The ninth Riga International Film Festival (RIGA IFF) announces the first of its upcoming competitions from this year’s festival. The BALTIC MUSIC VIDEO screening will take place in person at Splendid Palace on 21 October with the participation of musicians and filmmakers. The competition returns to the festival programme after a year’s break and this screening promises to be one of the most unusual and unrestrained events of the festival. 18 music videos from the Baltic States will be competing for the RIGA IFF Silver Grass Snake award and a cash prize of 1,000 EUR.

The BALTIC MUSIC VIDEO competition, where the best music videos from the past few years are evaluated, is a unique event in the Baltics. The programme gives musicians and filmmakers an opportunity to meet, make new connections regionally, and gain valuable insights from the members of the jury. Viewers, on the other hand, can experience a format in which music and images create a unique interplay in the grandest cinema in Riga.

The competition is a special experience where audiences can see music videos on the big screen together with other viewers, musicians, and the creators of the videos. The screening is complemented by conversations between the creators and the jury, which gives the audience the opportunity to learn about the behind-the-scenes work that goes into making a music video. The videos selected for the programme represent a wide variety of musical genres and visual languages, but they are united by their cinematic ambition, their willingness to experiment, and their constant search for new audiovisual ways of expression.

The 2022 competition includes videos from Latvian bands alejas, Laika suns, +K+M+B, The Coco’nuts, and The Sound Poets, as well as audiovisual experiences from rapper ansis, Elizabete Balčus, and Sabine Moore’s project “Waterflower”. The full programme can be found on our homepage.

This year’s entries will be judged by a highly qualified jury of international experts: Arnaud Dumatin, Co-Manager of the La Rochelle Film Festival (FEMA) and musician in the band Institut; Vidmantas Čepkauskas, Creative Director of the internationally renowned electronic music clubs Opium Club and Gallery 1986 in Vilnius; Katrīna Neiburga, whose video works and installations have received international acclaim and who has participated in the Venice Biennale; filmmaker Adam Donen, who is known for his holographic works, including for Kanye West; and Finnish film and advertising director, producer, curator and film critic Otto Kylmälä, who has extensive experience in being on short film and music video juries.