The Best New Media Festivals to Apply To

New Media Festivals are a first-rate place to see some of the latest and greatest work done by peers in the interactive community. On top of that, they can provide a great opportunity for you to create, submit and show more exploratory work than you might usually focus on! In this post, we’ll take a look at a number of well-known New Media Festivals to apply to, including several which currently have open calls for submission.

Ars Electronica Festival

Website: https://ars.electronica.art/, Open calls at: https://ars.electronica.art/news/en/opencalls/
Location: Linz, Austria
Festival Dates: Usually in September. The next edition will be held from September 3-9, 2025.
When to Apply: Open calls usually start in January and end in March.

The Ars Electronica Festival, held in Linz, Austria since 1979, is one of the largest and longest running new media festivals. Since the beginning, the festival has focused on the latest developments in technology, visions of the future, and their impact on daily life.

If you’re looking to submit work to be shown at the festival, you’ll need to submit for one of the available open calls here: https://ars.electronica.art/news/en/opencalls/. Of the prizes awarded, the Prix Ars Electronica is the most famous. Ars Electronica, the institute behind the festival, gives the prestigious award yearly for work in the field of electronic and interactive art, computer animation, digital culture, and music. Winners are awarded the coveted Golden Nica, up to 10,000 euros per category, and a prominent appearance at the Ars Electronica Festival.

MUTEK Montreal

Website: https://montreal.mutek.org
Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Festival Dates: Usually held in August. The next edition will be held from August 20-25, 2025.
When to Apply: Open calls usually start in December and end in January.
Note: Typically, calls are only open to Canadian artists, Indigenous artists residing in Canada or native of the territories that we now call Canada, or Foreign artists residing in Canada. International submissions are not considered.

The MUTEK festival is well known for showcasing cutting edge electronic music and digital art. It began as a Montréal-based festival in 2000 and has since grown to encompass a larger number of events, which are now held in Montréal, Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Dubai, Mexico, Santiago and Tokyo. This year MUTEK Montréal and MUTEK Mexico celebrated 25 and 20 years respectively with unique Anniversary editions. Open calls are often limited to residents of the host country, so make sure to double check the requirements before submitting!

Bright Festival

Website: https://www.brightfestival.com/
Location: Firenze (Florence), Italy
Festival Dates: Usually held in April. The next edition will be held April 11-13, 2025.
When to Apply: Open calls usually start in December and end in January.

Bright Festival is “an international cooperation project that fosters the creativity as a means of connection between cultures and countries”. It brings together artists, institutions, enterprises and visitors through showcasing digital art, lighting design, and electronic music. Since debuting in 2019, the Bright Festival has been hosted in Leipzig, Germany as well as in Firenze (Florence), Italy, where the 2025 edition will be hosted.

CURRENTS New Media Festival

Website: https://currentsnewmedia.org/
Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico, US
Festival Dates: Usually held in June. The next edition will be held June 13-22, 2025.
When to Apply: Right now! Submissions are currently open, and will close on November 4th, 2024. See https://currentsnewmedia.org/submission-guidelines-2025/ for more info.

Debuting in Santa Fe in 2002, the CURRENTS New Media Festival is an annual festival focused on supporting the work of innovative artists working in the field of art and technology. For 2025, CURRENTS will be having three additional exhibitions along with the flagship festival. The smaller exhibitions will focus on one or two modalities of art and technology, including Sound Environments/Installations, Artist/AI Collaborations, Virtual/Augmented/Mixed Reality Environments, and Robotics/Kinetic/Electro-Mechanical Objects and Installations. Submissions are currently open, and the submission process allows for the submission of work for the festival, exhibitions, or both.

Sónar+D

Website: https://sonar.es/en
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Festival Dates: Usually held in June. The next edition will be held June 12-14, 2025.
When to Apply: Open calls start in October/November and close in January.

From the official site: “A showcase for the innovations that are shaping the future of the creative industries, Sónar+D is a platform for collaboration, experimentation, and the exploration of the latest trends in digital culture.” Sónar+D has its roots in the Sónar festival, founded in 1994, which Initially encompassed both cutting edge music and multimedia art. The festival has grown to include installations, talks, exhibitions, showcases of the latest technology, and more.

transmediale

Website: https://transmediale.de/en
Location: Berlin, Germany
Festival Dates: Usually held in late January or early February. The next edition will be held January 29 – February 2, 2025.
When to Apply: Open calls start in August/September and close in October.

From the official site: “transmediale is an annual festival bringing together international artists, researchers, thinkers, and activists, working on art, digital culture, and socio-political transformation.”

One of the longest running festivals dedicated to new media art, the transmediale traces its roots back to the VideoFilmFest founded in 1988. In the late 1990s, it shifted in focus to include internet and software-based artwork, along with the video art that it was originally associated with. The festival promotes the development of experimental approaches to digital art and culture. Each edition is focused around a central theme, which is woven through all programming, including artwork, talks, workshops, and more.

Wrap-Up

That’s a wrap! As usual, we’ve just scratched the surface of the wide variety of new media festivals out there, but the ones we have covered are some of the best. Showing work at any of them would be a great accomplishment, although of course getting the work accepted is another task in itself. As the saying goes, if it at first you don’t succeed, try, try again! And regardless of whether your work is accepted, it’s definitely still worth checking out any of the above festivals for inspiration.

For more on applying to new media festivals, check out Crystal’s What to Do When Applying to New Media Festivals post from earlier this year.