[Commlist] CfP – Experimental Fiction Filmmaking Conference

Call for Contributions – Experimental Fiction Filmmaking Conference
17th–18th July 2025, University of Salford, Media City UK.

Proposal submission deadline: Monday 31 March
The third Experimental Fiction Filmmaking Conference aims to explore and 
define the boundaries of Experimental Fiction Filmmaking (EFF) by 
bringing together practice-as-research (PaR) academics, film scholars, 
industry professionals and independent filmmakers for a series of 
workshops, presentations and screenings.  EFF draws upon traditions in 
cinema, experimental film, art cinema and expanded cinema, but also 
specific philosophical concerns and practitioner insights and 
sensibilities. EFF is not tied to one particular movement or period of 
cinema history, some of its varied histories can be traced back to the 
modernist period in the early 20th century, for example the early works 
of Surrealism in cinema, photogenie and the work of Jean Epstein and 
Louis Delluc, or the experiments in montage of Sergei Eisenstein and 
Dziga Vertov. More contemporary examples can be found in the work of 
Agnes Varda, Vera Chytilova, William Greaves, Lars von Trier, Claire 
Denis, Werner Herzog, Andrei Tarkovsky, Harmony Korine, Luis Bunuel, 
Lucile Hadzihalilovic, Tsai Ming Liang, Wong Kar Wai, Philippe 
Grandrieux, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Mike Figgis, and many others. 
However, the aim of this event is not to re-reclassify the history of 
cinema based on narrative or formal markers, but rather to establish and 
develop a set of experimental methods and approaches to fiction film 
production, which will expand on the creative potential of cinema and 
provide guidance and inspiration to both established and emerging 
filmmakers, in a rapidly developing technological context. Alongside 
this practical experimentation, the event asks how experimental fiction 
filmmaking might enable new modes of critical engagement and 
interpretation with the processes developed and the films made, within 
their theoretical, philosophical and ethical contexts.

Film fiction continues to be a form of storytelling under constant 
development, whether in terms of exploration of film’s unique 
audio-visual possibilities of expression and communication, or new 
processes afforded to filmmakers through changing cultural and 
technological contexts. Therefore, film fiction can benefit from new 
conceptualisations of storytelling that are rooted both in the 
specificity of film as a  medium, and the way different contexts and 
processes might be brought to film anew. Practice-as-research in film is 
a useful approach to developing such new conceptual approaches.
 Some of the questions that the INEFF Conference hopes to address 
include but are not limited to:
 – What are the creative possibilities and boundaries of experimental 
fiction filmmaking?
– Which processes of collaboration can inform novel and meaningful 
experimental fiction film outputs?
– How might new technology shape new narrative fiction forms?
– How might experimental fiction filmmaking lead to novel modes of 
critical engagement and interpretation?
– How might we define Experimental Fiction Filmmaking?

INEFF 2025 aims to continue the conversations from previous iterations 
of the conference.

Proposals may consider ways in which an experimental fiction film practice:
– Invents new filmic concepts.
– Offers emancipation through the disruption of taken-for-granted 
industry norms and standards.
– Redefines the grammar of film.
– Subverts established narrative conventions of cinema. – Privileges 
care and collaboration over power and hierarchies.
– Mobilises theory into practice.
– Is a termite art form, which privileges aesthetic innovation over the 
gloss of perfection.
– Plays with duration and running time in ways that sit between the 
traditions of short film and the feature. – Operates as an independent 
or low-budget art form. How might we reconsider crew roles and 
responsibilities?

We welcome proposals for PaR statements (1000-2000 words) accompanied by 
audio-visual practice and/or documentation, short papers (2500-3500 
words), workshops or performances (up to 30 minutes) and installations 
(negotiable).
PaR statements and papers will be published on the INEFF.org website 
ahead of the event, and will inform a five-minute live verbal summary as 
part of a thematic panel, followed by a critical discussion during the 
event. Where relevant, the accompanying practice will be included in a 
dedicated screening during the event ahead of the thematic panel, and, 
with your permission, can also be included on the website alongside your 
statement.
Proposal submission deadline: Monday 31 March Please submit your 
proposal here: https://forms.gle/bUiK8CpahhdT8Tz27

Submission of full statements and papers (upon proposal acceptance) by 
Monday 16 June Conference in MediaCityUK, Manchester: 17 and 18 July 2025

Visit www.ineff.org for more information. For any enquiries, please 
contact us on (ineffsymposium /at/ gmail.com)

If you would like to submit standalone EFF practice to our INEFF 
Festival (taking place on 19 July at Cultplex Cinema in Manchester), you 
can do so at https://filmfreeway.com/INEFF (late deadline 27 June)

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