AAHSFF Film Invitational

The following AAHSFF Official Rules for the Film Invitational provide your team with detailed contest rules that align with the information provided in this packet:

Your film must meet the guidelines below, or your team will be disqualified from the competition.

You are allowed to be creative with your film’s aspect ratio, but be aware that all films will be screened in 16:9. If you export your film in a different aspect ratio, the AAHSFF Team will letterbox your film for screening. If you want to make sure that your film is screened correctly, you can apply the letterboxing yourself before exporting.

If your film includes the use of text and or subtitles, your text must be screen safe for screening at a 16:9 aspect ratio.

The final exported film file must be a .MOV or a .MP4 file type.

The final exported film file must be less than 2GB in size.

Please make sure that all submitter information and privacy settings are adjusted according to the AAHSFF Rules. You can see a detailed list of rules under the "technical guidelines" HERE: https://www.hsfilmfest.com/rulesandcategories

The final exported film file must be named in the following format:
TEAM NAME_2023NYCFI

Example: CHESAPEAKE HIGH SCHOOL_2023NYCFI

*Please note: If there are multiple teams from the same school, you MUST indicate the team name in your finished film’s file name with A, B, C, etc.

Example: CHESAPEAKE HIGH SCHOOL TEAM A_2023NYCFI

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN A PRIZE. A PURCHASE WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED OR RESTRICTED BY LAW.

Sponsor: The Competition is sponsored by the All American High School Film Festival (“Sponsor”). Entry Period: Submissions must be submitted by the deadlines set forth in this Welcome Packet (the “Entry Period”) in order to be eligible to win a prize. AAHSFF’s computer is the official time-keeping device for this Competition. All interpretations of these Official Rules and decisions made by AAHSFF relating to the Competition are final.

Eligibility: The Competition is open only to individuals who are U.S. citizens and U.S. resident aliens and who are invited by AAHSFF to participate as part of a school or film organization team.

Entrants must not be a party to any agreement that might present a conflict or interfere with the entrant’s participation in the Competition. AAHSFF reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to disqualify any entrant who is under any agreement which AAHSFF deems to be in conflict with Competition. Employees, agents, and directors of AAHSFF and their respective parent companies, affiliated companies, subsidiaries, partners, dealers, manufacturers, distributors, sponsors, advertising agencies, promotion and administration agencies, and any entity which is involved in any aspect of the creation, production, operation, execution or fulfillment of the Competition, and their immediate families (i.e., parents, spouses, siblings, children, grandparents, stepparents, stepchildren and step siblings, and their respective spouses, and those living in the same household, whether or not related) are not eligible to enter Competition. AAHSFF and their respective parent companies, affiliated companies, subsidiaries, partners, dealers, manufacturers, distributors, sponsors, advertising agencies, promotion and administration agencies, and any entity which is involved in any aspect of the creation, production, operation, execution or fulfillment of the Competition shall be hereinafter collectively referred to as “Competition Entities.” By participating in this Competition, entrants: (a) agree to be bound by these Official Rules and by the interpretations of these Official Rules by AAHSFF and by the decisions of AAHSFF; (b) acknowledge compliance with these Official Rules; (c) represent and warrant that he or she meets all the eligibility criteria set forth in these Official Rules; (d) agree to comply with any and all applicable federal, state and local laws, rules and regulations; and (e) agree to release and hold harmless Competition Entities from and against any and all claims, injury or damages arising out of or relating to participation in Competition and/or the use, misuse or redemption of the prizes, and for any claim, including claims based on defamation, publicity rights, invasion of privacy, copyright infringement, trademark infringement, or any other intellectual property related cause of action.

Submissions: By entering the Competition, each entrant represents and warrants that: (i) the Submission is the original work of the entrant, that he/she has all rights to the Submission, that the Submission was created specifically for Competition, that the Submission, in whole or in part, has not been released commercially, been previously published or won any awards; (ii) the Submission does not and will not violate any law, statute, ordinance or regulation; (iii) the Submission is free and clear of any and all liens or claims with respect to the use of the Submission in the manner authorized in these Official Rules; (iv) the Submission does not infringe upon or violate the intellectual property rights of any third party and will not give rise to any claims of infringement, invasion of privacy or publicity, or infringe on copyrights, trademarks, patents or other intellectual property rights or any rights or interests of any third party, or give rise to any claims for any payment whatsoever; and (v) the Submission is not and will not be defamatory, disparaging libelous, pornographic or obscene.

