The 14 Best Music Video Festivals In The World!

We're celebrating festivals where music video is centre stage or has a particularly prestigious place in the festival. Here’s our guide to festivals featuring music video innovators, music video Best of the Best, brand new music video talent and some air guitar championships thrown in for free.

OneDotZero
London, UK
Hailed as visionaries, OneDotZero showcase the absolute best of new digital film and animation and go on constant tour around the world. Curated*
www.onedotzero.com

SXSW Film early March
Austin, America
The SXSW Film, started in 1994, is an essential part of the prestigious SXSW Festival, showcasing music videos, shorts and indie features. It’s also a great opportunity for label networking and you can book mentor sessions too.
Entry deadline beginning of December. Submission fee $25 - $35, has Festival Awards.
http://2008.sxsw.com/film/ and submissions seem easiest via www.myspace.com/sxsw

Bug Bi-monthly
NFT London, UK
Super-cool showcase of the best new music videos from around the world and Adam Buxton interviews hot directors every show. It’s started selling out within days of tickets going on sale. Curated*
Best way to keep up is through their FaceBook group http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6071871255

Spark Festival of Electronic Music and Arts February - March
Minnesota, America
A festival for arty, experimental music video, artists, composers and for those who like to debate about digital music and media. Loads of screenings, performances, panel discussions.
Entry deadline October
http://spark.cla.umn.edu

NXNE mid June
Toronto, Canada
NXNE film festival and conference started in 1995. As well as doing their own promotion of music videos, they host the Indie Music Video Festival (see below), probably the best way into this festival for new MV filmmakers
www.nxne.com

Indie Music Video Festival
Canada and America
Founded in 2002, IMVF is a large touring festival dedicated to international independent music video, leaning heavily toward unsigned/DIY bands and visiting locations across Canada and America.
Entry deadlines Feb/Mar/Apr and submission fees $10 - $20
www.imvf.com

Oulu Music Video Festival, late August
Oulu, Finland
International but with a distinctly Finnish bent, the unusual Oulu Music Video Festival is now in its 15th year of promoting music films and videos. It also incorporates the air guitar world championships.
Entry deadline February, submission free, has Festival Awards with prizes.
www.omvf.net/EN/home.html

Sonar Festival mid June
Barcelona, Spain
“The world’s most important electronic music festival” This notable annual festival of progressive music and multimedia arts also goes on tour. Curated*
www.sonar.es (be prepared for it to crash your browser)

FilmPop at PopMontreal early October
Montreal, Canada
Pop Montreal launched in 2002 and quickly became one of the coolest music festivals on the circuit. Film Pop became a feature the year after, presenting music videos, shorts and independent cinema. Call for submissions to be announced.
http://popmontreal.com/film/en

Mirrorball June
Edinburgh, UK
Mirrorball is the cutting edge music video strand of the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Shows cool videos from across the world with a focus on UK, US and Japan. Curated*
http://www.edfilmfest.org.uk/films and search ’mirrorball’

Rushes Soho Shorts July/August
London, UK
Established for 10 years, rewarding the very best in international music video, showcasing low budget classics through to high end masterpieces
Entry deadline April, no fee, has Festival Awards
http://www.sohoshorts.com

No Exit Music Video Festival
New Jersey, America
Another festival with a heavy leaning towards unsigned bands, No Exit Music Video Festival is billed as the largest Music Video festival on America’s East Coast. Now in its third year, the 2008 festival dates are to be announced
Entry deadline July, submission fee $25, Festival first prize $500
www.noexitfest.com

MOFFOM October
Prague, Czech Republic
Music on Film - Film on Music is a large, internationally respected festival just entering its fifth year. It features 20-30 music videos in its wide ranging programme of music-y films.
Entry deadline March, submission free, has Festival Awards with prizes.
www.moffom.org

The Radar Festival January
London, UK
Of course! The festival promotes the best videos submitted to its website and competitions over the previous year.
No deadlines, the website opens for entries early March. Submission fee is included in the membership fee. Has Festival Awards with prizes.
www.RadarMusicVideos.com

*Curated indicates someone at the festival is out looking for good videos, as well as or instead of watching submitted videos.
For a list of websites that one or other curator is probably monitoring, look out for the next article from RadarMusicVideos: ‘Best Music Video Websites’

Small print. Check websites for more specific dates. If there are other festivals out there who you think should be on this list, especially ones outside Europe, Canada and America, please do let us know