FILM COMPETITION RULES
Point 1: Place and date of the Festival
The 32nd Bird and Nature Festival will be held from April 22nd to 30th, 2023 in Abbeville and in the Bay of Somme – Picardie – FRANCE.
Point 2: Theme
The Festival shows a selection of films dealing mainly with birds in their natural environment, wildlife, environment or nature generally speaking. Feature films or commercials are not allowed. A feature film shot outdoors but which main theme isn’t one of the above won’t be selected.
There’s no duration limitation for professional films.
This competition is also open to amateur wildlife filmmakers who do sound recording, shooting or editing as a hobby and on a non-profit basis. Amateur films must be of 3 to 13 minutes duration.
The rules for both professional and amateur filmmakers competitions are available on the Festival’s website: www.festival-oiseau-nature.com or via www.filmfreeway.com
The Festival Committee and Preliminary and Final Jury decisions are final.
SELECTION
Point 3: Formats
Admitted for the preselection
URL to the streaming website of your choice (YouTube, Vimeo, company website…)
DVD (zone 2 or region-free (zone 0)
USB stick
Admitted only for the competition (the films will be shown in 1920 X 1080 full HD)
Apple Pro Res 422 files are highly recommended.
Only for films available in their French version:
A digital original master file
( or for amateurs only, a digital video file to be submitted on a USB memory stick or an external hard drive (that will be returned after use). Other formats allowed: .mpg 4 or .mov codec H 264)
With 2 stereo sound tracks.
For films available in any other foreign language version: 2 files of the film
A digital original video master file mixed with the sounds and original commentary
And a digital original master file of the international version with the sounds and effects WITHOUT the commentary with a 48Khz .wav sound (default format) at a decent rate.
For the nominated productions, if necessary, the Festival may meet the cost of translation, sub-titling, and / or dubbing of the foreign (non-French) films. The entrant authorizes the Festival to proceed to translation, sub-titling, and / or dubbing.
The digital files will have to be uploaded on the Festival’s platform as requested in the selection e-mail. Alternately, they may be made available for download by the entrant from a platform of their choice or sent on an external hard drive that will be return after the event.
The film may be presented in different venues equipped with various screening materials (Abbeville City Theatre and Crécy-en-Ponthieu, Fort-Mahon and Abbeville movie theatres). To meet these needs, the Festival might create DCPs of the French version if the entrant can’t provide one.
The entrant authorizes the Festival to burn Blu-Ray copies and / or create DCP so that the film is shown in its best version according to the venue.
Point 4:
Films can’t be removed from selection after it has been officially announced.
Any number of productions may be entered per entrant, but a maximum of two can be selected for nomination. The completion date is 2020.
The Festival Committee may choose some unnominated productions to present them out of competition.
Copyright nor any other type of payment can be claimed for screening of nominated nor unnominated films.
REGISTRATION AND SCHEDULE
Point 5: Entry deadline and documents to be included
Registration is to be made online via our website: www.festival-oiseau-nature.com or www.filmfreeway.com until NOVEMBER 6th 2022. The synopsis of the production, a timecoded script in English, the species list with local, English and Latin names, a minimum of 3 photos of at least 300 DPI and any other relevant document will have to be uploaded on the website to complete the entry. The sending of a hard copy of the film won’t be necessary if you provide us with an URL to a streaming website valid until at least April 30th, 2023 (please don’t forget to indicate a password if access to your film is restricted).
The entrant who signs or fills in the registration file must be the authorized titulare of all royalties, and gives us permission to show the film and to use text and photos without charge during the Festival.
The entrant authorized as above also gives us authority to use the film, text and photos for the promotion of the Bird and Nature Festival. (3 minutes maximum extract per film). Those trailers may also be used to promote the screenings on the Festival’s website.
Competition copies or files of the selected films are due to the Festival Office by January, 31st, 2023.
All DVDs and Blu-Ray discs received will be kept as archive.
Point 6: Transportation and insurance
The transportation and insurance costs for the forwarding will be borne by the entrants.
The Festival will pay for the return of your productions and will insure them for the whole period, your door to your door.
Point 7: Preliminary Jury
The Preliminary Jury is made up of professionals such as ornithology and other biology scientists, and other appropriate local specialists, chosen by the Festival Committee.
A video copy with technical quality not up to standard or dealing with topics other than those listed in Point 2 will be disqualified.
Point 8: Video library
A copy of the film(s) shown in competition during the Festival will be kept for the video library.
