LIMINALcinema: Film and Moving Image Festival is a competitive festival co-founded by Ting-kin Chan, Ivonna Yu, and Raymond Chan. It celebrates auteur-driven films and moving image works that are methodologically and formally self-aware, with an experimental edge.

Organized by the non-profit art organization Rice-Free Cooking Art Centre, LIMINALcinema takes place annually in Foshan, Guangdong, China. In-person events and physical screenings are held across local independent cinemas, independent art museums, and alternative spaces, aiming to build an audiovisual arts exchange platform for local and international audiences through screenings, performances, exhibitions, talks, and workshops.

Past editions of LIMINALcinema have presented Special Screenings and Asian/China premieres of works by international artists including Jodie Mack, Ross Lipman, Viera Čákanyová, Sam Drake, Nils Agdler, Eva Giolo, Ian Gibbins, Nicolas Gebbe, and Yann les Jours, among others.

LIMINALcinema presents selected films through two connected formats: Festival Screening and an Extended Programme (Exhibition). During the festival period, all Official Selections will be shown as a concentrated on-site screening programme at The Beautiful New World. Following the festival screenings, the festival’s Academic Committee will further select a number of moving-image works from the Official Selection to form the Extended Programme, which will be organized and continuously presented as a moving-image exhibition at Rice-Free Cooking Art Centre.

LIMINALcinema is eagerly awaiting films and moving image works with a strong authorial signature, including but not limited to:

- Fiction Film
- Art Film
- Artists’ Film
- Experimental Film
- Video Art
- Film-poem
- Hybrid Documentary
- Experimental Animation
- Minimalist Film
- Slow Cinema
- Found-Footage Film
- Animation

While LIMINALcinema is committed to experimental and artists' moving image, we equally welcome narrative-driven works—Fiction Films and Art Films included—as long as they carry a strong authorial signature and a clear aesthetic orientation.

We warmly welcome artists from around the world at every stage of their careers, guided by a commitment to equality, diversity, and fairness. For us, fostering a supportive community for underrepresented groups is essential and deeply meaningful.

We do not select films based on commercial potential, production scale, or budget. Instead, we value practices that actively push the boundaries of audiovisual language—whether through cinematographic techniques, creative methods, modes of narration, formal vocabularies, or aesthetic paradigms. We take pride in screening independent films that draw closer to art through sustained experimentation.

We ensure that every film submitted receives careful, fair, and rigorous consideration by our Artistic Committee.

Awards & Prizes

Awards

- Laurels: All selected films will receive the official festival laurel. In addition, award-winning and Honorable Mention films will receive the corresponding category-specific laurel.
- Category Awards & Honorable Mentions (10 categories): Each category (excluding the General Category) will confer a Best award, and may also grant Honorable Mention(s):

· Best Art Film
· Best Experimental Fiction Film
· Best Artists’ Film / Best Video Art
· Best Experimental Film
· Best Hybrid Documentary Film
· Best Essay Film
· Best Found Footage Film
· Best Film-Poem
· Best Slow Film / Minimalist Film
· Best Experimental Animation

Jury and Decision Process

- Selection: Films are selected by the festival’s Artistic Committee.
- Awards and Honorable Mentions: Decisions are made jointly by the Artistic Committee and a jury of industry professionals appointed by the festival’s Artistic Director.
- Announcement: Official results (including selections, awards, and honorable mentions) will be announced via the festival’s official website and social media channels.

Rules & Terms

Submission Requirements

- Nature: must be non-commercial in nature.
- Completion status: completed works only; works-in-progress are not accepted.
- Runtime: Works are normally up to 30 minutes (including credits). Filmmakers may also submit works up to 90 minutes (including credits) to the General Category.
- Format: single-channel works only.
- Production date: works completed within the past five (5) years are eligible; works completed within the past two (2) years are particularly welcomed.
- Premiere status: not required; it is welcome for publicity purposes.
- Legal compliance: Works must be lawful for public screening in the People’s Republic of China. Non-compliant works may be rejected or disqualified.
- Prohibited content: Works that promote or incite political or religious propaganda, hatred, discrimination, or violence will not be considered.

In-person Events and Physical Screenings

- All selected films will be presented as in-person events and physical screenings during the festival at local independent cinemas, independent art museums, and alternative spaces.
- Official Selections will be screened during the festival; some works may additionally be invited to the Extended Programme (Exhibition) for gallery presentation at Rice-Free Cooking Art Centre, curated by the Academic Committee.
- LIMINALcinema does not pay screening fees for selected films.
- LIMINALcinema is unable to cover travel and accommodation costs for selected filmmakers. Filmmakers are warmly welcome to attend in person, and we will do our best, within our capacity, to provide assistance with local logistics, such as meals, local transportation, and accommodation coordination.

Subtitles and Deliverables

- Any work that contains dialogue must include English subtitles.
- Selected works must deliver:
1. a high-quality H.264 screening file;
2. an English subtitle SRT (required), so the festival can prepare Chinese subtitles and burn them into the screening file. A Chinese SRT, dialogue list/timecode, or a version with burned-in bilingual (Chinese–English) subtitles is appreciated.
3. a film poster;
4. 5–10 film stills;
5. a director biography.

Rights, Permissions and Promotional Use

- Rights clearance: By submitting a work, the submitter/rights holder confirms that they hold all necessary rights and clearances for the film, including but not limited to image, music, sound, archival materials, third-party footage, and portrait/privacy rights, and that the film may be publicly screened by the festival.
- Liability: The submitter/rights holder bears sole responsibility for any claims, disputes, losses, or liabilities arising from rights infringement or unauthorized use of materials.
- Promotional use: The submitter grants the festival the right to use the film’s stills, synopsis, credits, and excerpts for festival publicity and archival documentation (including the festival website and social media). For video excerpts, the total length used will not exceed 30–120 seconds per work (or a shorter excerpt if reasonably requested by the rights holder).
- Disqualification: The festival reserves the right to disqualify any film where rights clearance is insufficient or disputed.

Publication, Data Retention and Refunds

- Publication: Information submitted (including film title, credits, synopsis, stills, and filmmaker bio) may be published on the festival website and related materials.
- Data retention: By submitting, the submitter agrees that the festival may retain submission data for festival operations and future-edition communication.
- Refunds: Once a submission is made, fees (if applicable) are non-refundable for any reason.