The Milan Machinima Festival (MMF) celebrates the pinnacle of machinima and filmmakers utilizing video game technologies, including prominent game engines such as Unity and Unreal. Held annually, the festival showcases game-based videos created by artists and practitioners at the intersection of video art, cinema, animation, and gaming.

Our festival prioritizes avant-garde machinima over vernacular forms, reflecting our commitment to promoting works that push the boundaries of creativity and innovation within the medium. Avant-garde machinima, with its emphasis on experimental techniques, unconventional narratives, and artistic exploration, aligns with our mission to showcase pioneering works that challenge traditional conventions and explore new frontiers in digital gaming and filmmaking.

Selected works are chosen for their cultural significance, artistic excellence, and innovative style by an international panel of jurors and dedicated curators. The festival’s selection exemplifies the diversity, ingenuity, and creativity inherent in game-based video practices.

We invite filmmakers and video artists who engage in the appropriation, repurposing, and remixing of video games to submit their work for consideration. All entries will be evaluated by an esteemed international panel of scholars, curators, and critics. The most groundbreaking submission will receive the Critics’ Award.

Curated screenings of selected machinima will be organized around various themes and presented in distinct sections. We are particularly interested in submissions that capture or highlight specific aspects of contemporary life — ranging from politics to art, violence to creativity, and technology to ideology — through the aesthetic perspectives of digital gaming.

Screenings of selected machinima will be curated around different themes and presented in various sections. We seek submissions that capture or highlight specific facets of contemporary life, from politics to art, from violence to creativity, and from technology to ideology, through the aesthetic lenses of digital gaming.

The deadline for submissions is December 30, 2024

The full program will be announced in February 2025

Please carefully read our submission guidelines and requirements below before sending your work.

Awards & Prizes

Critics' Choice Award.

Awarded by an international panel of scholars, curators, and critics:

Previous winners include:

Daniele Imani Inobar's The Zone (2025)
Cat Bluemke and Jonathan Carroll's Crowd Control (2024)
Stanislaw Petruk (2023)
Sam Crane (2022)
Gina Hara (2021)
Bram Ruiter (2019)

Rules & Terms

We define machinima as any digital video made using video games technology (game engines, tools, assets such as characters, items, environments, and, obviously, video games as found footage etc.). We consider machinima a form of video art.

Submissions must feature machinima made with specifically with video games and/or video game technology: CGI-only videos will not be considered. We strongly encourage candidates to review the program of the previous editions to get a better idea (see the archive section of the website).

Submissions of all durations are accepted.

Submissions must have been produced between January 1, 2025 and December 30, 2025.

Artists and filmmakers can submit more than one machinima. However, multiple versions of the same machinima will not be considered.

Acceptable submission formats: Digital video files only.

Acceptable exhibition formats: mp4, avi, mpg, Quicktime file (ProRes 422).

All submissions *must* include an accompanying artist statement/description of the artwork and an author biography no longer than 500 words. Incomplete submission will not be considered.

All applicants must complete the official festival submission form located on filmfreeway.com

One-time, nominal submission fee: 15 USD/euros payable via PayPal to the festival organizers. Submissions that have not been accepted will not be refunded.

Given that the MMF fully supports the fair clause doctrine when it comes to intellectual property, the applicant holds the sole responsibility of copyright clearance of any copyrighted material in the machinima. Please provide a detailed list of all the assets used, including mods in the accompanying document.

Exclusivity: If your machinima is accepted for screening during the Milan Machinima Festival, we kindly request not to present it elsewhere during the same time frame, including personal websites, video sharing sites like Vimeo or YouTube.

Review: The MMF is under no obligation to provide comments regarding submitted machinima to any applicant.

Submission deadline: December 30 2025
4 Reviews
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  • Cat Bluemke

    Screening with the Milan Machinima Festival was a highlight of my year! What a fun, intelligent, and thoughtful curatorial team and vision. The community around the festival is wonderful and as artists we felt very supported. I highly recommend artists apply to this wonderful festival!

    March 2024
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    Response from festival:

    Thank you so much for your kind words, Cat!

  • Gioia Film

    So glad for the Italian Premiere of HOLD ON FOR DEAR LIFE by Simone Fiorentino at Milan Machinima Festival!

    March 2024
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  • Luca Giacomelli

    È stato un onore partecipare al festival.

    July 2021
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  • Gina Hara

    One of the best festivals I've ever screened at. An absolutely lovely crew, super smart programmers and an overall fantastic team. The festival was running online this year and their website was beautiful, easy to navigate, and provided a great backdrop for the movies. Do yourself a favour and submit your film to this wonderful festival!!

    March 2021
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    Response from festival:

    Thank you very much Gina! The entire staff appreciate your kind words.