OPEN CALL ROTLICHT 2025

SUBMIT AND BE PART OF
THE MAIN EXHIBITION AT ROTLICHT 2025

Our main exhibition in 2025 will again take place in the impressive premises of the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. On over 1300 m2 we will open the festival with our 20 winners from the Open Call 2025.

The theme of this year’s festival is »Life After Extinction?« and your submission should be at least marginally related to this theme. More information about the rules, as well as the Q&A, can be found here!

Life After Extinction?

Can species survive? More importantly, can renewal take place? And if so, how?  

The 2025 edition of the Rotlicht Festival for Analog Photography explores the (im)possibility of life after extinction.  

Whether through the downfall of the planet due to climate change, death caused by ongoing armed conflicts, or personal tragedies – awareness of life’s finiteness is growing. Instead of presenting dramatic images of disasters and chaos, which have become all too familiar through the media and social networks, the Rotlicht Festival invites artists to submit projects that explore how we can reconnect with ourselves, with one another, and with all living beings on this planet after the world as we know it has perished.  

Regardless of how much or how little hope “life after extinction” holds for you – future scenarios always take place in the present, whether in *Mad Max* or *Matrix* – we welcome photographic projects that:  

  1. Express the potential for renewal and the possibility of truly feeling alive again – rather than merely surviving – by visually exploring questions such as: Will new ecosystems emerge? How can destroyed spaces be reclaimed? What might the world look like post-Anthropocene, once humanity has disappeared?  
  2. Are, in whole or in part, analog – with at least one analog step in the artist’s working process. Please describe your analog techniques in the submitted portfolio.  
  3. Are available for exhibition during the Rotlicht Festival from November 21 to 30, 2025. 
Submit to Rotlicht 2025

Q&A

We welcome participation by any individual content creator with at least sixteen (16) years of age or older, other than affiliates, employees of the organizer (”Zigutamve. Association for contemporary photography”) or any competition jury member.

Fill out our Open Call Submission form. Complete your entry by uploading images. Pay for your entry. You will receive confirmation of your submission and payment via email.

We only accept photos taken in the last 4 years (2021-2025).

Yes.

Yes, you can. Every project will be treated as one and getting the full attention of our jury.

You will receive an email confirmation of your submission. If you aren’t sure whether your entry was successful, please email program@rotlicht-festival.at

The fee is € 15 (one project). 

Entry fees are non-refundable.

We use images to promote the festival and exhibitions in print and online. By participating in the Open Call or in an exhibition or other part of the festival programme, you agree to the use of your work. It is our responsibility to credit each image appropriately. We as a team are all photographers and sensitivity in this regard is very important to us! 

The photos from your submission will be printed and published in the catalogue and other media associated with the festival if your project is selected by our jury. In this regard, it is important to upload your photos in the correct resolution, name and quality. We accept only images / projects with at least one analog process. Completely digital images / projects won’t be accepted.

  • JPEG file types only.
  • Maximum file size 5MB
  • Minimum dimension of 2000 pixels on the longest edge
  • 300dpi
  • Photos must have EXIF, except analog

All entries must be original photographs taken by the participant, and must not have been altered or enhanced by any form of AI technology. Unless it is deliberately a hybrid concept that treats AI as a theme.

Entries that are found to have been created using AI technology will be disqualified.

The decision on the main exhibition and the winners of the Open Call 2025 will be made by the jury. Our jury consists of international curators, festival directors and experts we have commissioned for this task. You can find out more about this year’s jury here. The jury members will judge all submissions individually and independently. Follow the link to find the members of our Jury.

We at Rotlicht Team do not exclude digital photography. We see it as an enrichment. In order to be able to submit to the Open call or to be present in an exhibition during the festival, your work must have gone through at least one decisive analogue process. It doesn’t matter if this was done while photographing or printing the work. 

 

Find all information about our terms of use here.

 

1. Participants in the main exhibition of Rotlicht Festival 2025 at the festival headquarters (Atelierhaus der Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien)
2. Publication in the official festival catalogue 2025 + 1 issues 
3. Fee of € 200,-
4. All artists who wish to travel to the festival will receive a travel allowance of € 150. 
5. Reduced accommodation in our partner hotel Korotan Vienna
6. Festival pass 
7. Free registration for the Open Call of our partner festival Photodays Rovinj 2026
8. The jury also selects a Grand Prix winner from the 20 winning projects. This artist will receive an additional solo exhibition in the Photo Cluster Gallery, a further € 200 prize money and their work will become the cover of the 2025 festival (poster, catalog, flyer etc.). 

 

1. Submissions (9 June to 31 July 2025)
2. Jury gets access to the submissions and selects 20 winning projects by the end of August
3. Announcement and contact to all submitted artists (middle of September).
4. Public announcement of the 20 winning projects via our web and social media channels (end of September 2025).