Founded in 1963, the Ann Arbor Film Festival is the longest-running independent and experimental film festival in North America. It has long served as a vital platform for artists who treat film as an art form, prioritizing formal innovation, personal vision, and critical inquiry over commercial imperatives. The festival’s history is intertwined with the evolution of avant-garde cinema, and its annual edition remains a key gathering point for filmmakers, curators, and scholars. The festival’s programming includes competitive sections for feature and short films, with a dedicated focus on essay films and works that blur the boundaries between documentary, narrative, and experimental traditions. Awards are presented across various categories, and the festival also features retrospectives, installations, and performances. For selected artists, the festival offers the rare opportunity to present work within a rigorous curatorial context and to engage with a community that values sustained artistic practice. While the festival’s primary focus is on film, its embrace of essayistic forms extends to written and hybrid practices. The inclusion of essays—such as Elizabeth Purchell’s “The Scene of the Crime”—within the festival’s publication and programming signals a broader interest in criticism and textual experimentation. This call invites artists and writers to submit work that challenges conventional boundaries and contributes to the ongoing discourse around moving images.