Juan Downey International Media and Audiovisual Arts Contest 2025
The Chilean Video and Electronic Arts Corporation is accepting submissions for the Juan Downey International Media and Audiovisual Arts Competition 2025, an event that since 1993 has promoted and recognized the work of nearly thirty artists and collectives from Chile and around the world dedicated to video art, media arts, interactive narratives, and creation using contemporary technologies.
This competition—funded by the Ministry of Culture, Arts, and Heritage through the Audiovisual Development Fund and the Program to Support Collaborating Cultural Organizations—is accepting applications until September 26, 2025.
Created in memory of Chilean architect and artist Juan Downey (1940–1993), a pioneer of video art, video essays, and expanded cinema, this competition is now in its 17th edition, establishing itself as a benchmark on the local and international scene and a space for critical exploration of changes in languages, formats, and technologies.
2025 Edition: Hyperrealities
In line with the curatorial focus of the 17th Media Arts Biennial, this edition invites submissions of works that reflect on the concept of Hyperrealities, questioning our relationship with reality and proposing new connections between body, technology, and environment, inspired by magic, dreams, and science fiction.
There are two submission categories:
Hyperrealities (International): open to experimental works from anywhere in the world, whether single-channel or in formats that integrate web media and digital languages.
Microrealities (Local): for Chilean works or works by residents of Chile, up to 10 minutes in length, designed for a single screen.
Both categories will accept video art, experimental animation, essays, and other non-traditional formats. At least 50% of the selected works will be by artists from regions other than the Metropolitan Region.
Awards and recognitions
Since its inception, the competition has awarded prizes to outstanding creators such as Silvia Cacciatori (Uruguay), Andrés Denegri (Argentina), Borja Rodríguez (Spain), Colectivo ECOS (Colombia), Ilê Sartuzi (Brazil), Nataliya Ilchuk (Ukraine), Nicolás Grum, Tiziana Panizza, Joaquín Cociña, Cristóbal León, Francisca Khamis, and Felipe Elgueta, among others.
In 2025, a single prize will be awarded for each category, equivalent to $1,000,000 (one million Chilean pesos). In addition, the jury may award honorable mentions without an associated prize.
The selected works will be part of a viewing program in spaces determined by the CChV, with the possibility of online exhibition, as part of the programming of the 17th Santiago Media Arts Biennial.
Application
The works must have been created after November 2022.
The deadline for submissions is 11:59 p.m. on September 26, 2025 (UTC-4, Chile time).
Questions should be sent to convocatorias@cchv.cl until September 20, 2025, indicating “2025 Competition” in the subject line.
About the organization
The Chilean Corporation for Video and Electronic Arts (CChV) is a non-profit organization that, since 1993, has promoted training, research, and dissemination of media arts in Chile, articulating intersections between art, science, and technology.
With the support of the Ministry of Culture’s Program to Support Collaborating Cultural Organizations, the CChV works to strengthen the cultural ecosystem and foster international collaboration in the field of media arts.
–More information at https://cchv.cl/concurso-internacional-juan-downey/