Blog: Film festivals

The 8th Kinodot Experimental Film Festival
Kinodot Competition
Kinodot competition includes only one category: Experimental films. There is no genre, topic or length restrictions.

Award
Kinodot Jury Prize for the best experimental film.
The winner of Kinodot competition is decided by professional international jury.

Screening Fees
Starting from 2020 we have canceled the cash prize. Instead all films selected for Kinodot competition are now offered the screening fee of $40. For us it's a way to express our support and appreciation to the filmmakers, whose work we admire.

Submission and Other Terms
The festival will take place in St. Petersburg in the second half of May 2020 (the exact dates will be announced in January). Experimental films of any length, finished not earlier than 15.01.2018 can be submitted.

The deadline for applying to Kinodot competition is February 28. The entry fee is $10. Kinodot is an independent festival (so far, knock on wood) and the submission fees are our only source of funding.

By submitting the film to Kinodot Competition the copyright owners agree that, if selected, the film will be screened up to 4 times during the festival and up to 2 more times in the next two years during non-commercial promotional Kinodot screenings.

You can submit your film to Kinodot at Festhome.

The History
Kinodot was launched in 2012 as online minimalist short film festival at kinodot.com. In time the project has developed into independent international experimental film festival with live screenings in movie theaters and unconventional venues in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Originally films submitted to Kinodot had to match at least one of the four selection criteria*:
No Money - films made without a budget; 
No Mumbling - films without dialogue or narration; 
No Music - films without a music score; 
No Montage - films made without editing, i.e. filmed in one shot.
*It’s no longer a requirement, rather a tribute to tradition. Yet in general we still give preference to minimalist films.

Kinodot was created to support and distribute new experimental films, and to inspire filmmakers to experiment in their own way. We promote freedom of ideas, formalism, simplicity and self-restriction as oppose to the secondary film production and self-censorship of high budget festivals. We believe that a great film can be created with very basic means, without special education or expensive equipment. We also believe that creating and following a strict set of formal rules can have a liberating effect on every artist.