Open call for the Fellows annual selection

Founded in 1666 by Louis XIV, the French Academy in Rome – Villa Medici is a French establishment located, since 1803, in the Villa Medici, a 16th-century villa surrounded by a seventeen-acre park, on Mount Pincio, in the heart of Rome.

A national public institution under the authority of the Ministry of Culture, the French Academy in Rome – Villa Medici fulfils three complementary missions: to welcome high-level artists, creators and art historians in residence for one-year stays or shorter; to set up a cultural and artistic programme that includes all fields of the arts and creation and is aimed at a broad audience; to conserve, restore, study, and make its architectural and landscape heritage, as well as its art collections, known to the public.

Each year, the French Academy in Rome – Villa Medici organises an international competition to select Fellows who will be hosted at the Villa Medici in Rome for a 12-month residency for creation, experimentation and research (beginning of the residency in September, end in August).

The competition is open to established French-speaking artists, authors and researchers, regardless of nationality. Applications are accepted from all disciplines of literary and artistic creation, arts and crafts, as well as history and theory of the arts or restoration of works of art or monuments.

fellows selection open call for 2025–2026

→ Applications for the 2025-2026 fellows selection open call will be open from Monday 8 July 2024 at 12:00 (midday) to Wednesday 16 October 2024 at 12:00 (midday – CET).

TIMELINE

• Application period: from Monday 8 July 2024 at 12:00 CET (midday) to Wednesday 16 October 2024 at 12:00 (midday – CET).
• Announcement of successful applications: each applicant will receive a reply by email the week of 20 January 2025 (indicative date)
• Jury hearings: 28 and 29 February 2025 in Paris
• Starting of the residency in Rome: 1 September 2025

JURY

The dossier of each candidate is examined by a jury composed of the following members: the Director of the French Academy in Rome – Villa Medici as President of the jury; the General Director for Artistic Creation or his appointed representative at the French Ministry of Culture; and six qualified personalities appointed each year by decision of the Director of the Academy. The jury for 2025-2026 will be announced shortly.

CONDITIONS OF APPLICATION

• Candidates may submit only one application file per competition.
• Candidates must be over eighteen years of age on the closing date for applications.
• Candidates must speak French, without nationality criteria. They are advised to have some knowledge of Italian language and culture.
• The selection is aimed at professionally advanced artists or researchers.
• Candidates must present a precise project describing the research themes, the nature of the work and the motivation for the residence.
• Candidates may present a collective project. In this case, each of the selected candidates will receive a residence grant.
• Candidates must not have been former Fellows.

Applications must be submitted exclusively by electronic means, via the dematerialized platform below, between 12.00 CET on Monday 8 July 2024 and 12.00 CET on Wednesday 16 October 2024 at 12.00 (midday – CET) :

IMPORTANT :
Applications must be submitted exclusively by electronic means, via the dematerialized platform, between Monday 8 July 2024 at 12:00 and Wednesday 16 October 2024 at 12:00 (CET). The platform will be automatically closed at 12:00 (CET), please make sure to finalize and submit your application before this time.

It is imperative that the title of all the files making up the application file include the names of the applicants (if applicable, each of the applicants in the case of collective applications). For example: “nom_prenom_doc_artistique”, “nom_prenom_cv.pdf”, etc. Documents must be submitted in PDF format and headings must not contain any accents or special signs (e.g. £. *, #, (),^, “…)..

The electronic weight of the dematerialized application file must not exceed 20 Mb in total, and the number of documents submitted on the platform in dematerialized version must not exceed 10 units.

Make sure to use browsers such as Google Chrome and/or Firefox.

To validate your application, you must fill in all the required fields, read the rules and regulations and click on “Soumettre la candidature”. A confirmation of your application will be sent to you by email. If you do not receive it, please check your junk mail.

Content of the application form

• Application form to be completed on the competition’s online platform;
• Copy of both sides of the candidate’s valid identity card or passport;
• Detailed curriculum vitae, written in French, indicating the candidate’s artistic background, diplomas obtained, prizes and scholarships already awarded, publications and residencies;
• Detailed project formulated in a typed note in French, in PDF format only, not exceeding 10 pages and 2 MB, indicating the reasons for the stay, the research themes and the nature of the work that the candidate wishes to carry out during his/her stay;
• Artistic documentation/portfolio or publications: copies of articles, excerpts from essays, photographs or documentation images (15 images maximum), video or compressed sound files, fragments of manuscripts (2 maximum). In the case of collaborative works, the candidate’s part or contribution to the creation must be clearly indicated. Hyperlinks to video or audio files or web pages may also be inserted. In the case of collaborative works, the candidate’s creative contribution must appear clearly. All of these elements must be assembled in a single PDF document.

If you have any questions, please contact the following address and we will do our best to answer them: [email protected]

Image credits
Cover image: © Assaf Shoshan