This Week: Enjoy ESMoA's Video Art + Film Festival Online From Your Home

Looking for a little stimulation and inspiration to round out your week? Check out the 2020 ESMoA Video Art + Film Festival, screening online this week until Saturday, December 5. (You can even vote for your favorites through the rest of today, Thursday, December 3!)

Established in 2017, the ESMoA Video Art + Film Festival is a free international festival inviting filmmakers of all ages and backgrounds to submit 60-second films centered on a theme. This year, the Festival’s theme is “rise up."

Curator Eugenia Torre reported that ESMoA received more than 520 film submissions from 68 countries. "2020 has been a challenging year in so many ways," she said. "The pandemic, the following economic challenges, and the social injustice. It was fascinating to see how the quarantine and lockdown – a common condition in all over the world – has stimulated the creativity of all these excellent directors. Each of them found a way to express the troubling feelings and found a way to rise up."

The ESMoA Video Art + Film Festival includes videos from three categories: Animation, Film, and Video Art. Torre pre-selected the semifinalist videos that best represented “rise up” and shared them with a jury panel made up of "arts and cultural makers" from El Segundo and Los Angeles. The jury met on Zoom in November to select the finalists – 11 in each of the three categories – whose work is featured during this week's screening. The jury then selected winners for each category, and audiences are encouraged to vote for their favorites, too. (Deadline to vote is today!) The 2020 Award was designed by Los Angeles based artist Cole M. James, and the official 2020 Video Art + Film Festival: RISEUP poster was designed by Los Angeles-based artist Veronica Velazquez.

More information and the online screening page are here. Enjoy!