Bendita Tú FESTIVAL INTERNACIONAL DE CINE (8)

Festival start: 17 October 2025      Festival end: 19 October 2025

Bendita Tú is an international short film festival that promotes experimental, hybrid, and video essay cinema with a gender and queer perspective. Based in Argentina and Spain, the festival creates a space for encounter and dialogue to give visibility to emerging cinema within a diversity of identities and territories.

In its 8th edition, the festival chooses the Land as its central theme, a concept that opens the door to multiple meanings. It is, at the same time, the planet we inhabit and the soil that sustains life, as well as a network of relationships where the human and the non-human intertwine in a web of interdependence. From a poetic and broad perspective, the Land is conceived as a medium that evokes displacements, migrations, and diasporas, but also as a ground laden with scents, textures, and memories, where the organic and the inorganic merge. As Gaston Bachelard (1994) said, “the Land is a memory that can be touched,” an idea that gives it both sensory and symbolic resonances, transforming it into a space of reinvention, mourning, and resistance.

The festival proposes a dialogue around the interconnections situated in relation to this element. From indigenous worldviews, which understand the world as a living and sacred being (Shiva, 2005), to contemporary approaches that highlight the agency of the non-human (Bennett, 2010), with the aim of reflecting on how the Land territorializes and, at the same time, territorializes us, redefining notions of belonging and home in a context marked by profound geological and atmospheric transformations.

Entities considered “non-living” —the substrate, stones, sand— emerge as fundamental actors in narratives of displacement. As Ingold (2011) suggests, “life does not occur on the Land, but within its folds and textures.” Thus, through diverse audiovisual approaches, this edition is an invitation to feel the thickness of the Land, to listen to its multiple voices, and to recognize that, even in the most distant grounds, there are traces of life that connect us with other beings and with other temporalities, acknowledging that we are part of a constant flow of lives and materials that precede and will succeed us.

The 8th edition will feature a selection of short films included in the Official Competition and the Roots Section.

Best Short Film 2025

PARTICIPANTS

All individuals who self-identify as women, trans, and non-binary from any country in the world and appear in the director role of the submitted short film. In the case of works directed by more than one person, at least 50% must self-identify as women, trans, or non-binary.


PARTICIPATION REQUIREMENTS

- All works must be submitted through the enabled platforms*. Only pieces completed after January 1, 2024, will be accepted.

- The duration must not exceed 25 minutes (including credits).

- A maximum of (1) work per person will be accepted.

- All works must include a private link and password for viewing.

- The works must be unpublished and not commercially exhibited on television or publicly distributed online.

- All works whose original language is not Spanish must be subtitled in english, including those in english. All selected works must provide the festival organization with subtitles in Spanish and english. Otherwise, the film may be disqualified.

- Selected authors will be asked for (1) copy of the film in one of the following formats for screening: ProRes HQ & H.264.

- Works previously submitted to the festival and/or selected in previous editions will not be accepted.

- Music videos or advertising spots will not be accepted.

- Minors under 18 must include the name and contact information of a parent or guardian in the registration form.

*The official platforms enabled for submission are Festhome.


REGISTRATION FEES

All short films must pay a non-refundable registration fee of 5 USD.



TECHNICAL DATA

Each submitted work must be accompanied by the following information:

- Original title and english title
- Director’s first and last name
- Year of production
- duration
- Brief synopsis
- 4 still images from the film
- Film poster
- Photo of the director(s)
- Brief bio-filmography of the author(s)
- Private online link and password for the short film
- .srt file of subtitles in Spanish
- .srt file of subtitles in english
- Downloadable trailer or clip


LEGAL TERMS

Registration in Bendita Tú implies acceptance of the terms and conditions presented here, whose interpretation and application correspond to the festival organization.

After accepting the invitation, films cannot be withdrawn from the program. The decisions of the Selection Committee will be final.

Bendita Tú informs participants that all personal data provided by users will be treated in accordance with Organic Law 3/2018, of December 5, on the Protection of Personal Data and guarantee of digital rights.

The rights holder of the short film authorizes the free reproduction of images and excerpts (maximum 1 minute) of their short film in press, television, and publications for the promotion of each showcase.

Participating filmmakers assume authorship of their works and commit to not presenting audiovisual, phonographic, musical, or image materials for which they do not have duly accredited usage rights. The organization is not responsible for the improper use of intellectual property rights by the authors of the works.

The organization reserves the right to adapt the festival to an online format, and acceptance of these terms implies the consent of the authors.




REGISTRATION deadline

The registration deadline is July 31, 2025, at 23:59 (11:59 PM) Central European Summer Time (CEST) inclusive.

Selected films will be announced via email and on our social media no later than September 24, 2025. We may not be able to notify applicants whose submitted films were not selected for the festival program.

For any questions regarding the participation guidelines, please consult our website www.benditatu.com** or send an email to: benditatufestival@gmail.com.