted materials (images, words, sounds, music) that compose the artwork.

Film-makers undertake complete liability for any breach of copyright laws. By submitting, participants release the festival from any legal claims, liabilities and damages.

The festival organisers reserve the right to disqualify films that are in breach of Australian copyright laws.

Film-makers shall retain all copyrights of any image they submit.

Films may have been screened before at another festival or online, but must have been created after 1 January 2022 to be considered for competition. Entries that are publicly available online may not be selected. (eg Not already on YouTube or any other online platform)

All films must be under 10 minutes in length including credits.
We welcome submissions in all languages and encourage submissions in first nations languages, however, films that are not in English must contain English subtitles.

Festival organisers reserve the right to disqualify submissions that feature political propaganda, gratuitous violence, or discriminatory content. This includes (but is not limited to) ableism, homophobia, misogyny, racism, and transphobia.

The Festival will accept a maximum number of 2 submissions per person.

The Festival Jury will make the final decision on the Official Selection. The Jury’s decisions will be final and cannot be appealed.

The festival organisers reserve the right to alter, amend, or modify the Competition rules at any time, and all Participants concerned by these changes will be notified by email.