AAHSFF reserves the right to disqualify any Submission that it deems, in its sole discretion, to be a violation of the Official Rules or that is not in keeping with the Submission guidelines specified herein or which communicate messages or images inconsistent with the positive images and/or good will to which AAHSFF wishes to associate. AAHSFF reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to remove or blur or to ask the applicable entrant to remove or blur any non-material elements (e.g. small logos on clothing, artwork hanging in the background, etc.) rather than disqualify an otherwise compliant Submission).

By submitting a Submission in this Competition, entrant agrees that such Submission, and all information sent with the Submission, including all rights embodied therein are deemed to be non- confidential and non-proprietary and AAHSFF shall have no obligation of any kind with respect to such Submission and other materials.

Entrants acknowledge and agree that AAHSFF may receive many Submissions in connection with this Competition and that some Submissions may be very similar in content, idea, theme, or in other respects to other Submissions received or submitted. Entrant waives any and all claims entrant may have had, may have and/or may have in the future, that any Submission in this Competition is similar to his/her Submission, or that any compensation is due to entrant in connection with such Submission.

Judging: Submissions will be judged by Judges selected by AAHSFF (“Judges”) based on the judging criteria for the award category specified herein. The Judges reserve the right to extend the Entry Period, select more or less winners, or not to declare any winner, if, in their sole discretion, an insufficient number of Submissions are received and/or the Submissions do not meet the qualification standards based on the judging criteria specified herein. The application of the judging criteria shall be in the sole and absolute discretion of the Judges. Competition Entities and Judges disclaim any liability from any entrant and entrants agree to waive any claims against Competition Entities and Judges relating to the judging or awarding process.

Publicity Release: By participating in Competition, each entrant grants the right to Competition Entities to record, film, videotape and photograph entrant (“Images”). These Images will be owned by AAHSFF. AAHSFF and each of its designees shall have the right to use, re-use, reproduce, publish, display, exhibit, distribute edit, adapt, post, stream, copy and exploit such Images, and all elements embodied therein, including any names, likenesses, address, voice, conversation, biographical and prize information and any other attributes of entrants, individually or with others, in whole or in part, in conjunction with other material, in any and all media now known or hereafter devised, for the purpose of trade, advertising, promotion or on a winner’s list or any other lawful purpose, whatsoever, in perpetuity, throughout the world, without additional compensation, consideration, notification or permission, except where prohibited by law.

Winner Notification: All winners will be notified via social media and email.

Prize Terms: The dates for fulfillment will be determined by AAHSFF in its sole discretion. If for any reason any prize is unavailable or any prize or related event is delayed, cancelled or postponed, or for any other reason, AAHSFF reserves the right to modify the Competition in its sole discretion and award a substitute prize, or portion of prize, of comparable or greater value as set forth in these Official Rules. No substitution, transfer, or assignment of the prize, or any portion thereof, is permitted by a winning team. Competition Entities shall have no responsibility or obligation to a winning team that is unable or unavailable to, or who does not for any reason, accept or utilize the prizes. Winning team representative must supply AAHSFF with a complete and valid IRS Form W-9 for applicable winning school or film organization prior to prize being distributed. The value of the prizes are taxable to recipients as income. An IRS Form 1099 will be issued in the name of winning school for the actual value of prize. All federal, state and local taxes, and any other costs and expenses associated with acceptance and/or use of the prizes not specifically provided for herein are solely the winning school’s or film organization’s responsibility.

General Terms: Competition Entities are not responsible if Competition cannot take place, or if any Prize cannot be awarded due to delays, interruptions or failures due to acts of God, war, natural disasters, weather, acts or threats of terrorism, strikes, lockouts, labor disputes, work stoppages, fire, acts of government, or other events outside of the reasonable control of Competition Entities. If, for any reason Competition is not capable of running as planned, including, without limitation, lack of significant participation, infection by computer virus, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures, or any other causes beyond the reasonable control of Competition Entities, which, in Sponsor’s sole determination, corrupts or affects the administration, security,

fairness, integrity, including the online voting process, or proper conduct of this Competition, including, but not limited to the online voting process, Sponsor reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to cancel, terminate, modify, or suspend Competition or any part of the Competition, including the online voting process, and to determine the winners in its sole discretion. If Competition or any part of Competition is terminated or modified prior to the end date of the Competition, notice will be posted at the Invitational and the prizes may be awarded to a winners to be selected from among all eligible Submissions received prior to any such event using the judging criteria outlined herein. AAHSFF reserves the right to modify and amend these Official Rules from time to time during Entry Period for clarification purposes. Failure by AAHSFF to enforce any term of these Official Rules shall not constitute a waiver of that provision.

