The theme of the 13th Imagine Science Film Festival is "MIGRATION"
Pathogens are currently migrating from animals to humans The flight of the arctic tern, the multi-generational travels of the monarch butterfly, the return of eels to the streams they hatched in. The arduous journeys of displaced peoples. Data systems in flux. The complex movements of cells, from embryonic origins to developed organisms. This year we seek MIGRATIONS of all kinds.
Though this subject is the special focus of this year's festival, we'll also be accepting films of any and all other genres, methodologies, and subjects, as always.
2020 SUBMISSIONS NOW OPEN!
Propelled by a movement led by working scientists in 2008 to broaden how science is depicted in media, the Imagine Science Film Festival is committed to promoting a high-level dialogue between scientists and filmmakers. But not only through the usual channels -- where many other science film outlets focus on classic televsion-style documentary or science fiction, ISFF radically expands the conversation and reaches diverse audiences through a blend of inventive documentaries, thought-provoking scientific fiction, data and visualizations straight from the labs, and stunning experimental film. The resulting hybrid programming defies preconceived notions and provides a unique forum for new ideas and interdisciplinary collaboration, as well as some of the finest filmmaking in the world. The festival also actively cultivates forward-thinking scientific cinema through annual Symbiosis competitions challenging scientists and filmmakers to work together to create groundbreaking new work.
The festival takes places at science and art venues around New York city. This year, we will be partnering with these same organizations but we will be virtual, expanding our feature and shorts programming to serve an audience hungry for better scientific communication in today's world.
Our feature selections are divided into three categories:
- Science New Wave: films that propose singular and hybrid ways to tell scientific stories
- Spotlights: films that are timely and take risks on understanding the landscape of current world affairs.
- Retroactive: films that are timeless where the past inform the present and future and all other permutations of past, present and future are equally important.
All of our films, fiction or documentary, are eligible for several awards, with cash prizes, including
- Scientific Story Award: awarded to the film that best portrays credible science in a narrative context.
- Scientist Award : awarded to a film, made by or about a scientist, that accurately portrays a scientist's life and work in a realistic and human way.
- De Novo Award : awarded to the film that thinks outside of the (science) box