The archives of the Festival may be shown to the school-children and to the public.
A donation may be asked to cover the administrative costs. Itinerant screenings may be held to broaden the Festival’s audience and to enable school-children and inhabitants to have access to this resource.
JURY AND PRIZES
Point 9: Final Jury and prizes
The Festival Committee name the Final Jury. The Jury is made up of persons from such fields as: wildlife film, TV and other programme-making organisations, ornithology and other biology scientists and 2 young people from the Bay of Somme area.
The President of the Jury has a casting vote in case of point of contention.
The winning entrants are permitted to mention subsequently in their credits that their production was awarded a prize or other distinction at THE 32nd BIRD AND NATURE FESTIVAL IN 2023.
Point 10: Prizes
The Bird and Nature Festival Film Competition includes 2 categories: professionals and amateurs.
The prizes total € 14,000.
The prizes will be paid within a maximum period of 8 months by cheque or by bank transfer to the directors.
The Official Jury will award 5 prizes to the professionals.
THE « GRAND PRIX » OF THE BIRD AND NATURE FESTIVAL
Award of €4,000
This prize will be awarded to the production most faithful to The Festival’s subject “The Bird in its Natural Environment or to film which deals with nature more generally”.
THE SPECIAL JURY PRIZE
Award of €2,000
This prize is left to the Jury’s choice.
THE WILDLIFE PRIZE
Award of €2,000
This prize will be awarded to the production which deals with wildlife: birds, mammals, marine fauna, fauna and flora more generally.
THE ENVIRONMENT PRIZE
Award of €2,000
This prize will be awarded to the production which will be focused on environmental problems of the Planet.
THE SHORT-FILM PRIZE
Award of €2,000
This prize will be awarded to the best professional production of a duration of 3 to 17 minutes.
If two films are equally placed in one of the categories the prize will be divided between the winners. The Final Jury will not give more than one money prize to a production.
The Final Jury may decide not to award a Prize.
The public will decide of the best amateur film.
PUBLIC PRIZE
Award of €2,000
This prize will be awarded to the film which has totalized the more votes from the audience on the night dedicated exclusively to the screening of the amateur productions.
Point 11: Special distinctions
Special distinctions may also be awarded by the Final Jury such as (but not limited to):
the best picture
the best soundtrack
the best editing
the best technical quality
A diploma will be given to each entrant who is awarded a special distinction.
Point 12: Invitation
The Festival will offer to each entrant whose production is nominated:
2 nights in a hotel room for two people,
2 first-class return train tickets: Paris-Abbeville-Paris, (alternatively a refund on this basis will be paid after the Festival by bank transfer). We will be happy to pick you up at Abbeville railway station if you let us know of your arrival time.
a meal with the other nominated entrants, on Saturday, 29th, April followed by a tour.
The Festival Team will welcome you at the Festival’s Office and will give you your accreditation as well as other materials. In case of late arrival, please claim them when arriving at your hotel.
Point 13: Address:
BIRD AND NATURE FESTIVAL
20 rue du Chevalier de la Barre - 80142 ABBEVILLE CEDEX - FRANCE
: 00.33.3.22.24.02.02 - : 00.33.3.22.25.47.97
: sophie@festival-oiseau-nature.com - : www.festival-oiseau-nature.com
Point 14: GDPR
The completion and submission of an entry form and a production implies the full acceptance of these rules.
The information provided by the participants are only used for the film competition. In all cases, it is reminded that, in accordance with the European laws and directives in force and the European regulation that came into force on May 25, 2018, relating to Information technology, files and liberties, the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and the free movement of such data, the entrants have the right to oppose, access and rectify data concerning them.
Consequently, any entrant benefits from the organizer of the competition of a right of access, interrogation, opposition, rectification and suppression for his/her data, on simple request to the following address: rgpd@festival-oiseau-nature.com.
None of these data may be sold to a third party.
Point 15:
The Festival Committee, in case of necessity, may alter without notice the terms and conditions of these rules. They may also decide to cancel screenings or the whole Festival without prejudice.
If screenings couldn’t be done in public, a digital alternative may be set up. The authorization would be asked again to the entrant for online viewing.
The present rules are also available on www.festival-oiseau-nature.com where registrations should be made and on www.filmfreeway.com.
In case of any dispute concerning the rules only the French language rules will be deemed authentic. The French language rules are available at CASTANIE, TALBOT, CASTANIE & HAMON’s, Public Notaries in Abbeville (Somme).
