Baltic Music Video Competition

What is a music video? We raise this question every year, and every year we discover something we never thought of before. However, the essence of the answer does not change: a music video is an audiovisual event that must be experienced together. Sometimes it can be a space for bold experiments, at other times the format can reach new technical peaks and redefine the possibilities of the genre. And then there are those videos that, although they use a familiar audiovisual language, manage to say something completely unexpected. In this festival section, we want to explore and get to know this ever-changing field and the unique interaction of image and music.

The BALTIC MUSIC VIDEO Competition screening invites viewers, festival guests, filmmakers, and musicians to come together and experience music videos in all their glory and uniqueness. A screening you are sure to remember!

The BALTIC MUSIC VIDEO Competition (BMV) endeavours to uphold the belief that the music video is an independent and powerful short format in its own right. The RIGA IFF curators look for videos that challenge the audience and push the boundaries of format, contents, and artistic expression.

The screening of this programme is designed as a special event in itself – it is a lively meeting between music video creators, musicians and composers, curators, the members of the international jury, and the audience.

Entries

BMV seeks out videos that are daring, innovative, and experimental. Submissions must have been produced in Estonia, Latvia, and/or Lithuania (the origins of the music is not a criterion to the selection). Only official music videos are accepted. There are no restrictions on length. Videos must have been completed after 1 June 2023. Both the creative team and the musicians featured in the selected videos will be invited to attend the festival. RIGA IFF especially welcomes submissions that have not yet had their world premiere.

Prize

A specially designed award and a monetary prize of EUR 1,000 will be presented to the winner of the competition during the RIGA IFF Award Ceremony, which takes place on the second Saturday of the festival. The international jury is made up of music video creators, music video curators from international film festivals, musicians, music journalists and professional music event managers. All participants are invited to attend the jury’s official screening giving them an additional opportunity to receive feedback.

Deadline

The call for submissions opens on 12 March 2024 and closes on 30 June 2024. The results will be announced by 10 September 2024.

Submission closed

Regulations (PDF)

Competitions

Viktoria Martjanova

One of the most noticeable multihyphenates in Estonia. Martjanova's set design practice covers various media, starting with ballet, artistic input in local and international film projects, and ending with music videos and one-shot feature film. Along with that, as a costume artist she has worked for international as well as domestic features. Martjanova has collaborated with Estonian rapper Tommy Cash, a transgressor of genre boundaries as a production designer and created installations that dissect the relationship between sonic and visuality and the peculiarities of human perception. She is inspired by encounters, gaining new experiences and unleashing emotions.

Kaspar Koppel

Koppel is the Head Of Local at Universal Music Estonia, the largest label in Estonia. Over the years, under his leadership more than 60 music video projects have been developed, all appreciated both locally and internationally. At the record label, Koppel is responsible for the career development and planning of local musicians, including overseeing visual content and music videos. Twenty years ago, Koppel started his career as a member of the visually striking pop punk and party band Bedwetters, popular in Latvia as well. Last year the band received the Music Video of the Year award at the Estonian Music Awards ceremony.

Kris Mathur

Experienced in the film, advertisement and entertainment industry, Mathur is a producer of Latvian origin who has worked with Amazon, Hulu, Under Armour and Meta. Having started his career at studios Propaganda Films and Harmony Pictures in Los Angeles, he specialised in music video production and collaborated with legendary artists and bands such as Metallica, Diana Ross, Celine Dion and The Beach Boys. Mathur has received numerous accolades and awards, including an MTV Video Music Award for Aerosmith's video for Janie's Got a Gun, directed by David Fincher, and a Grammy Award nomination for his work on the musical film Symphony Sessions (1989) starring David Foster and Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. He also produced Dion’s breakout television music special for Disney “The Colour of My Love” (1993).

Manfredas

Manfredas is an icon and visionaire of the global dance music scene. He is founder of the community Radio Vilnius, and the creator of the legendary locals Marsas and Amadeus with a record shop, who started his career as a radio DJ and music programmer for MTV Baltic Networks. As one of the key residents and programmers at Opium Club in Vilnius, where he curated his clubnight Smala, Manfredas has been instrumental in creating a culture that has led some mega-respected DJs to call it their favourite club in the world.

Jurģis Kmins

Kmins is one of the most versatile and artistically intriguing Latvian cinematographers, who feels equally at home in the genres of psychological horror cinema, modern drama and historical drama. He studied cinematography at the legendary FAMU Film school in Prague and perfected his skills in Poland and with Vittorio Storaro in Sweden. Kmins' work in his first fiction feature film Bille (2018) received the International Federation Of Cinematographers' IMAGO award as Emerging Young Cinematographer. He has worked together with the most appreciated Baltic directors – Jānis Nords, Aik Karapetian, Tomas Vengris, Kristijonas Vildziunas and many others.

Foreword by the programme curator: The Baltic music video scene is noticeably gaining muscle, expanding in a global context while simultaneously recognising its uniqueness and strength, drawn from nature, mythology, concrete, and bacon. This year's competition showcases visually and thematically unpredictable and witty solutions, which, despite the wild diversity of genres, form a unified, thrilling, and thoroughly enjoyable journey with a Baltic aesthetic flavour.