The 2025 REELpoetry International Poetry Film Festival is coming your way, starting March 31 and ending April 12. We’re excited to announce a new festival format, expanding our online programming to highlight national and international screenings. You’ll see juried submissions from across America plus thirteen countries worldwide. The online line-up will also include invited curators and festival directors from Austria, Ireland, Mexico, England, and America presenting special, themed programs. And, for the very first time, we also have some wonderfully imaginative poetry videos submitted by young creatives 18 and under.

For all you lovers of shorts and foreign films, this festival is both! Our films and videos are all less than six minutes in length but pack a powerful punch. These are shorts that have poetry in their words as well as beautiful, poetic imagery. We also offer cutting-edge work that deals with life in the raw, or that experiments with the footage as being its art form.

Foreign entries include work from Belgium, Canada, England, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Japan, Latvia, Mexico, Portugal, Romania, Spain, and all have translations. Many of these juried entries are U.S. and world premieres!

With new, expanded programming comes an expanded REELcafe, hosted by festival director, Fran Sanders. This is where filmmakers, poets, videographers, viewers, curators, creatives submission judges, old friends, and new get together in real-time to meet, talk, and network, every day. We’ll talk about what you’ve just seen, about what you’re doing now, ideas, questions, thoughts, whatever is on your mind. It will be great to see you there!

Saturday, April 12, we’ll be live and in-person, featuring poets and filmmakers from Houston and Texas in attendance, including the current Texas Poet Laureate among others. These programs include original collaborations, readings, interviews and performances by over twenty artists!

Schedule

MONDAY, March 31

1:00 PM & 7:00 PM

"Video Jukebox"  View

presented by Eleanor Livingstone (Scotland)

1:30 PM & 7:30 PM

"Screening Texas Poets"

curated by Pam Falkenberg & Jack Cochran

2:30 PM & 8:30 PM

"REELcafe"

hosted by Fran Sanders

TUESDAY, April 1

1:00 PM & 7:00 PM

Juried Submissions View list

1:30 PM & 7:30 PM

"Motionpoems Retrospective (Part 1)"

curated by Todd Boss

2:30 PM & 8:30 PM

"REELcafe"

hosted by Fran Sanders

WEDNESDAY, April 2

1:00 PM & 7:00 PM

Juried Submissions View list

1:30 PM & 7:30 PM

"Ó Bhéal Poetry Film Competition Winners 2013-2024"

curated by Paul Casey (Ireland)

2:30 PM & 8:30 PM

"REELcafe"

hosted by Fran Sanders

THURSDAY, April 3

1:00 PM & 7:00 PM

Juried Submissions View list

1:30 PM & 7:30 PM

"Fotogenia - A Showcase"

curated by Chris Pacheco (Mexico)

2:30 PM & 8:30 PM

"REELcafe"

hosted by Fran Sanders

FRIDAY, April 4

1:00 PM & 7:00 PM

Juried Submissions View list

1:30 PM & 7:30 PM

"The Neo-Primitive Underground Videopoetry Aesthetic: Matt Mullins Mulls His Over"

presented by Matt Mullins (USA)

2:30 PM & 8:30 PM

"REELcafe"

hosted by Fran Sanders

SATURDAY, April 5

1:00 PM & 7:00 PM

Juried Submissions: Creative Youth View list

1:15 PM & 7:15 PM

"Motionpoems Retrospective (Part 2)"

curated by Todd Boss

2:30 PM & 8:30 PM

"REELcafe"

hosted by Fran Sanders

SUNDAY, April 6

1:00 PM & 7:00 PM

Juried Submissions View list

1:30 PM & 7:30 PM

"Sound Decisions: from minimalist to maximalist in poetry film soundscapes"

presented by Janet Lees (England)

2:30 PM & 8:30 PM

"REELcafe"

hosted by Fran Sanders

MONDAY, April 7

1:00 PM & 7:00 PM

Juried Submissions View list

1:30 PM & 7:30 PM

"The Cinema of Thoughts"

presented by Mersolis Schöne

2:30 PM & 8:30 PM

"REELcafe"

hosted by Fran Sanders

TUESDAY, April 8

1:00 PM & 7:00 PM View list

All Juried Submissions

All Day -- Midnight

You Vote for Audience Choice Awards in each category

WEDNESDAY, April 9

1:00 PM & 7:00 PM View list

Screening All Winners, Finalists & Honorable Mentions

2:00 PM & 8:00 PM

Online Festival Conclusion & Thanks

SATURDAY, April 12

12:30 PM: Doors Open

12:45 PM: Opening Remarks

Host: Võ ??c Quang

1:00 - 2:00 PM: Screening Texas Poets

Outlier Moving Pictures (Pam Falkenberg and Jack Cochran) and in partnership with 4 Texas poets

2:00 - 2:15 PM: Break

Bathrooms are located downstairs and in Strake Hall. Refreshments are available.

2:15 - 3:15 PM: "Young Creatives" Writers in the Schools (WITS) segment

Outspoken Bean will present filmpoems created by WITS students.

3:15 - 4:00 PM: Location Houston

Raneem Bakir Alia (Ranyah) and 10 Houston filmmakers and poets will showcase films highlighting distinctive aspects of the city.

4:00 - 4:30 PM: Conclusion

Buy Tickets

Date: March 31 - April 12, 2025

Location: Online

In-Person: University of St. Thomas, Jones Hall

3910 Yoakum Houston TX 77006

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