Festival Fotogenia (7)

Festival start: 20 November 2025      Festival end: 29 November 2025

FOTOGENIA 7, INTERNATIONAL CINEPOETRY & DIVERGENT NARRATIVES FESTIVAL, promotes a space with an alternative conception of films, a celebration of experimentation and avant-garde framework, the love of curiosity and research of the Seventh Art. Everyone is invited, taking into consideration the disruptive nature of the selected works.

FOTOGENIA is a Film Festival held in the heart and diverse areas of Mexico City that celebrates cinema itself, experimentation with its nature, formats, genres, narrative, projection spaces, and all the freedom to explore the audiovisual image without restriction. It joins the Festivals of this type around the world such as the Film & Video Poetry Symposium which takes place in Moscow, Los Angeles, and New York, Rencontres Internationales held in Paris and Berlin, the Thuringian International Fim Festival in Weimar, Germany, and Le FIFA, Festival International du Film Sur l'Art in Montreal, Canada.

​If you are an audiovisual maker who doesn't find your place, voice, and vision within the traditional film festivals and you are interested in provoking the cinematographic image through the exploration of its frontiers and limits, in order to converse with the viewers in innovative and critical ways to ignite a confrontation between reality and cinematic phenomenon, this is your place to exhibit your passion. We receive filmpoetry, video art, film-diary, film essays, avant-garde feature films, & every kind of experimentation in cinema, animation, music video, fashion films, and poetic documentary.

​And if you are a spectator avid for finding new film proposals, personal movies, and experimental works of cinema, this is your place to watch.

​We welcome you to experience films in another way!

Open your gaze!

Cash Prizes: 535$

1) "DELLUC / AVANT-GARDE WINNER" USD $600 Cash Prize / $12,000 MXN
2) "EPSTEIN SPECIAL MENTION" USD $300 Cash Prize / $6,000 MXN
3) "AMERO REVELATION AWARD" USD $200 Cash Prize / $4,000 MXN

The monetary prizes are given in MXN or its equivalence in USD dollars


All the finalists will receive a Certificate of Achievement.

1. The topic to explore in this Seventh Edition is OPEN . What do you imagine Cinema can create in the form of dreams, passions, fears, desires, joys, jokes, ideas, ideals, or abstractions? How do you create poetry through film? We want to explore a FREE POETRY FILM that show us MULTIPLE REALITIES. NO MATTER WHEN YOU'VE IMAGINED & MADE YOUR FILM!

2. The Festival is open to all international mini shorts, short films, and feature films, regardless of their year of production in the categories of filmpoetry, videopoetry, cinepoetry, video art, film essay, film diary, experimental film, experimental music videos, experimental animation, experimental and poetic documentary, fashion films & avant-garde feature films.

​3. The duration of the mini-shorts must be between 1-3 minutes with credits, the short film category accepts films from 3:01 and up to 29:59 minutes with credits. If the work lasts 30 minutes or more, the Festival will consider it in the avant-garde feature film category and it must be submitted as such, if the film is submitted in the short film competition, it will be disqualified. EACH SUBMISSION MUST CONTAIN ONE FILM ONLY, WE DON'T ACCEPT COMPILATIONS OF SEVERAL WORKS INTEGRATED INTO ONE PIECE.

4. The works can be made with any recording format (16mm, 35mm, digital, cell phone, etc.) according to experimentation with the nature of cinema, but their final projection copy must be in FULL HD DIGITAL FORMAT, extension .mov or .mp4, H.264 compression.

5. The genre and technique are free (it can be animation, live action, a poem made with text, audio, or a visual poem with no text; documentary, docu-fiction, non-fiction, a mixture of one or more, etc.), according to free experimentation with divergent narratives, poetic logic, hypertext logic, and the thought logic to challenge the borders of poetry and conventional narratives.

6. To participate, you must register your material for viewing through the Festival's official microsite on the FestHome platform. WE DON'T ACCEPT FILMS FOR REVIEWING SENT TO US VIA EMAIL, LINK TO YOUTUBE, LINK TO VIMEO OR ANY OTHER WAY (If you are a student from any country, send an email to hola.fotogenia@gmail.com to receive a discount on the registration for one work in our professional categories in competition, except mini-short. You will be asked to verify that you are enrolled at an Academic Institution or that you made the film during your studies).

