Over the last twenty years, Lausanne Underground Film & Music Festival (LUFF) has been going to great - but exciting - pains to rub its audiences the wrong way and to offer original and off-the-wall programming. LUFF’s objective is to fuse music and cinema together into a chemistry of weirdness, drawing from a wide range of avant-garde artists and innovative creations which in most cases have never before been seen in Switzerland.

Lausanne Underground Film & Music Festival, which takes place in the Swiss Film Archives and other venues of Lausanne, Switzerland, is dedicated to showcase and promote innovative and subversive films and music that do not benefit from wide distribution.
In the course of its glorious history, LUFF has welcomed unmissable artists that broke the conventions of filmmaking.

Prestigious guests such as John Waters, Lydia Lunch, Tony Conrad, Amy Davis, Jon Moritsugu, Michael Snow, Mary Woronov, Holly Woodlawn, Jeff Perkins, Beth B, Richard Kern, Christina Lindberg, Tony Conrad, Lloyd Kaufman, Hisayasu Sato, Jello Biafra, Peaches Christ, Jean-Louis Costes, Elina Löwensohn, Peter Tscherkassky, VALIE export, Bruce La Bruce, Richard Tuohy, Wilhelm Hein, Crispin Glover, Khavn, Roland Lethem, Gérard Kikoïne, Jamil Dehlavi, Martha Colburn, Masashi Yamamoto, among others, enlightened the festival with their very own presence.

LUFF being both a film and a music festival, here are some amazing artists who performed on our stage: Merzbow, Sunn 0))), Lydia Lunch, Pansonic, Etant Donné, Kim Gordon, Brutal Truth, Alan Vega, Jazkamer, Morton Subotnick, Techno Animal, Hijokaidan, Incapacitants, Borbetomagus, JG Thirlwell, Maria Violenza, The Skull Defekts, Jason Lescalleet, Charlemagne Palestine, Jean-Jacques Perrey, Alan Licht, Keiji Haino, Tony Conrad, and others.

Take the time to visit our website if you want to know more.

Awards & Prizes

- Best feature film
- Best fiction short film
- Best animation short film
- Best experimental short film
- Best documentary short film

Prize money in all above sections.

We select only 5 feature films. About 14 years ago, we decided to split the prize money of the feature film competition bet, so each selected film is awarded with €800.-
The reason is that it felt legitimate to give money to every selected feature film. We don’t have much to offer, but even divided by five, this is always very welcome. Obviously, it is not possible to apply the same principle to the short films.

Rules & Terms

Introduction

The Film competition of LUFF is divided into a feature films section and four short films sections. Outside of the competition, the festival presents documentary feature films and a wide “Cinérama” section composed of several contemporary and retrospective programs.

Selection criteria

Films presented in the competition have to fill the following criteria:
– Year: only films released between 2021 and 2023 will be selected for the competition (short or feature films).
– Production: films should largely be produced independently.
– Language: films in languages other than French or English, must be subtitled in French or English.

The submission doesn’t guarantee a selection. If your film is selected, you will be notified in the course of August.

Screeners

Please do not ship any screening copy to the festival. Screeners have to be exclusively online versions.

4 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Michael Mersereau

    Couldn't make it but it was a honor to be part of the festival and they invest so much time into their artists.

    February 2020
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  • Stéphane Rizzi

    Bravo à toute l'équipe de ce festival qui m'a fort bien reçu, invité avec mon court-métrage Double Caprice à l'Asile ! Programmation excitante, diversifiée et de qualité, concerts fameux, ambiance internationale et joyeuse... Merci et à bientôt !!!

    November 2019
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  • Werther Germondari

    It was a great pleasure to return as an author to this wonderful festival, several years after my first participation. The choices of the curators are always perfect and the musical performances of excellent quality. Communications and organization are also commendable and the places where everything happens beautiful, in a splendid Lausanne. Obviously I can't really hope to come back again next year!

    October 2019
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  • Michael Woods

    Simply one of the best, most well organized, most fun, film festivals (or should we call it a party?) that anyone could go to. And I was sick when I was there, but still it was a blast. Food was absolutely delicious. and they make their own f****** absinthe - which is also delicious.

    November 2018
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