The sixth edition of the MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL will take place in hybrid form, both online and in situ (Milan, Italy) between March 19 - 26 2023
Filmmakers and video artists engaged in the practice of appropriating, repurposing, and remixing video games are encouraged to send us their work for consideration. All submissions will be judged by an international panel of jurors comprising scholars, curators, and critics. A Critics' Award will be awarded to the most groundbreaking work.
Screenings of selected machinima will be curated around different themes and presented in different sections. The most interesting submissions are those which seek to capture or highlight a specific facet of contemporary life, from politics to art, from violence to creativity, from technology to ideology, through the aesthetic lenses of digital gaming.
The deadline for submissions is December 30, 2022
The full program will be announced in early March 2023
The MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL MMXXII returns with a hybrid format —both online and in situ screenings — after a long disruption in the face of an unprecedented global crisis. The festival program is now online: 25 works of machinima and game video created by 21 artists representing 9 countries are featured in two distinct sections — EVERYTHING MUST CHANGE (March 26 2022, IRL) and FOR EVERYTHING TO STAY THE SAME (March 21-27 2022, online) — for a total of 11 programs.
Below is a breakdown of all the features:
EVERYTHING MUST CHANGE (Museum of Interactive Cinema, Milan, March 26 2022): MACHINEMA (MACHINE CINEMA), BRAND NEW YOU ARE RETRO, and MADE IN ITALY
FOR EVERYTHING TO STAY THE SAME (March 21-27 2022, online): THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE AI, BAD TALES, SONG TO SONG, GAME VIDEO ESSAY, IDENTITIES/INTIMACIES, HISTORIES/HERSTORIES, NO DRAMA, PLEASE, and GAME OVER PRESENTS: THIS IS NOT A GAME.
This year we’ll be unlocking the various features gradually, like levels of a video game. The online section comprises seven back-to-back features and one special screening.
The first two — THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE AI — featuring works by Phil Rice (US) and Beatrice Carpina (IT) — and SONG TO SONG - featuring machinima by Paolo Santagostino (IT) and Lorenzo Antei (IT) are now available. Enjoy!
MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL MMXXI
FROM VIDEO GAMES TO VIDEO ART
March 15-21 2021
Online event
Milan, Italy
An official event of the Milan Digital Week, the MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL showcases audiovisual non-interactive works produced with video games otherwise known as machinima. This year, the retrospective will take place exclusively online due to the ongoing pandemic. The program feature six sections: IN FOCUS, GAME VIDEO ESSAY, GRAND THEFT CINEMA, [CODE] CONFINEMENT, GLITCH 'N SCAPES, and SPECIAL SCREENING. Selected artists include Iono Allen, Adonis Archontides, Nilson Carroll, Nick Crockett, Luca Giacomelli, Gina Hara, Kamilia Kard, Chris Kerich, Felix Klee, Eddie Lohmeyer, Luca Miranda, Alessandra Porcu, Riccardo Retez, Alessandro Tranchini, Lena Windisch, XUE Youge (薛 又 戈), and HU Yu (胡 煜).
The main theme of the MMXXI edition, From Video Games to Video Art, alludes to the variety of artistic manipulations of video games and their evolution into game videos. The authors deconstruct digital environments by subverting and reinterpreting their constitutive codes. From a matrix of postmodern cinematic citations embedded in Grand Theft Auto V to the notion of “limbo” as an existential condition, the selected machinima critically examine the logic, politics, and ideologies of the contemporary moment, triggering unexpected epistemological short circuits.
As in previous years, a Critics’ Choice Award will be awarded to the most significant machinima by an international jury composed of critics, curators, and academics: Valentino Catricalà (Artistic Director of the Media Art Festival in Rome), Marco De Mutiis (Digital curator of the Fotomuseum Winterthur), Stefano Locati (member of the Scientific Committee of the Ca 'Foscari Short Film Festival of Venice and Co-director of the Asian Film Festival of Bologna), Henry Lowood (Curator for the Germanic Collections and the History of Science and Technology Collections at Stanford University), and Jenna NG (Professor of Film and Interactive Media at the University of York).
Curated by Matteo Bittanti with Gemma Fantacci, Luca Miranda, and Riccardo Retez, the MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL 2021 is an official event of Milano Digital Week organized in collaboration with GAMESCENES. Art in the age of video games and the M.A. in Game Design at IULM University. A follow-up to the 2016 exhibition GAME VIDEO/ART. A SURVEY, the MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL brings to Milan idiosyncratic video works that lie at the intersection of video art, cinema, streaming, and digital games.
All the works will be accessible for free on festival website from 15 to 21 March 2021.
The fourth edition of the MACHINIMA FILM FESTIVAL will once again take place at IULM University (Milan, Italy) during the Milano Digital Week, which celebrates the driving forces that are reshaping art, culture, and technology of Italy’s most vibrant city.
Filmmakers and video artists engaged in the practice of appropriating, repurposing, and remixing video games are encouraged to send us their work for consideration. All submissions will be judged by an international panel of jurors comprising scholars, curators, and critics. A Critics' Award will be awarded to the most groundbreaking work.
Screenings of selected machinima will be curated around different themes and presented in different sections. The most interesting submissions are those which seek to capture or highlight a specific facet of contemporary life, from politics to art, from violence to creativity, from technology to ideology, through the aesthetic lenses of digital gaming.
The deadline for submissions is December 15, 2020.
The full program will be announced in February 2021.
Please carefully read our simple submission guidelines and requirements below before sending your work.
INTERNATIONAL OPEN CALL FOR NEW MEDIA ARTWORKS
GUIDELINES:
The Milan Machinima Festival defines machinima as any digital video made using video game technology (game engines, game tools, assets such as characters, items, environments etc.).
A preference is given to machinima created with/in video games rather than virtual worlds such as Second Life.
Submissions must be 10 minutes or less in length. The minimum duration is 2 minutes.
Submissions must have been produced between January 1, 2020 and December 15, 2020.
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).
Each submission requires a one-time, nominal submission fee of 15 euros. Submissions that have not been accepted will not be refunded.
The applicant holds the sole responsibility of copyright clearance of any copyrighted material in the machinima.
The submission must include an accompanying artist statement/description no longer than 500 words in English.
The MMF is under no obligation to provide comments regarding submitted machinima to any applicant.
All applicants must complete the official festival submission form located on FilmFreeway.
Submission deadline: December 15, 2020
From May 25th until the 30th 2020, the work of 25 different artists from 13 nations are exhibited online in 6 different programs. Click here to see the full lineup. Most of these works have never been presented in Italy before.
An official event of Milano Digital Week, the MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL is organized in collaboration with GAMESCENES. Art in the age of video games and the M.A. in Game Design at IULM University. A follow-up to the 2016 exhibition GAME VIDEO/ART. A SURVEY, the festival brings to Milan idiosyncratic video works that lie at the intersection of video art, cinema, and digital games.
The 2020 MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL is presented by FANTAGEMMA, Gemma Fantacci’s alter ego.
