Rules

The competition festival is intended for all high schoolers and students between the ages of 15 and 20, who are passionate about cinematography in its various forms, as they will be given the opportunity to express themselves through art in an institutional environment.

 

In most cases, participating teams consist of one or two students and a coordinating teacher. If the students are above the age of 18, they can participate by themselves.

The contest’s sections are:

  • Short films
  • Spots

The short films section includes cinematographic creations with a running time of, at most, 15 to 20 minutes, in which the students have complete artistic freedom when it comes to choosing a subject: family, school, love, journeys (travel stories), cinematographic essays, games, trips (individually or in groups), documentaries (subjects of cultural, social, literary, artistic, folkloric, ethnographic interest, relationships, contemporary issues etc). The short films will be scored based on the originality of the chosen subject, the quality of the literary text/dedicated documentary, and the means of artistic production (screenplay, directing, visual and sound effects, acting performances — if applicable, scenography etc).

 

The spots section includes video clips with a duration of up to 60 seconds, on various subject matters:

  1. social issues (preventing or raising awareness about social problems which have an effect on society: drug use among youth, social juvenile delinquency, combating poverty and illiteracy, the life of the local community, unique moments, interethnic coexistence etc);
  2. promoting reading to young people (new editorial appearances, bringing back attention to old classics etc);
  3. short humoristic creations (satires, jokes, comedy sketches etc);
  4. promoting good deeds to young people (environmentalism, volunteering etc).

The spots will be scored based on their mobilising and/or determinative character, comedic character, as well as their cinematographic qualities.

Note: The participants can approach almost any subject in both sections, which grants them the liberty to tackle various topics; the only condition is that the chosen subject must be appropriate for their age.

 

The stages of the festival are as follows:

 

The 1st stage (the county stage): The making of the film projects

During this stage, its duration being determined at county level, the potential contestants, assisted by their coordinating teachers, create the short films and spots, following the rules imposed by the current Rules and Regulations, ensuring that they respect the aforementioned time limits. In the case of a county level agreement between the coordinating teachers, a preselection can be organised with the aim of eliminating projects that do not follow the rules and, on the other hand, of submitting only the creations deemed as most valuable. If no agreement takes place, the international jury will make this selection and decide which teams reach the final stage.

 

The 2nd stage: Submitting the films

The films can be submitted online until the 16th of May 2023, at the email address clubvideoart@gmail.com. If the file size is too large, a specialised file transfer service, such as WeTransfer or MyAirBridge, can be used.

 

The 3rd stage: The national and international judging (16th-25th of May 2023)

A jury consisting of important figures in cinematography from Romania and abroad (members of The Executive Committee of The International Union of Amateur Cinematography — UNICA) will decide the hierarchy of the teams that will participate in the final stage. The score obtained by the submitted films will make up 40% of the final score.

 

The final stage (1st-4th of June 2023)

The first 10 nominated teams in each section, both from Romania and abroad, will have to create a short film over the course of 2 days on a theme decided by the international jury. The obtained score for this film will make up 60% of the final score, which will determine the international hierarchy.

 

The VideoART Awards Ceremony 2023 will take place during the afternoon of the 4th of June.

 

The VideoART Awards Ceremony 2023

Awards

 

The Grand Prize
(Awarded to the film most appreciated by the jury)

 

The UNICA Medal
(Distinction given by The International Union of Amateur Cinematography through the members of its Executive Committee present in The VideoART jury)

 

              –  For each of the two sections, diplomas and monetary prizes will be given as follows:

First Place – 1000 RON

Second Place – 700 RON

Third Place – 400 RON

Honourable Mentions (two for each section) – 200 RON

 

Note: The sum of the monetary prizes given annually is determined by the Bucovina Cultural Centre, our traditional partner, which grants the prizes in cash. Up until last year’s edition, the values of the prizes have been the ones mentioned above. For this year’s edition, we anticipate that these will remain the same as before. The participants from outside of the country who do not take part in the film challenge cannot receive the monetary prizes. The jury will grant them the same type of awards, but only in diploma form.

 

Terms of Participation

 

  • The students involved in the making of the film must be enrolled in the participating educational institution.
  • The teams are made up of 2-4 students. The responsibilities are usually divided between the artistic side (screenplay, directing, fiction or nonfiction texts etc) and the technical side (sound, image, editing etc);
  • The film must fall within the context of the chosen section.
  • The implied or explicit message of the film must not affect the public image of a person, school as an institution, generally or particularly, in any way.
  • Multiple teams from the same high school can participate, each with the possibility of submitting more than one film (spot).
  • If a team qualifies for the final stage in both sections, they will have to decide in advance which section they wish to participate in.
  • The participating team will be coordinated by a teacher.
  • The short films and spots must be subtitled in English.

 

The following are strictly forbidden:

          – the use of obscene language or showing of immoral visual contexts;

          – the use of racist symbols or of symbols that incite to interethnic violence;

          – the creation of scenes that could damage the physical or moral integrity of the students.

  • The submitted projects must be produced exclusively by the participating students; the involvement of professionals will lead to the disqualification of the team (if this violation of the rules is proven during the final stage of the competition).
  • During the first few shots of the film (trailer), the title must appear on screen, followed by the other identifying elements of the team (actors, director, cinematographer etc). Contact information will be specified in the Participation Form (see the Annex), which will be included in the file sent to the jury, alongside the film synopsis (no more than one page).
  • The responsibility for the copyright of the video, audio and design materials included in the films belongs exclusively to their owners.
  • The first ten teams in each of the sections are nominated (qualified) to the final stage of the festival in descending order of the scores given by the jury.

Note: Depending on the quality and the value of the cinematographic projects, the jury can modify (revoke) the granting of certain awards.

 

Download Rules