Science of Film: Science Art Cinema Film Festival Announces Call For Submissions (Festival Press Release)

Winning short films will be chosen by esteemed jurors.
Screening to take place on April 27, 2017.

MIAMI – November 2016 – The Science Art Cinema Film Festival, presented by the Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science, announced the first-ever edition will be held on April 27, 2017 at the museum’s Frost Planetarium in downtown Miami’s Museum Park. The festival is seeking submissions through February 14, 2017 for both short science and science fiction films influenced by art, as well as short art films influenced by science and science fiction. The call is open to both fiction and non-fiction efforts as well as live action and animation. The program is designed to provide emerging, mid-career, and established filmmakers with an opportunity to share their work in a unique environment. In addition, the festival is also inviting high school students in Miami-Dade County to submit their work that will be judged in a separate category.

Submissions will be reviewed by a jury of science and art professionals that include actor, director and producer, Christian Slater; Filmgate Miami Executive Director, Diliana Alexander; University of Miami Psychology Professor, Dr. Elizabeth Losin; Miami Film Festival Executive Director, Jaie Laplante; co-founder of Obsolete Media Miami (O.M.M.), Barron Sherer; Frost Science Curator of Astronomy and Exhibition Developer, Dr. Jorge Peréz Gallego; and Frost Science Art and Collection Manager, Kevin Arrow.

“I grew up watching Carl Sagan’s Cosmos and movies like Close Encounters of the Third Kind while falling both for science and science fiction. Science has always been a deep well for the imaginations of filmmakers, all while technology has advanced the quality of the art of filmmaking. The Science Art Cinema Film Festival mixes science and art in a unique way and allows filmmakers the opportunity to showcase their work in an incredible environment,” said Dr. Jorge Perez-Gallego, Frost Science Curator of Astronomy and Exhibition Developer. “As the first festival of its kind in South Florida and one of the first events to be held in the new Frost Science Planetarium, this is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

A 2014 winner of the South Florida Knight Arts Challenge and presented by Frost Science, Science Art Cinema is a popular event series supported by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The innovative program was designed to celebrate science and art through the lens of film, specifically 16mm motion pictures along with newly commissioned films. The films are shown in unusual spaces and are then enhanced with performances, guest speakers and multimedia presentations. Now on its fourth chapter, the program’s first season is culminating in the Science Art Cinema Film Festival. The first in the series, Science Art Cinema #1: Lasers, took place in August 2015 at the museum’s now-closed Coconut Grove location and focused on the many uses of lasers, from medical technology, to holograms and light shows. Science Art Cinema #2: Fear took place in October 2015 at the de la Cruz Collection and focused on fear and how it affects the human brain. Science Art Cinema #3: Experiment at the Pérez Art Museum Miami featured a series of shortexperimental films by Stan Brakhage with musical entr’actes by composer and artist, Gustavo Matamoros. Science Art Cinema has been featured on Vice’s The Creators Project, Miami New Times, The Miami Herald, Sun-Sentinel and more.