7. Each director can submit a maximum of three works regardless of the year of production. You must be the right holder for any image, music, text, or footage shown in your films, if not, any legal infringement of copyright laws will be assumed by you, releasing the Festival totally from any legal responsibility or action.

8. For consideration in the selection process, if the works are in a language other than Spanish or english, they must be subtitled in either of these two languages. PLEASE NOTE THAT IF YOUR WORK IS SELECTED you must provide a copy with Spanish subtitles on the date that the Festival requests it, so that it can be included in the final programming shown at Mexico City's Venues. Otherwise, your film will be shown only on our website, THIS IS MANDATORY. (A copy with an audio description with english subtitles might also be required since the festival seeks to be a space for inclusion that invites people with hearing disabilities to be part of it).

9. The REGULAR deadline is Sunday, July 13, 2025.

​10. A Selection Committee comprised of national and international specialists will review the works sent for consideration and will select those that due to their quality, proposal, experimentation of the limits of cinematographic language, as well as their exploration of audiovisual poetry and divergent narratives as a form of creation, will be part of the Festival.

11. The Official Selection will be announced on the Festival's official website and our social networks on Facebook and Instagram. The selected directors will be contacted personally by email to send their works with the best projection quality in Full HD digital format and their Press Kit. IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to periodically check your email (also in the SPAM or promotions folders) to receive notifications and instructions for the delivery of your projection materials on the agreed dates and with the requirements that the festival needs to guarantee their inclusion in the final programming. IF WE DON'T HEAR FROM YOU ONCE THE OFFICIAL SELECTION IS ANNOUNCED OR IF YOU DON'T SEND YOUR MATERIALS BY THE DATE AND THROUGH THE OFFICIAL FESTIVAL FORM PROVIDED, YOUR FILM WON'T BE PART OF THE FINAL PROGRAMMING.

12. The selected directors who live in Mexico City undertake to attend, on the day their work is screened within the Festival program, at the indicated venue to participate in a Q&A, and thus dialogue with the audience about their works. Those who reside outside of Mexico City or the country may participate with a video presentation that will be requested in advance.

13. The Festival is hybrid so that our national and international audiences can enjoy it through online programs and talks. IF YOUR FILM IS PART OF THE FESTIVAL, YOU COMMIT TO DON'T SHOW IT online AT ANY OTHER PUBLIC WEBSITE ONE WEEK PRIOR AND DURING FESTIVAL DATES.

14. The Fotogenia venues in Mexico City where the projections of the selected works will take place will be revealed in advance. The selected directors will be invited to all screenings, events, and a cocktail after the Closing Ceremony.

15. A Jury comprised of national and international specialists will award the Prize: "Delluc / Avant-garde" to a work voted by the Judges' majority consisting of a cash prize of MXN $12,000.00 (or its equivalent in US dollars). Likewise, the Jury will award the "Epstein / Special Mention" endowed with MXN $6,000.00 (or its equivalent in US dollars) to the work that they consider deserving it, and the "Amero Revelation Award" endowed with MXN $4,000.00 (or its equivalent in US dollars) to a new filmmaker who surprises the Jury with his/her work.

16. All submitters will be granted with a discounted access to the online Festival.

​17. Once the Festival is over and when Fotogenia deems it appropriate, all the selected works will be uploaded to our web platform FOTOGENIA CHANNEL, a digital historical heritage that makes up the memory of the Festival in an online channel that preserves, integrates, and promotes the selected works, and their directors over time.

​18. As part of the tasks of the FOTOGENIA FESTIVAL to provide a constant exhibition space for filmmakers from all over the world, once the Festival has concluded, the selected works will be part of different itinerant exhibitions throughout the year, to expand the projection of the same to low-income communities as well as other national and international public & cultural spaces as part of our promotional and social commitment. The promotion of the works will depend on the agreements that the Festival can make with other Institutions during the following months after the official dates of FOTOGENIA have passed. The directors will be notified and invited to these possible exhibitions.

​19. By sending your material, you accept the present rules & regulations hereby described.

​20. Any unforeseen situation in these regulations will be solved by the FOTOGENIA Festival Organization at its sole discretion.

ABRE TU MIRADA