OPEN CALL Montenegro

OPEN CALL - COMPOSER/MUSIC COLLABORATOR

For the experimental film project OTISAK / TRACE / IMPRINT, developed within Moving Classics: Sonic Bridges

About the Project

OTISAK / TRACE / IMPRINT is an experimental film set in Kotor, Montenegro, exploring identity, memory, and transformation through traces left in matter.

Moving between the scale of the city, material surfaces, and microscopic structures, the film observes processes of touch, repetition, erosion, ageing, restoration, and organic change. Its visual and sonic form will connect the monumental with the almost invisible, and explore relationships between local experience and wider European identity.

Music and sound will be central to the film’s structure rather than added only after the visual edit has been completed.

The Collaboration

We are looking for a composer interested in joining the project during its development and contributing to the relationship between music, image, rhythm, voice, and sound.

The collaboration will involve working closely with the author-director and editor to develop a musical language that can influence the film’s structure from an early stage. We are interested in a process of exchange and experimentation rather than a conventional brief followed by the delivery of a finished score.

The film moves between different spatial and temporal scales: architecture and microscopic forms, apparent stillness and continuous transformation, repetition and rupture. Music may help connect these scales through rhythm, texture, variation, accumulation, and changes in density.

Possible musical approaches may include:

• original composition(s) developed alongside the film

• acoustic, electronic, electroacoustic, or hybrid forms

• transformation of voices, field recordings, and sounds produced by materials or working processes

• rhythmic and structural relationships between musical development and montage

• experimentation with repetition, fragmentation, resonance, silence, and changes of scale

These are starting points rather than fixed stylistic requirements. We are open to different musical practices and interested in discovering the project’s sound through collaboration.

The composer may contribute to:

• developing the musical concept and overall sonic identity of the film

• exchanging early musical ideas, sketches, references

• experimenting with relationships between music, recorded sound, voice, and image

• composing and producing original music for the film

• adapting musical ideas as the film’s structure develops

• collaborating with the author-director, editor, sound team, and other project contributors

Who We Are Looking For

We are looking for someone who:

• is interested in experimental approaches to film music and audiovisual form

• is comfortable entering a project whose final structure is still developing

• can work collaboratively and respond to images, ideas, rhythms, and materials

• is open to exploration across musical genres and practices

• is interested in music as a structural element of cinema

• Applicants must be a national of or resident in an EU or Creative Europe participating country:
  EU 27

  EFTA which are part of the European Economic Area (EAA):

  • Iceland

  • Liechtenstein

  • Norway

  Acceding countries, candidate countries and potential candidates:

  • Albania

  • Bosnia and Herzegovina

  • Kosovo (Culture strand & Creative Europe desks)

  • Montenegro

  • North Macedonia

  • Serbia

  Neighbourhood Policy countries:

  • Armenia (Culture strand & Creative Europe desks)

  • Georgia (Culture & Cross-sectoral strands; MEDIA: only “Talent & Skills”, “European Festivals and Festival networks”, “Audience development and Film education)

  • Ukraine (Culture & Cross-sectoral strands; MEDIA: only “Talent & Skills”, “European Festivals and Festival networks”, “Audience development and Film education)

  • Tunisia (Culture strand & Creative Europe desks)

Applicants may come from any musical or interdisciplinary background. No specific academic or professional profile is required.

Framework

• Project phase: Research and development

• Timeline: Autumn 2026 to Spring 2028

• Working mode: Flexible, to be agreed with the selected collaborator; the process may combine remote work, regular creative exchange, and in-person sessions or visits where relevant

• Fee: EUR5000

• Travel and accommodation: All paid if required

How to Apply

Please submit:

• a short introduction explaining why you are interested in the project and how you might approach the collaboration;

• a brief CV or biography;

• links to relevant examples of your work.

Formal motivation letters are not required. Applications may be concise.

Please apply by 30th of September 2026