Festival Internacional De Cine De Derechos Humanos - Ficdh (21)

Festival start: 11 June 2025      Festival end: 18 June 2025

FICDH is a cultural project that invites people to discover how cinema can raise awareness and commitment to the defence of human rights. Founded in 1997, it is a space open to the exhibition and dissemination of recent audiovisual productions that promote inclusion, equality, multiculturalism and respect for diversity.

In 2025, the 21st FICDH focuses on the concept of BORDERS, conceived not only as geographical or political limits, but as spaces of struggle, resistance and redefinition of power relations. In this sense, the festival focuses on how borders, in their multiplicity and expansion, are spaces where the dynamics of domination, exploitation and dispossession are intensified, but also on how they are, at the same time, the territories where the resistance and struggles of peoples are born.

Competencia Oficial de Largometrajes Internacionales

Competencia Oficial de Corto y Mediometrajes

Competencia Oficial de Documentales Latinoamericanos

OPEN CALL 2025
21st International Human Rights Film Festival [FICDH]
Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, Argentina

The DerHumALC Multimedia Institute (IMD) is pleased to announce to national and international filmmakers, producers and distributors that the call for submissions for the 21st International Human Rights Film Festival [FICDH] will be open from December 16, 2024 to February 16, 2025. The Festival, of a competitive nature, will be held in person, from June 11 to 18, 2025 in the City of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The official program will be announced during the month of May 2025.

This year, the 21st FICDH focuses on the concept of BORDERS, not only as a geographical or political limit, but as a space of struggle, resistance and redefinition of power relations. The festival focuses on how borders, in their multiplicity and expansion, are spaces where the dynamics of domination, exploitation and dispossession are intensified, but also on how they are, at the same time, the territories where resistance and struggles of peoples are born. In this space we propose to address how these border struggles, often associated with issues of life or death, are the key to understanding global transformations and contemporary forms of resistance. Through cinema and critical reflection, the festival invites us to think of the border as an obstacle but above all as a place of possibility to reimagine and reconfigure the world, questioning narratives of exclusion and proposing new forms of justice and equity.

RULES AND CONDITIONS

1 | DATES
The 21st edition of the International Human Rights Film Festival [FICDH], will be held in person, from June 11 to 18, 2025 in the City of Buenos Aires.

Films covering human rights issues, completed on or after January 1, 2024, may participate in the competition.

2 | PURPOSE OF THE FESTIVAL
The objective of the International Human Rights Film Festival is to present the most outstanding productions that cover all human rights issues from multiple and original points of view, promoting critical cinema that contributes to social transformation.

3 | SECTIONS AND ANNUAL FOCUS OF THE FESTIVAL
The OFFICIAL COMPETITION will be divided into:

Official Competition of International Feature Films.

Official Competition of International Short and Medium-length Films.

Official Competition of Latin American Documentaries.

The NON-COMPETITIVE SECTIONS of the Festival are the following:

Childhood and youth
Environment
Memory
Gender and diversity
Indigenous peoples
Freedom of expression
Inequalities
Discrimination
Migrants

The curatorial team may add or modify sections as required by the programming.

The twenty-first edition of the FICDH focuses on the concept of BORDERS, addressing from the physical borders that separate countries to the invisible borders of genders, classes or ethnicities. This FICDH seeks to make visible and reflect on the disputes that arise when bodies, identities and rights are marked, questioned or denied by the imposed limits.

4 | PARTICIPATION AND REGISTRATION
National or international works of a documentary or fiction nature, experimental, animation, video clips, works in progress, web series and new audiovisual formats, referring to any human rights issue in its broadest sense, may participate. Films or videos sponsored by commercial companies that, due to their content, are advertising vehicles for the same, may not participate.

Although the festival prioritizes works that have not been exhibited and premiered in Buenos Aires for its general selection, the programming team will evaluate each case to make the corresponding decisions.

The person responsible for each selected film undertakes to inform the Festival before March 31, 2025 of any screening planned in the City of Buenos Aires before and during the Festival. Each particular situation will be evaluated by the Festival team and may determine the inclusion or exclusion of said film in the final programming.

The act of registration automatically grants the Festival the right to the free, non-profit use of fragments extracted from the work for a maximum duration of 3 (three) minutes for the promotional dissemination of the Festival on TV, social networks, or other communication media, both during the Festival and on the occasion of subsequent exhibitions or events.