By participating in the Competition, all entrants agree to indemnify and hold harmless Competition Entities from any and all liability arising out of or relating in any way to entrant’s participation in Competition and to release all rights to bring any claim, action or proceeding against Competition Entities. This includes, but is not limited to, any and all claims, demands, and causes of action for personal injuries or death and/or damage to personal or real property, theft, loss, or any other harm suffered directly or indirectly from entrants’ participation in Competition, including, but not limited to, traveling to, preparing for and/or participating in any prize related activity.

Competition Entities assume no responsibility for and will disqualify submissions and votes that are: stolen, late, lost, illegible, incomplete, invalid, unintelligible, damaged, destroyed, delayed, misdirected, not received, postage due mail entries, garbled votes or failure to receive votes, or submissions that have incorrect or inaccurate entry information, whether caused by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilized in the Competition, or by any human, mechanical or electronic error that may occur in the processing of the submissions in Competition, or other errors appearing within these Official Rules or in any Competition related advertisements. Competition Entities assume no responsibility for any typographical or other error in the printing of the offer, administration of Competition, errors in processing submissions, identifying the winners, in the announcement of the prizes and/or winners, and the delivery of the prizes, any problems or technical malfunction of any telephone network or lines, mobile phone, computer systems, online systems, servers or providers, computer equipment, software, failure of any email or players on account of technical problems or traffic congestion on the Internet or on any website, or any combination thereof, including, without limitation, any injury or damage to entrant’s or any other person’s computer system/software or mobile phone, or other portable electronic device related to or resulting from participation or downloading any materials in Competition. Use of any device to automate or subvert entry is prohibited and any submissions received by such means will be void. No software-generated, robotic, programmed, script, macro or other automated entries are permitted and any submissions or votes received by such means will be void. AAHSFF reserves the right in its sole discretion to disqualify any person they suspect or find: (i) to have tampered with the submission process or the operation of Competition; (ii) to be acting in a disruptive or unsportsmanlike manner, or with the intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any other person; (iii) to display behavior that will bring such entrant or Competition Entities into disgrace; (iv) to have provided inaccurate information on any legal documents submitted in connection with Competition; or (v) to be acting in violation of these Official Rules. ANY VIOLATION OF THESE OFFICIAL RULES BY AN ENTRANT WILL RESULT IN SUCH ENTRANT’S DISQUALIFICATION OF THE COMPETITION, AND MAY RESULT IN TEAM DISQUALIFICATION, AND ALL PRIVILEGES AS AN ENTRANT WILL BE IMMEDIATELY TERMINATED.

AS A CONDITION OF ENTERING THE COMPETITION, ENTRANT AGREES THAT: (I) UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCE WILL ENTRANT BE PERMITTED TO OBTAIN AWARDS FOR, AND ENTRANT HEREBY WAIVES ALL RIGHTS TO CLAIM, PUNITIVE, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR ANY OTHER DAMAGES, OTHER THAN FOR OUT-OF-POCKET EXPENSES: (II) ALL CAUSES OF ACTION ARISING OUT OF OR CONNECTED WITH THIS COMPETITION, OR ANY PRIZE AWARDED, SHALL BE RESOLVED INDIVIDUALLY—WITHOUT RESORT TO ANY FORM OF CLASS ACTION—BY BINDING ARBITRATION (BY A SINGLE NEUTRAL ARBITRATOR SELECTED BY AAHSFF IN ITS SOLE AND ABSOLUTE DISCRETION) IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE RULES OF THE AMERICAN ARBITRATION ASSOCIATION; AND (III) ANY AND ALL CLAIMS, JUDGEMENTS AND AWARDS SHALL BE LIMITED TO ACTUAL OUT-OF-POCKET COSTS INCURRED, BUT IN NO EVENT SHALL SUCH CLAIMS, JUDGEMENTS OR AWARDS INCLUDE ATTORNEYS’ FEES. THIS COMPETITION SHALL BE GOVERNED BY AND CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

ANY ATTEMPT BY ANY PERSON TO DELIBERATELY DAMAGE OR ANY WEBSITE ASSOCIATED WITH THIS COMPETITION OR UNDERMINE THE LEGITIMATE OPERATION OF THE COMPETITION MAY BE IN VIOLATION OF CRIMINAL AND CIVIL LAW AND SHOULD SUCH AN ATTEMPT BE MADE, SPONSOR WILL DISQUALIFY SUCH ENTRANT AND SPONSOR RESERVES THE RIGHT TO SEEK REMEDIES AND DAMAGES (INCLUDING ATTORNEYS’ FEES) FROM ANY SUCH PERSON TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.