Balkan Can Kino

Balkan Can Kino is excited to announce its open call for submissions for the 6th BCK Film Symposium. Filmmakers from around the world are invited to submit their works for consideration in the symposium, which will take place in October 2023, in different spaces in Athens, with free entrance.

This years theme is KINO LUDENS and through a series of screenings, artistic installations, workshops and parallel events, the Symposium will focus on the presence and the importance of the element of play in the multiple layers of adulthood and everyday life, showcasing interactivity in cinema, not necessarily through new technologies, but through the meaning of game/play in the creation of a cinematic work and its importance in every stage of the production. Moreover, the parallel events will be structured in a way to educate and inform participants about various cultural and social issues through interactive games for adults, teenagers and children.

We are thrilled to open our doors to filmmakers from all over the world and our mission is to showcase exceptional works that explore the human experience, challenge and inspire us to imagine new possibilities. We look forward to seeing the films that will be submitted this year. The symposium is open to all genres that fit under the theme KINO LUDENS, - including narrative features, documentaries, shorts, and experimental works - and as well interactive films of older and current techniques.

This year we also accept podcasts that would fit in the symposium's theme. Accepted languages for podcasts are Greek & English only. To submit a podcast please use this form: https://forms.gle/DZA9qT9WCrtBoJVUA

Lastly, we are searching for silent films. Filmmakers in this category must be open about the fact that their films will be interpreted and presented in a live DJ set.

Submissions can be made exclusively through filmfreeway. The final deadline is on June 28th. BALKAN CAN KINO will announce the official selection in September, and selected filmmakers will be notified via email.

For more information and submission guidelines, please visit Balkan Can Kino’s website at www.balkan-can-kino.com

*Kino Ludens is a paraphrase of Dutch historian and cultural theorist Johan Huizinga’s book “Homo Ludens”. The book was originally published in 1983 and it examines for the first time the timeless presence and the vital profits of the play element in civilization and society. Almost a century ago, Huizinga recognized playing as a necessary condition (even though not enough) in creating civilization. Quoting Huizinga “civilization is, in its earliest phases, played. It does not come from play like a babe detaching itself from the womb: it arises in and as a play and never leaves it”. As a condition “equally important as thinking (Homo Sapiens) and constructing (Homo Faber), playing brings inherently the possibility to be free and unconditional, released from calculations and interests, and to differentiate from “ordinary” and “real” life, both as an unpredictable performative procedure with its own duration and space and as a lived experience.