In Duende Sessions our aim is to harness the unseen power and give a platform to the local and foreign talented Spoken Word artists and Musicians, that would go unheard if not given the space to create. We seek to attract the people who search for a deeper connection on the art scene along with the more popular music festivals that are held in the city of Barcelona.

As part of the festival we propose to put together, we would like to channel all of this energy and inspiration to create a place where it can be transmitted to a local audience as well as to the foreign audience who would like to see what the up and coming art scene is truly about.

We aim to give space to experimental or more classical music, combined with spoken word and audiovisuals, and take out the artists and the public from their comfort zone. We will be inviting artists from around the world, guaranteeing the quality of the performances throughout our events.

Duende Sessions Festival, started in July 2019 with a big success and in 2020, as the situation due to the pandemic didn't let us organize a live event, we produced the spoken word with music movie "Duende Sessions - The Movie". In our third edition we aim to take the level up and showcase unique performances, combined with the sound of the soul.

We are very happy to make a dream come true this year and collect video poetry works from around the world to showcase in our festival. The festival takes place in a venue with 3 separate spaces and the main stage is an auditorium with a cinema screen that can accommodate 200 people sitting and we calculate that for the screenplay, we´ll receive around 300 people. The festival lasts 12 hours in total. In the first 3-4 hours, we will play video poetry at the big screen of the auditorium. After the festival, all the videos selected, will be published on our website and they will be featured until June 2022. The festival will screen a number of 30 video projects developed through the medium of poetry.

There are no restrictions regarding when the film was produced or if the film has premiered regionally or internationally. There are no restrictions on subject matter, theme, topic, or the language of origin. The Duende Sessions Festival will accept submissions of poetry films, filmpoems, digital-poetry, poetry video, Poetry, spoken word films, visual poetry, choreopoems, poetrinca, media poetry, and all films and videos that are driven visually by text or voice.

In the videos we aim to see the "Duende" in each one of you. Basic element in our selection procedure will be to make us feel something strong and capture our heart.
In the case that less than 30 videos will be selected due to lack of duende in the artistic projects that we will receive, we will play more than one time the projects selected.
The festival also calls for experimental film and video work that explores poetry or literature whether it will be oral, written, visual, or symbolic. This includes non-narrative work and the avant-garde.

To support the directors of short films, we also add a category of short films, narrative or not, with a maximum length on 15 minutes. We will screenplay one hour of short films, which means that we will choose a number of 5 to 10 films, depending on the length of the films that we will receive. All films should be subtitled in English.

All the videos selected will be featured to our website and Youtube channel and will be promoted to our social media.

Deadline: All submissions must be submitted, e-mailed, or postmarked no later than the 30th of September, 2021.
One project title per submission form is allowed. All languages are allowed and the videos must include English subtitles, even if they are in English. Only videos in Spanish don´t need to be subtitled.

The Duende Sessions Festival announces the CALL OUT for the 3rd edition of our Festival. Artwork based on poems and not longer than 10 minutes can be submitted. All languages are allowed. From the submissions, a program committee makes the artwork selection for the festival program. A jury made up of representatives from the fields of poetry, film and media will select the video poems. The Duende Sessions Festival will not offer notes or feedback on any submitted films or projects. No revisions will be accepted once an entry has been received. Once payment has been processed, Duende Sessions Festival will not provide a refund. All decisions made by the committee will be final, and no refund of the submission fee will be provided.

ALL ENTRIES must be subtitled in English, except the entries in Spanish. In the event that the submitted project is accepted for inclusion within the Duende Sessions Festival, the submitter agrees to provide each of the following rights to the Duende Sessions Festival without reservations, conditions, or qualifications:
(a) the right to use footage, stills, and information from or relating to the project for promotional purposes.
(b) the right to issue and authorize publicity concerning the filmmakers and the project and to use all associated names, likenesses and biographical information.

The Duende Sessions Festival will announce the 2021 program selection in November, 2021.
The 3rd edition of Duende Sessions Festival will take place on the 28th of November 2021.


If you have any questions : duendesessions(at)gmail.com

Process
Submission Fee

Deadline for all submissions is September 30, 2021.

Submission fee is 7 euros per video, or media project.

We accept submission only by the platform FilmFreeway.

Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Thank you very much for selecting our project! Communication was very friendly and helpful!

    January 2022
  • Elin Johnston

    Honoured to have had 2 Poetry Films selected for this impressively organised cultural Festival - Great that all the films will be online for 6 months as well! Will definitely submit again & many thanks to all :)
    Elin J.

    December 2021
  • I was very glad to be a part of this very poetic and great Festival!
    Thank you for my selection.
    Robertie

    December 2021