2008 General Section Call for Entries

Who Can Apply

Applicants of any nationality, age or profession are welcome to submit their works.

Submission Deadline

Call for entries runs from 1 July, 2008 (Tuesday) - 27 August, 2008 (Wednesday). Screeners and other submission materials delivered directly to the festival office will not be accepted.

How to Qualify

• Moving images of not more than 20 minutes' duration are eligible for entry to the contest.
• There is absolutely no restriction on genre (eg. fiction, documentary, animation, CG, interactive movie, etc). Whatever the entrant considers has 'dramatic' quality is welcomed.
• The entrant must be the owner (producer or director) of the copyright to the submitted work.
• The required production date of the submitted work is no earlier than January 2006. Applicants can each submit one or more works as long as the same work(s) have not been submitted to previous editions of the Tokyo Internet Movie Festival.
• Works previously released or never released both qualify for submission. Previously awarded works are still eligible for competition.
• While the entrant (producer or director) retains the copyright of the submitted work(s), entries chosen after preliminary selection must grant the Tokyo Internet Movie Festival the right to screen free of charge during the event and for any promotion purposes. This includes exhibiting the work in the following formats: playing on the Internet (web, mobile phone, broadband TV) or in a format that enables it to be exhibited as such.
• For publicity purposes, the Tokyo Internet Movie Festival holds the rights to screen, reproduce, distribute, and publicly release any selected film in part or in its entirety free of charge.
• In the case of a submitted work requiring copyright clearance from a third party (eg. for adaptation of an original novel, or use of music) it is the entrant’s responsibility to obtain screening permission from the relevant person or organization; otherwise, the work will be disqualified.
• In the event of a claims dispute on copyright that results in any losses to the Tokyo Internet Movie Festival office, the entrant will be held entirely responsible for any compensation or trouble incurred.
• If the language used in the submitted work is not Japanese, please prepare a script with dialog list in Japanese or English.
• Failure to comply with conditions of submission and other festival requirements or supply of false information will result in disqualification from the competition and withdrawal of the award.

Selection Process (The applicant is advised to bear in mind that future amendments may be made).

• The winners are decided after three rounds of selection: preliminary selection, semi-final and final competition. The confirmed list of jury members and results of each round of selection will be announced in order on the official website of the Tokyo Internet Movie Film Festival. The festival office will not respond to any inquiry on why a work is not awarded or selected.

The festival office will not respond to any inquiry on why a work is not awarded or selected.

Competition Timeline

[1] Preliminary Selection

The selection period will take place between 1, July (Tuesday) and 27, August, 2008 (Wednesday). Successful entries will be announced in due course on the festival website and ClipLife website during this period. The deadline for submission of entries is 27 August, 2008 (Wednesday).

[2] Semi-final

From 7, July to 10, September, 7 entries will be selected through voting by online users. Another 8 will be chosen by the selection committee of the festival office. The results of the 15 winners will be announced on the festival website around mid-October.

[3] Final Competition

3 awards will be presented: The Net Movie Grand Prix, decided by the jury; The Net Audience Grand Prix, voted by online users; and The Screening Audience Grand Prix, voted by audience who attend the festival’s public screening event.
The award ceremony will be held in late October, at the official venue of the Tokyo International Film Festival, when final results will be announced.

About the Awards

General Section (Free Choice of Themes)

[Works of Distinction]
All finalists are given to works of distinction.

1. The awards will be presented at the official venue of the Tokyo International Film Festival which takes place in late October, when the ten selected works will be screened.
2. One of the fifteen shortlisted contestants will have the chance to receive production backing for his or her upcoming project. The completed work will be presented at the Tokyo Internet Movie Festival 2009. The creative proposal for the new project must be submitted before the deadline (provisionally designated as end of January, 2009). The festival office will select the best proposal and provide support throughout its production. Details of this scheme will be announced later.

[Net Movie Grand Prix]
Chosen from the 15 shortlisted works through a careful selection process by the jury. The winner will receive:

1. 1 million yen
2. Professional information on film production and other areas of support.

[Net Audience Grand Prix]
Chosen from the 15 shortlisted works through a voting system by internet users of the general public.

[Screening Audience Grand Prix]
Voted by the audience at the public screening of the 15 shortlisted works at the Tokyo International Film Festival.

How to Apply

Please fill in the online application form. Make sure you read the terms and conditions of the contest and agree to them before you register your entry. The festival utilizes the functions of ClipLife - a video sharing service offered by NTT. For details please refer to the festival outline webpage.

Rules for Uploading Moving Images

• File size should not exceed 200MB
• Recommended format: WMV(up to version 9) , AVI , MPG , MPEG , MPE , M2P , 3GP , 3G2 , MP4 , M4V , FLV(H.263(SorensonSpark), On2VP6)) , MOV , QT , VOD , MJPEG.
• Recommended screen size: 320×240pixels
• After the file has been uploaded, it will automatically convert to FLV format and transferred to the website.
• If the file size of your moving image exceeds 200MB, please compress it to fit the 200MB limit before uploading. It is recommended that you use a high bandwidth compression format.
• The awarding-winning works will be exhibited in high quality WMV format on the Tokyo Internet Movie Festival website at the beginning of October.
• If the entry is found to be incomplete or defected, or any required data on the application form has been omitted, the work may be disqualified.
• After the application procedure is complete, the uploaded entry will be under the care of the Committee for Tokyo Internet Movie Festival. The work will not be returned to its applicant.
• While the Committee pledges to handle the submitted materials with utmost care, the festival cannot be held responsible in the event of any accident or damage.

To send in your entries, please visit the website of the Tokyo Internet Movie Festival:
http://www.netmovie-fes.jp

Telephone hotline enquiry service is not available. For enquiries, please contact the TIMF via email:
info@netmovie-fes.jp