Festival Internacional de documentários Visões do Mar (1)

Festival start: 17 November 2025      Festival end: 22 November 2025

Visões do Mar – Niterói International Documentary Festival is an event dedicated to the screening, reflection, and celebration of documentaries that explore the relationships between the oceans, coastal communities, identity, and culture within traditional ways of life connected to the sea.

The first edition will take place from November 17 to 22, 2025, in various cultural venues across the city of Niterói (RJ), Brazil.

1. OBJECTIVES
Festival goals:

Promote documentary cinema as a tool for social and environmental transformation;

Highlight the role of artisanal extractive communities as guardians of coastal biomes;

Give visibility to diverse narratives about the sea, its urgencies, cosmovisions, and the territories that depend on it;

Encourage the production and circulation of Latin American documentaries focused on socio-environmental justice.

2. TRAINING ACTIVITIES
As a core commitment of Visões do Mar, we will carry out a series of educational activities with both audiovisual students from Niterói’s public schools and professional filmmakers from the city.

School Screenings
Mediated screenings for public school students, promoting dialogue on environmental education and coastal cultures.

Documentary Lab – Niterói-Based Filmmakers
Exclusive training for audiovisual professionals from Niterói:

Project Development

Pitching and Project Presentation

Distribution with Social Impact

Application Period: June 30 to August 30, 2025.

Film Requirements:
Works completed from January 2022 onwards;

Short films (up to 30 minutes), medium-length (31 to 60 minutes), and feature-length films (over 60 minutes);

Themes related to the oceans, coastal communities, the sea as a sacred space, and traditional ways of life;

National and international works (with Portuguese subtitles).

General Submission Rules:
Submissions are free of charge.


All information provided is the sole responsibility of the applicant.

Up to 200 valid submissions will be accepted; after reaching this limit, submissions will be closed.

Films must be submitted via a link (with a password, if needed).

The password must remain active and correct until the end of the submission period.

Each film must be submitted separately.

The applicant declares they have all legal authorizations (image rights, audio, soundtrack, etc.).

Films not spoken in Portuguese must include Portuguese subtitles embedded in the video or provided in VTT/SRT subtitle files.

2. SELECTION PROCESS
The selection committee will consist of audiovisual professionals, researchers, and community leaders, who will evaluate the films based on the following criteria:

Technical and artistic quality;

Social and environmental relevance;

Representation of underrepresented groups and territories;

Originality of the approach;

Potential to engage with the festival audience.

Procedures:

Selected applicants will be notified by email.

Films must be sent with promotional material within 10 business days of notification.

Files must be transferred via a link provided by the festival organizers.

The film copy must not exceed 5 GB.

Failure to submit within the deadline will result in disqualification.

The festival may use excerpts from the films and/or trailers for promotional purposes on social media.

3. RESULTS AND SCREENINGS
The list of selected films will be published by September 15, 2025.

Filmmakers must send the screening materials according to the deadlines and technical specifications provided.


4. GENERAL CONDITIONS
Submission to the festival implies full acceptance of this regulation.

Applicants authorize the screening of their film during the event and the use of images for promotional purposes.

The festival is not responsible for issues with submitted files.

Any cases not covered in these regulations will be decided by the festival organizers.