RULES

Submission Rules

• Any entries that violate the contest rules are disqualified. You will be entitled to an email stating why your entry was disqualified and you will be given one chance to edit and resubmit your creation. If your resubmitted work still violates the contest rules, you will be notified and you will not be permitted to submit the video again to the contest.
• Your entry must be your own work and no one else's. Anonymous submissions cannot be accepted. If you are caught fraudulently submitting videos, you will be barred from participating in all future ConnectiCon FMV Contests and your information will be shared with the coordinators of other contests, who may take further action at their discretion.
• Because no FMV contest was held in 2022, all entries must be less than TWO years old as of the convention. Any video first publicly exhibited (convention showing or uploaded to an online video service) prior to two years before the convention is ineligible. This means that videos that were publicly exhibited prior to July 20, 2021 are ineligible. In addition, in order to keep the contest fresh and exciting, videos that were shown as finalists in 3 or more contests in 2022 will NOT be eligible.
• Contestants are limited to one video per category, either as a sole creator or part of a collaboration. Contestants are also limited to a maximum of two videos total.
• Videos previously submitted to ConnectiCon are ineligible, including remastered versions. This does not include videos submitted for ConnectiCon in 2022 that were not used.
• All entries must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on June 15th, 2023.
• By submitting an entry, each contestant agrees:
  • They have read, understand, and will comply with these official rules, and to the extent permitted by law, consent to the use of the entrant's name, likeness, and/or biographical data for purposes of advertising and promotion by ConnectiCon, without further consent, compensation, or approval.
  • By submitting a video to ConnectiCon FMV Contest, the video creator grants ConnectiCon irrevocable permission to exhibit that video. The video creator otherwise retains all rights and responsibilities relating to its creation. Many submissions that are not selected as finalists will likely be featured during the Sunday session in one of the event rooms.
• The prizes being awarded may constitute income under applicable federal, state, and local tax laws and winners shall be solely responsible for payment of any and all taxes, which may be due with respect to the acceptance of the prize. No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited by law.
• We cannot be held responsible for lost or misdirected entries.
• We reserve the right to modify these rules at any time without notice.

Editor Rules

• Due to COPPA regulations, any applicant under the age of 13 will need a parent or guardian to submit an entry on their behalf. The minor may include their name or editor handle in the "Display Name for Credits" field on the form.
• Contestants do not need a ConnectiCon membership to enter the contest.
• Winners may designate a proxy to pick up their awards on Sunday. Unclaimed awards will be mailed to the winners after the convention. Contestants must have a valid United States mailing address.
• ConnectiCon staff members — except those directly involved in planning and running the contest — may enter the FMV Contest.

TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS

• Entries may not be shorter than 30 seconds, nor longer than five minutes.
• The online file upload form will accept the following file extensions: AVI, FLV, MPEG4, MPEG-PS, MOV, MTS, WebM, and WMV [All compatible with Google Drive]
• Your initial submission must be linked via Google Drive (make sure Link Sharing is enabled), Dropbox or SendSpace.
• For your best results, we recommend the following settings:
  • Resolution: 1280x720 or 1920x1080 for widescreen, 960x720 or 1440x1080 for fullscreen
  • Frame Rate: 23.976 frames per second
  • Video Codec: H264, 2 mbps or higher
  • Audio Codec: AAC, 160 kbps or higher
  • Audio Sampling Rate: 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz. Lower sampling rates will be disqualified.
  • Container: MP4 or MKV

• The maximum file size of each entry is 1 GB. There are online tools available to compress the file size of videos that are too large (an example would be Flixier).
• Videos that have significant video or audio quality issues may be disqualified depending on the severity. Examples of issues that qualify include:
  • Interlacing
  • Squashed/stretched aspect ratios
  • Chunky/blocky video (often caused by a low-quality source or excessive data compression)
  • Extreme banding (i.e., color gradients caused by video recompression)
  • Jagged/sawtooth lines (i.e., line aliasing)
  • Audible distortion
  • Audio levels that are too high, overdriven, or clipped
  • Pitch-shifted or speed-adjusted audio (unless by obvious artistic necessity)

