University of Salford | Experimental Fiction Filmmaking Conference
The third Experimental Fiction Filmmaking Conference aims to explore and define the boundaries of Experimental Fiction Filmmaking (EFF) by bringing together practice-as-research (PaR) academics, film scholars, industry professionals and independent filmmakers for a series of workshops, presentations and screenings.
Film fiction continues to be a form of storytelling under constant development, whether in terms of exploration of film’s unique audio-visual possibilities of expression and communication, or new processes afforded to filmmakers through changing cultural and technological contexts. Therefore, film fiction can benefit from new conceptualisations of storytelling that are rooted both in the specificity of film as a medium, and the way different contexts and processes might be brought to film anew. Practice-as-research in film is a useful approach to developing such new conceptual approaches.
Some of the questions that the INEFF Conference hopes to address include but are not limited to:
- What are the creative possibilities and boundaries of experimental fiction filmmaking?
- Which processes of collaboration can inform novel and meaningful experimental fiction film outputs?
- How might new technology shape new narrative fiction forms?
- How might experimental fiction filmmaking lead to novel modes of critical engagement and interpretation?
- How might we define Experimental Fiction Filmmaking?
INEFF 2025 aims to continue the conversations from previous iterations of the conference.
Proposals may consider ways in which an experimental fiction film practice:
- Invents new filmic concepts and processes.
- Offers emancipation through the disruption of taken-for-granted industry norms and standards.
- Redefines the grammar of film.
- Subverts established narrative conventions of cinema, and privileges the emergence of spontaneous moments and structures over prefigured narratives.
- Privileges care and collaboration over power and hierarchies.
- Mobilises theory into practice.
- Is a termite art form, which privileges aesthetic innovation over the gloss of perfection.
- Plays with duration and running time in ways that sit between the traditions of short film and the feature.
- Operates as an independent or low-budget art form. How might we reconsider crew roles and responsibilities?
We also welcome proposals that seek to expand understanding of EFF in directions that are not articulated in the prompts above.
We welcome proposals for PaR statements (1000-2000 words) accompanied by audio-visual practice and/or documentation, short papers (2500-3500 words), workshops or performances (up to 30 minutes) and installations (negotiable).
PaR statements and papers will be published on the INEFF.org website ahead of the event, and will inform a five-minute live verbal summary as part of a thematic panel, followed by a critical discussion during the event. Where relevant, the accompanying practice will be included in a dedicated screening during the event ahead of the thematic panel, and, with your permission, can also be included on the website alongside your statement.
Proposal submission deadline: Monday 31 March
Please submit your proposal here: https://forms.gle/bUiK8CpahhdT8Tz27
Submission of full statements and papers (upon proposal acceptance) by Monday 16 June
Conference in MediaCityUK, Manchester: 17 and 18 July 2025