On 19 October, one of the most unconventional events of the Riga International Film Festival (RIGA IFF) will take place at the Splendid Palace cinema – the Baltic Music Video Competition. This screening will bring together the audience with musicians and filmmakers. 16 music videos from the Baltics will compete for an award and a prize of EUR 1,000 at RIGA IFF, and will be judged by a jury of five professionals from the music, film, and creative industries.

The RIGA IFF Baltic Music Video Competition is a unique event in the Baltic States for which the most outstanding music videos of the past year have been selected. It is an opportunity for musicians and filmmakers to meet and make new connections in the region and gain valuable insights from the jury members. For the viewers, it is a chance to experience a film format that serves as a platform for experimentation, redefines what is possible, and reveals unexpected interactions between image and music.

The competition screening will provide a unique experience – a chance to enjoy music videos on the big screen in Riga’s most beautiful cinema, together with other audience members, musicians and the filmmakers. The experience will be complemented by conversations with the creators and the jury, giving a glimpse behind the scenes of making music videos. The films in the section represent a wide variety of musical genres and visual forms, but are united by a cinematic ambition and an unrestrained desire to experiment, in this way finding new means and formulas of audiovisual expression.

From big budget to completely no budget, from large teams to projects made with very limited resources, the 2023 Baltic Music Video Competition features videos by Latvian bands alejas, P.S. PMS, Sudden Lights and The Ofiss, as well as the visualisations of compositions by Ūga, Fiņķis and Patrisha. The competition programme will also feature a music video by Latvian artist Katrīna Neiburga for a single from Danish band MØR, as well as works from Estonian and Lithuanian filmmakers, including last year’s winners, punktò, and director Jonas Šarkus. The full competition programme can be found on the festival’s website: rigaiff.lv/bmvc.

This year’s entries will be judged by a jury of five experts: the Latvian publicist, screenwriter and film director Liene Linde,  a cultural events and music group manager Dovilė Butnoriūtė from Lithuania who has worked at the Lithuanian Film Centre developing the distribution, visibility, and programming and exhibition of Lithuanian films abroad, and Mārtiņš Mielavs, a culture and entertainment events organiser and producer. The jury will also include Latvian music critic, media expert and member of several award-winning musical projects Jānis Žilde as well as Sander Joon, an Estonian animation director whose short film Sierra won an award at the SHORT RIGA Test Screenings in 2021 and qualified for the The Academy Awards last year.

Tickets for the special screening of the Baltic Music Video Competition on 19 October at 21:00 in the Large Hall of Splendid Palace, as well as for other screenings of the tenth edition of RIGA IFF can be purchased on the festival website rigaiff.lv and at Biļešu serviss box offices.

Celebrating its tenth anniversary from 12 to 22 October, RIGA IFF will present a curated selection of internationally acclaimed feature and short films that highlight current trends in cinema and introduce audiences to key contemporary filmmakers. Created by a team of professional local and international curators, the programme will be screened over 11 days in the Splendid Palace cinema and the Forum Cinemas multiplex in Riga, and a selection of the films will also be available online throughout Latvia. A programme of events for industry professionals and public events for the general public will also take place in parallel to the screenings.

RIGA IFF’s main partner is the media and technology company Tet. The festival is supported by the State Culture Capital Foundation, the EU programme Creative Europe MEDIA, Riga City Council, and the National Film Centre.