Mark your calendars: Motionpoems (“the world’s only poetry film company” and a Knight Arts grantee) will premiere its fifth season of newly commissioned short film adaptations of contemporary poetry on May 22 at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. (Full disclosure: I’ve been a fan of this outfit for years now and recently agreed to serve on their board.)

Nineteen original shorts will screen at Thursday’s event, representing an eclectic mix of poems rendered in a range of film styles, including live-action, documentary and animation. The show will be emceed by Minnesota Public Radio’s “movie maven” Stephanie Curtis and poet Todd Boss, Motionpoems’ founder and artistic director.

Motionpoems will premiere its 5th season poetry films this Thursday, May 22 in a pair of free screenings at the Walker Art Center.

Some highlights among this season’s “Motionpoems” contributors, from the press release:

There’s a poem by prominent Uruguayan poet Circe Maia translated from the Spanish, and a poem for kids by current U.S. Children’s Poet Laureate Kenn Nesbitt. Several films have been developed by lead artists whose primary medium is not film, like Dave Matthews Band bassist Stefan Lessard and installation artist Evan Holm.

The organization has expanded its efforts and enlisted new partners this year, turning the reins of film production over to Egg Creative and producer Jennifer David (both of Minneapolis). Poems for this season were provided by Motionpoems’ publishing partners: The Believer, Best American Poetry 2013, Copper Canyon Press, Graywolf Press, The Iowa Review, Milkweed Editions, The Poetry Foundation, Alaska Quarterly Review, American Poetry Review, and Tin House.

The aim is to team up poets and filmmakers at the height of their careers for the sake of a new, hybrid form “to give today’s best poems new life in film.” Curious about what that might look like? Here are a few of my favorites from last year’s batch:

If you can’t make the live event, you’ll find Motionpoems online, too: a new poem will be posted each month on the website. They offer free subscriptions to each new release: a new short will hit your inbox every month, along with bonus features like outtakes and interviews with the filmmakers and poets behind the featured works.

Motionpoems will host two free screenings of this season’s newly commissioned short films on Thursday, May 22, at 6:30 p.m. and 8 p.m., in the Walker Art Center’s Cinema, 1750 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis. (The run time for each screening is about an hour.) The event is free, but RSVPs are encouraged. For more information about the project, visit www.motionpoems.org.