Open call for short films: Copenhagen Architecture Fes

“Film Mosaic: Leave No One Behind”is Copenhagen Architecture Festival’s short film competition focusing on inclusive design and architecture. Submit before March 1, 2023.

Pressed by the urgencies exposed in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Copenhagen Architecture Festival (CAFx) has chosen to investigate the role architecture can play in reducing inequality in all its forms and fulfilling the UN’s commitment to “Leave No One Behind”(LNOB). In Spring 2022, CAFx launched an open call for short films documenting inclusive design solutions found in the built, grown and planned environment. The goal of the film competition is to illustrate how the LNOB agenda can be pursued on a small scale, through inclusive urban practices and simple yet ingenious designs that make spaces—cities, neighborhoods, buildings, streets—more welcoming, accessible, healthier and inclusive for everybody.

Elaborating on the growing interest for film as research and communication tool in architectural practice and urbanism, CAFx has chosen a film competition as the privileged site for documenting and disseminating examples of inclusive design from around the world, and has appointed an international jury of architecture and film experts to assess the films, consisting of Architecture Film Directors Békà & Lemoine, Architect Anupama Kundoo, Founder and Editor in Chief of ArchDaily David Basulto, President of Congress for the UIA2023CPH in Copenhagen Natalie Mossin, and Founder and Director of Copenhagen Architecture Festival, Josephine Michau.

The winners will be invited to attend the premiere and award ceremony at the next edition of Copenhagen Architecture Festival, taking place in June2023 in parallel with the World Capital of Architecture and the UIA World Congress (1st prize:2500 EUR; 2nd prize:1500 EUR; 3rd prize:1000 EUR).

All the short films entering the competition, whether professional or amateur, are featured ongoingly on the Film Mosaic platform, an open-access online source designed to inspire the work of students, decision-makers, researchers and practitioners, and transfer knowledge across borders through the effective medium of film.

The collection of films exposes the way in which spatial discrimination reflects society’s structural inequalities and manifests itself in a multitude of geographical contexts, urban and rural, public and private, in the North and South. At the same time, by participating in the global Film Mosaic, you can not only increase awareness of the great potential of architecture and design to promote more equitable futures, but also spread your ideas about how local solutions can create value in a larger global perspective.

Read the guidelines and submit your short film here.

Copenhagen Architecture Festival (CAFx) is Scandinavia’s largest annual architecture festival.Since its establishment in 2014, CAFx explores, discusses and communicates architectural and urban questions through exhibitions, debate events, publications, excursions, workshops, an extensive film program, an online Journal and more, depicting visions, conflicts and historical transformations in the built environment that bend the boundaries between architecture, aesthetics and politics. On the theme of film and architecture CAFx host ayearly Summer School and an industrial PhD student. Our approach is based on collaborations across disciplines, practices and experiences. More on cafx.dk.