5 | REQUESTED MATERIAL
The registration form, duly completed in all its parts by the owner of the film rights before February 16, 2025. The registration form will be available on the following website ficdh.imd.org.ar/inscripcion/. A digital copy of the application will be automatically sent to the festival team. Sending it constitutes acceptance of all the regulations and rules described therein.

The link to the film for online viewing with the corresponding password (Vimeo, YouTube, or any other similar platform). The link will only be used by the Programming team for the selection process and must be available without modifications until April 30, 2025. It will not be distributed or disclosed.
All press and promotional material, posters, postcards and presskits available must be sent by email to programacion@imd.org.ar

Material that arrives at a later date will not be evaluated by the Preselection Committee.

Submissions by COURRIER OR PRIVATE MAIL ARE NOT ACCEPTED. The Festival will not be responsible for any possible retentions or additional costs that may be incurred by submissions made by this means.

6 | SELECTION
The Selection Committee reserves the right to select the films to be programmed at the Festival, to place them in the sections, competitive or not, and to programme them as many times as it deems appropriate.

The authors of the selected works will be notified with sufficient time to send a screening copy in exhibition format and quality, in order to improve the screening of the same. The exhibition formats will be digital and in the case of in-person screenings, DCP may be chosen (after consultation).
The presentation of any other format requires special authorization from the Festival.

Once a work has been selected and the director, producer or any other contact established in the registration form cannot be contacted, the festival will have the right to project the selection screener if its quality is considered optimal.

Once selected, no film may be withdrawn from the programme during the competition.

7 | TRANSLATIONS
The films are screened in their original language. If the original language is other than Spanish, it will be screened with Spanish subtitles only. It will be the responsibility of each production to provide the festival with a high-quality copy with embedded Spanish subtitles, or failing that, a clean copy of the same and a .srt file of the Spanish subtitle already synchronized with it.

If the film has audio description for blind people or descriptive subtitles for hard of hearing people, please notify this on the registration form.

8 | JURIES AND AWARDS
The Jury will be composed of qualified professionals outside the Festival organization. All Juries may also award Special Mentions if they consider it pertinent, which in no case may be more than three. Other eventual awards and mentions will be announced during the Festival. Those persons who have interests in the production and/or exploitation of the films presented in Competition may not be part of the Jury. The votes of the Jury will be secret, and the decisions must be adopted unanimously.

9 | COSTS, SHIPPING AND RETURNS
Registration to the Festival is free.

If the screening copies do not arrive before the deadline of April 20, 2025, the screening will not take place. This deadline is mandatory.
Registration to this non-profit Festival, with mostly free or very cheap tickets, DOES NOT PROVIDE FOR THE PAYMENT OF A FEE BY THE ORGANIZATION. In the event that an international distributor requires it, the programming team can evaluate exceptions according to the criteria of the Artistic Direction of the Festival. Please notify in advance to programacion@imd.org.ar

10 | CATALOG, PRESS, PROMOTION
Those responsible for the films selected for any of the Official Competitions undertake to include in all their press and advertising material the phrase “Official Selection of the International Human Rights Film Festival of Argentina [FICDH]” or the Festival's list of winners.

11 | TRAVELING SHOWS
The selected films may be included, after the Festival, in non-profit traveling cycles organized throughout the year throughout the country. In the case of international shows, the programming proposal will be limited to the explicit authorization of the filmmakers.

12 | ACCEPTANCE
Participation in the 21st edition of the International Human Rights Film Festival [FICDH] implies knowledge, understanding and full acceptance of all the terms and conditions described herein. Any request for exception, doubt or conflict related to the interpretation or application of these terms will be evaluated and resolved by the Festival's organizing committee, whose decision will be final and binding on all parties involved.

13 | DATE
IMPORTANT FACTS
Opening date for applications: from December 16, 2024.

Registration deadline: until February 16, 2025 inclusive.

Submission of supplementary materials for registration: until March 15, 2025 inclusive.

Reception of screening copies: until April 30, 2025 inclusive.

Notification of selection: April 10, 2025.
Festival: June 11-18, 2025.

Follow the International Human Rights Film Festival on social media:
Instagram: @FestivalFICDH
Facebook: @FestivalFICDH
Twitter: @FestivalFICDH
YouTube: @FestivalFICDH
ficdh.imd.org.ar