CONTENT REQUIREMENTS

• 90% of the video footage must be motion capture from either cartoons, anime, video games, or a live-action drama/movie/series. Motions and animations to comic/manga/manhwa panels can be included but must not make up more than 10% of the video. Footage must not contain more than 20 seconds of completely unedited video content.
• Footage of active game play from a video game where the game interface is visible is not acceptable.
• Footage recorded from live TV broadcasts is eligible, but not encouraged, as it frequently contains watermarks and is often of lower quality.
• Footage may not contain:
  • Watermarks, even if partially obscured.
  • Subtitles from any commercial or fansubbed release. Editors may add their own subtitles where appropriate, but many find these distracting and thus they may reduce the chances of an entry being a finalist.
  • Title screens, logos, credits, or introductions. If these appear before or after the video, they will be replaced with ConnectiCon’s standard title screen.
  • Audio from the commercial English dub of any show.
  • At least 75% of the entry must be set to music. This rule does not apply to trailer and commercial parodies.
  • Videos may not be collections of shorts. "AMV Hell"–style videos are not eligible for entry to the contest.
  • Entries must conform to CARA PG-13 rating standards as defined in the official ratings guidelines. In particular, there should be no sexually oriented nudity and violence should not be excessive, gratuitous, or constant.

CATEGORIES

• Action — Action videos feature adrenaline. Whether through combat, competition, or just plain speed, these are the videos that get the heart pumping faster.
• Drama — Videos that tell a story, tug at the heartstrings, or feature an emotion such as sadness, nostalgia, or anger
• Fun/Comedy — Videos that make you smile, if not laugh out loud
• Romance/Sentimental — Videos about relationships: platonic, familial, or romantic love that a person feels for someone or something else
• Experimental — Videos that don't precisely fit into the rest of the categories: experimental videos, artistic pieces, etc.
• Trailer/Commercial — Original or parody movie trailers, commercials, and opening sequences
• Upbeat — Dance, trance, techno, or happy slice-of-life videos that get your body moving, make you feel the groove, or just bring a smile to your face

• The ConnectiCon FMV Contest Coordinator reserves the right to change a video category if it is determined that the video more properly belongs in a different category than the one chosen by the creator.
• If this recategorization results in an editor having multiple entries in one category, the editor will be given the opportunity to withdraw one if the deadline has not yet passed.
• If the deadline has passed and the video is recategorized at the prescreening, one video will be disqualified at the coordinator's discretion, and will only play during the Sunday showing.
• If any category does not receive a sufficient number of entries, it will be removed and videos that were submitted to it will be recategorized to the next most appropriate category (or, categories themselves may be combined). Any recategorized video will not count against the one-per-category entry limit for the creator(s).

AWARDS

Audience Voting

• Best Action
• Best Drama
• Best Fun/Comedy
• Best Romance/Sentimental
• Best Experimental
• Best Trailer/Commercial
• Best Upbeat

Judges' Awards

• Best Concept — The best-executed idea behind a video
• Best Editing — The video demonstrating the best technical accomplishment in editing
• Judges' Choice — The favorite video of the panel of judges
• Coordinator's Choice — All videos submitted to the contest that are not disqualified are eligible to win this award; it is not restricted to only the finalists.
• Best of Show — Best of Show will be determined by a combination of audience votes and votes by the Judges' Award panel.

HOW TO APPLY

Entries may be submitted by filling out the electronic submission form here:

PRIZES

TBA

FINAL GUIDELINES

• If you do not hear from us two weeks after your submission or within two weeks after the deadline, contact the FMV Contest Coordinator.
• All entries are prescreened by ConnectiCon staff to determine five finalist videos per category to be shown at the convention.The finalists will be announced in a ConnectiCon XX newsletter email prior to the convention. Finalists themselves will also get a separate email announcing their selection.
• ConnectiCon schedules overflow screenings on Sunday for entries not selected as finalists. We show as many videos as time allows, but cannot guarantee that all videos will be shown.