500 USD
Cash prize for the best 3-minute film.
Call for art – Open invitation – Talent challenge · Ended
Coastal regions in 3 minutes.
International call for film, video and sound 2026. Theme: coastal regions – their people, their culture, and their ocean.
A talent quest of art · Share your creativity
About the challenge.
Art for Kep and Kep Music City invite filmmakers and sound artists from around the world to create a 3-minute work celebrating our coastal regions – their people, their culture, and their ocean. This global talent journey is open to digital artists and music creators of all kinds, including filmmakers, video artists, sound artists, composers, musicians, and spoken-word performers.
We invite filmmakers and sound artists to create a short film or sound piece (maximum 3 minutes) that places our coastal region — today or tomorrow — at the heart of the story.
Your work does not need to be filmed in Kep. Imagination, memories, archival footage, and studio-based creations are all welcome, as long as the spirit of our coastal regions — their people, culture, or ocean — remains at the heart of your piece.
Selected works will be screened and played during CIFF-360 on May 1–3 in Kep, with prizes awarded for Best Film, Best Sound Story, and the Audience Award.
Why enter?
Step outside your comfort zone.
Capture our coastal region, and let its stories transform your art.
500 USD
Cash prize for the best 3-minute sound piece.
500 USD
Cash prize for the audience award.
Important dates
From call to winners.
Opening date
The call opens to filmmakers and sound artists worldwide.
Submission deadline
Last day to submit your film or sound piece.
Winners announced
During CIFF 360 in Kep.
Art of Kep · Artist contest winners
Our 2 winning artists.
From a total of 12 submissions, the following two artists achieved the highest scores and were selected as the official winners of the Art for Kep Cinematic Artist Challenge 2026.
The call in full
Coastal regions in 3 minutes: their people, their culture, their ocean.
- Short movies (up to 3 minutes): documentary, fiction, animation, experimental, or collage using archive or new footage.
- Sound pieces (up to 3 minutes): soundscapes, music, spoken word, or audio collage that evokes our ocean regions (voices, ocean, market sounds, imagined soundtracks, etc.).
- Include at least one clear reference to coastal regions (visual, voiceover, text on screen, or in the sound/lyrics).
- Subtitles, if any, in English.
Create a single file (PDF or Word) that includes:
- A short bio with a face picture.
- A link to your production portfolio.
- An abstract explaining what you aim to achieve with your film or sound piece.
- A link to your short film or sound piece.
How to submit: online through the Art for Kep website.
- Film / video: short films up to 3 minutes — documentary, fiction, experimental, animation, or video art. Accepted formats: mp4 (H.264), mov or equivalent, HD or higher.
- Music / sound: sound pieces up to 3 minutes. Accepted formats: wav or high-quality mp3, stereo.
- Judging criteria: connection to coastal regions, creativity/originality, artistic and technical quality.
- Selection committee: entries are first reviewed by our Selection Committee and then assessed with guest jury members Rithy Panh and Cédric Eloy (film/video) and Marc Cholleton (music/sound).
This Call for Art invites you to join a collective artistic journey that celebrates our coastal regions, their people, culture and ocean, rather than focusing on financial rewards. All selected works will be uploaded to the Art for Kep website for voting and screened during the second Cambodia International Film Festival (CIFF-360) in Kep, giving each participating artist a visible place in our shared story.
We also offer a reward of 500 USD for each: Best 3-Minute Film, Best 3-Minute Sound Piece and Audience Award. The selection committee may also invite artists for talks, workshops and community conversations, creating opportunities for exchange, collaboration and future projects in Kep and beyond.
Annex · Additional information
Conditions, rights and guidance.
- Registration fee: no registration fee.
- Minimum age: 18 years.
- Entries: 1 or a maximum of 2 entries per artist (1 audio and/or 1 visual).
- Original work: submissions are original works and the artist holds the rights.
- Mandatory disclosure of AI use if needed (list AI tools — for image, video, sound, text, etc.). There is no separate AI category; human-driven works remain the priority for the main Film and Sound awards.
- Selected works may be used for Kep Music City and Art for Kep promotional activities, with full credit to the artist.
- The artist agrees and understands that the creative work will be used for marketing purposes only, for the benefit and recognition of the artist.
Include English subtitles in your film and, if necessary, also in the sound piece you submit.
- In coastal regions, families rise with the tides, casting nets where mountains meet the sea, sharing fresh catch, stories, and song along the shore.
- Here, local traditions, from market life to community fisheries, protect marine life and mangrove-fringed coasts, honoring an ocean that feeds our bodies, shapes our culture, and sustains our way of life.
- By submitting, you agree that your creative piece will be publicly broadcast in Cambodia and displayed on our international website to receive public votes.
- Your work will be seen by the local art community of Cambodia and on our international website, with over 1,000 monthly visitors.