Four competitions, 500 euros in prize money and the legendary Black Horse statuette to be won! The Ars Independent Festival - a multimedia and pop culture festival of film, animation, music video and video games - is waiting for the best audiovisual productions to compete for the Black Horse award.

Until June 30, the festival organizers are waiting for submissions for this year's competitions: Black Horse of Film, Black Horse of Animation, Black Horse of Video Games and Black Horse of Music Video.

Feature-length debuts, second films, and—for the first time this year—third films by a director can compete for the title of Black Horse of Film. The animation competition is aimed at creators of short animated films: debuts and second animated films, as well as animated school films made before the debut will be accepted for the competition. In the other two competitions, video games and music videos from around the world will compete. All submitted productions must have premiered after January 1, 2025.

Winners in each competition will be chosen by festival audiences through audience voting. Winners will receive a Black Horse statue designed in 2012 by Olaf Brzeski and a prize of 500 euros.

Further information, competition rules and entry forms can be found at ENTRY

To date, the winning productions of the Ars Independent Festival include such titles as: “Lesbian Space Princess” (dir. Leela Varghese, Emma Hough Hobbs), “National Anthem” (dir. Luke Gilford), “Old Stone” (dir. Johnny Ma), “Huba” (dir. Anka and Wilhelm Sasnal) (CKF); “Dipolar Bipolar” (dir. Quankai Li), “Anomaly” (dir. Arturs Voblikovs), “Bies i kat” (dir. Weronika Szyma), “Dokument” (dir. Marcin Podolcec), (CKA); “Funeralopolis - Last Days”, “Chants of Sennaar,” “Frostpunk,” “Plug & Play” (CKGW) and music videos: “LOVE” (dir. Damian Kulash, Aaron Duffy, Miguel Espada), “Legion” (dir. Kamil Wójcik and Cat Kaczmarek) (CKW).

Ars Independent Festival has existed since 2011, since 2024 it has been co-organized by the culture institution Katowice - City of Gardens and Silesia Film Institute in Katowice.

This year's edition of the Ars Independent Festival will take place from October 2-11. For film screenings and events, we invite the audience to cinemas in Katowice: Światowid and Rialto, and also to Piąty Dom and Drzwi Zwane Koniem . The festival will feature four program sections: film, animation, video games and music videos. Also: special events and sections, concerts, meetings and discussions with filmmakers are planned. Sales of the first passes for the festival will begin on February 14.