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Open City x Another Gaze: Applications open for Critics Workshop 2025

We are looking for participants for our fourth Critics Workshop in collaboration with Another Gaze: A journal of film and feminisms, which will take place during the 2025 festival (6th to 11th May). 

Open City is committed to fostering a discursive space that brings together the next generation of filmmakers, critics and other professionals working in the field of non-fiction cinema. Now in its fourth year, the Critics Workshop is an immersive five-day programme developed by the Another Gaze editorial team to discuss the methodologies and practice of a politically, formally engaged film criticism. Together we will cover questions of experimentation, ethics, the place of the “I” in criticism, the role of negative criticism, as well as more practical discussion of the editorial process, pitching and interviewing practices. Led this year by Daniella Shreir, founder-editor of Another Gaze, and Laura Staab, writer and Managing Editor at MUBI, speakers at previous years’ workshops have included Another Gaze co-editor Missouri Williams, critics Elena Gorfinkel, Simran Hans, Emily LaBarge, Rebecca Liu, Georgie Carr, Morgan Quaintance, Sophia Satchell-Baeza, Lili Owen Rowlands, assistant editor at the New Left Review Caitlín Doherty, and co-editor of London Review of Books, Alice Spawls.

Another Gaze was founded in 2016 to provide a nuanced forum for discussion about women as filmmakers, filmic subjects, and spectators. In 2021 they launched Another Screen, an irregular streaming platform, streaming short-term programmes of films by women across modes of production and geographies, with new writing and translations about these works. Both Another Gaze and Another Screen will return from hiatus this year. In 2022 they launched a small publishing imprint, Another Gaze Editions. 

Previous participants of the Critics Workshop have included early-career critics and programmers, post-graduates looking to develop their non-academic writing, and non-film writers who want to extend their practice to the moving image. 

The 10 selected participants will receive free access to the festival programme (screenings, talks & other opportunities). The workshop sessions will take place in-person at the Rich Mix in Shoreditch, with lunch provided daily. 

The workshop is open to all ages and genders. Applicants outside London are very welcome to apply but must be able to find their own accommodation. If you are in the UK, please check with your local FilmHub and ScreenSkills for bursary opportunities. 

Requirements: 

Applicants need to demonstrate an interest in film criticism and/or film journalism as well as the ability to speak and write fluently in English. No previous professional experience is necessary. 

Please note that all the workshop participants will be expected to take part in sessions and writing tasks scheduled throughout the festival (exact schedule will be shared with the participants ahead of the workshop). 

To apply: 

Applications must include the following 

• CV: A basic, one-page resume. 

• One piece of writing about film, written in English (published or unpublished). Maximum 1,500 words. 

• A piece of critical writing (about any art form, published at any time) that you find particularly compelling, with a short paragraph explaining why. 

• An approximately 500-word statement about why you’d like to take part. 

Please fill in this form and send the above supporting documents to: info@opencitylondon.com with the subject line ANOTHER GAZE CRITICS WORKSHOP by 9pm (UK time) 24th March 2025.

Successful applicants will be notified by April 15th, 2025. 

Festival Volunteers – Open City Documentary Festival 2025

Open City Documentary Festival is an annual celebration which creates an open space in London to nurture and champion the art of non-fiction cinema. We are looking for enthusiastic and proactive volunteers to help us deliver our 15th edition which will take place from Tuesday 6 May – Sunday 11 May in venues across London.   

Application closing date: 7 April

Expenses covered (up to £10/day) on food and travel 

As a festival volunteer, you’ll have the opportunity to meet filmmakers and industry professionals, work alongside likeminded people, and go behind the scenes to gain hands-on experience of delivering a week-long film festival.   

Volunteer Roles include: 

• Cinema Venue Assistant 
• VR Exhibition Assistant 
• Photographer 
• Marketing Assistant 
• Runner 
• Hospitality 

If you are passionate about film and arts, and keen to be involved, please register your interest via this form.

If you have any questions please get in touch with us at volunteers@opencitylondon.com.