Organizer Information
Projet Betula is an independent, non-profit cultural platform dedicated to supporting international contemporary art with an explicit focus on migration, nomadism, and structural resilience. The platform provides an intentional space for artists uprooted by war, geopolitical displacement, or forced relocation to share their narratives and engage in critical global conversations. Through curated exhibitions, cinema screenings, live performances, and educational initiatives, Projet Betula creates reflective environments that amplify creative voices adapting to unfamiliar or hostile conditions.
Title & Description
Open Call: "Deafening Silence" Moving-Image Screening Series
Projet Betula has launched its international open call for Deafening Silence, the second chapter in an ongoing conceptual screening cycle that began with Speak Volumes in late 2025. While the initial chapter tracked the persistence of active voices within haunted landscapes and archives, this current block shifts its focus to what remains unsaid, suppressed, or unspoken. The program seeks experimental films and moving-image works that investigate silence as a heavy condition shaped by power dynamics, historical catastrophe, intentional refusal, or survival. Selected submissions will be presented together as a cohesive, curated cinematic showcase at Césure in Paris, offering international exposure across the organizer’s global partner and digital networks.
Theme
Submissions must explore one or more of the following three conceptual pillars of silence:
- Enforced Silence: Imposed through state or colonial violence, imprisonment, border restrictions, economic deprivation, or bureaucratic erasure where individuals are denied the right to speak or be recognized.
- After the Explosion: The profound silence following infrastructure collapse, war, environmental destruction, or forced migration, felt as exhaustion or the inability of language to describe catastrophe.
- Silence as Survival: Deliberate silence used as a protective shield, an intentional strategy for survival, or an assertion of the right to not be fully exposed or explained to others.
Categories
The call is strictly dedicated to lens-based time media, encompassing
- Experimental Film, Video Art, and Moving Image Practices.
Eligibility
- Geographic Scope: Completely open to international artists, filmmakers, and collaborative groups worldwide.
- Collective Submissions: Collectives are welcome to apply; the entry must be completed by one designated member who explicitly notes the collaborative nature of the work.
- Exhibition Status: Previously screened works are fully welcome; regional or international premiere status is not required.
- Format Restrictions: Multi-channel video installations are ineligible, as the final selected program will be projected exclusively in a standard, single-channel cinema format.
Program Benefits & Awards
- Paris Cinema Showcase: Public screening presentation inside the multidisciplinary cultural space Césure in Paris on September 16, 2026.
- Curated Positioning: Structural inclusion alongside an international roster of emerging and established contemporary moving-image creators.
- Network Visibility: Broad promotional profiling across Projet Betula’s official website, social media channels, and external partner networks.
- Community Engagement: Opportunity to participate in an expanded public program dedicated to contemporary art, migration discourse, and experimental film.
Application Fee
There is no application fee; submitting works to this call is completely free of charge.
Application Requirements
To be eligible for curatorial review, submissions must conform to these parameters:
- Completion Window: Films finalized before September 2024 are not eligible.
- Duration Limit: Maximum running time of 30 minutes per film.
- Submission Volume: A filmmaker or collective may submit up to two films, but each work must be processed via a separate application form.
- Technical Output: Video files must be formatted as MP4 or MOV using the H.264 codec at a minimum resolution of Full HD (1920×1080).
- Language/Subtitles: Works containing spoken dialogue must include burned-in or integrated subtitles in either English or French.
- Screening Links: Submissions must provide secure, operational streaming links (Vimeo, YouTube, or similar platforms) that remain valid through the evaluation cycle, along with passwords for protected links.
How to Apply?
Artists must register their data and portfolio assets by filling out the online entry form before the portal lock down. Direct file attachments via email or social media messaging will be discarded.
- Application Link: Projet Betula Entry Form Portal
Key Dates
- Open Call Submission Window: July 15 – August 10, 2026
- Submission Deadline: August 10, 2026, at 11:59 PM Paris Time (UTC+2)
- Official Selection Announcement: August 24, 2026
- Physical Screening Event in Paris: September 16, 2026
Location
The registration intake and selection loops happen entirely online. The physical screening event takes place live in France at:
- Césure (Former Censier Campus of Sorbonne Nouvelle University) Paris, France
Additional Details
Due to its independent, non-profit institutional status, Projet Betula is unable to pay standard screening fees or artist honorariums. The hosting venue, Césure, is an evolving multidisciplinary community space that transforms university infrastructure—libraries, lecture halls, and courtyards—into active creative studios and spaces for collective learning and social engagement.